SAQs for APUSH Topic 5.4 — The Compromise of 1850

Six short answer questions designed to help students review for the annual exam and relate to a package of five separate Congressional bills that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–American War.

1. Prior to the Compromise of 1850, Americans heatedly debated the question of whether to allow slavery in the newly acquired territories. What territory was acquired in the five years leading up to the Compromise of 1850? In this territory, what was the rule as it relates to slavery?
2. How did the Congress, with the Compromise of 1850 attempt to resolve the issue of slavery in the newly acquired territories? Briefly describe one key historical similarity and one key historical difference between the Compromise of 1850 and the Missouri Compromise.
3. How did Congress, with the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, attempt to resolve the issue of slavery in the newly acquired territories?
4. How did the US Supreme Court, in the 1857 case of Dred Scott, attempt to resolve the issue of slavery in the newly acquired territories?
5. How did John Brown, the Border Ruffians, and the Free Staters, with their actions during the Bleeding Kansas years (1855–1859), attempt to resolve the issue of slavery in the newly acquired territories?
6. How did John Brown, with his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, attempt to resolve the issue of slavery in the newly acquired territories?

The Compromise of 1850

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

The Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854

Bleeding Kansas (1855)

Dred Scot v. Sanford (1857)

The Lincoln Douglas Debates of 1858

John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry (1859)