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Lesson

The Election of Lincoln and the Secession of Southern States DBQ

Duration
90 min
Grade
9–12
Published
Nov 15, 2020
Political Cartoons of Abraham Lincoln
Use this Lesson with The Election of 1860 Narrative and the South Carolina Secession Debate, 1860 Primary Source to allow students to analyze the motivations of South Carolina to secede from the United States.

Objectives:

  • Students will be able to identify how the U.S. political system developed a regional schism leading up to the Civil War.
  • Students will analyze primary source documents by answering comprehension questions to guide them to identify the philosophical and political causes of the secession of the Southern states.

Materials

Lesson plan

90 minClick a phase to open it

More Information

Students should work in pairs throughout this lesson. They will collaborate in decoding the various documents and coming to conclusions from them.

Standards

Advanced Placement

  • Topic 5.7 · Election of 1860 and Secession
  • Theme · Politics and Power
  • Learning Objective · Unit 5H
  • Historical Development · 5.2.II.D
  • Reasoning Skill · Sourcing and Situation
  • Reasoning Skill · Source Claims and Evidence
  • Reasoning Skill · Contextualization
  • Reasoning Skill · Making Connections
  • Reasoning Skill · Argumentation
  • Reasoning Process · Comparison
  • Reasoning Process · Causation

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