Dissension of the Election

The essential question of the day was "How were the results of the Election of 1860 representative of the deep division over slavery?" To learn the answer to this question we first watched a Crash Course video by John Green to get some quick information. Then we looked at a map of the Election of 1860 to see who was most popular where. In the South, Breckenridge, who believed that there should be no limits on slavery, won the popular vote. This is quite obvious because the South relied on slavery and wanted to keep it to keep their lives and economy afloat. The North votes were dominantly for Lincoln, who believed that slavery should be abolished. The North hated slavery and was fighting to change it so it makes sense that they voted for Lincoln. States between the North and South voted differently. In some states Bell was the popular vote. He wanted to preserve the Union as it is while keeping slavery. Present day Missouri’s popular vote was for Douglas, who believed that popular sovereignty should determine the expansion of slavery. This represents the division over slavery because the majority of the North voted for a leader who is against slavery and the South voted for someone who was all for slavery. The states in the middle voted for people who didn't have a firm stance on to either have or abolish slavery. Also, in class we read about art created during the time of the Civil War and how it helps tell the story of the Election of 1860 and where people stood in their beliefs. In groups using the civil war art, the information given, and other picture resources, we created a video on how these pictures help tell the story. Below is my group’s video.

Civil War art and information found at - http://www.civilwarinart.org/exhibits/show/causes/introduction/the-election-of-1860-and-seces
Other sources are credited at the end of the video.