(DBQs) for APUSH Unit 5

APUSH DBQs: Antebellum America, Civil War, and Reconstruction (1840–1877)
DBQ 1: Antebellum America (1840–1860)
Prompt: Evaluate the extent to which reform movements in the United States during the period 1840 to 1860 sought to expand democratic ideals.
Documents Provided:

1. Excerpt from the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments (1848)
2. A lithograph of a temperance rally (1851)
3. Excerpt from Horace Mann’s report on education reform (1846)
4. A speech by Frederick Douglass advocating for abolition (1852)
5. Excerpt from John Humphrey Noyes on utopian communities (1858)
6. Political cartoon depicting opposition to immigration ("Know-Nothings," 1855)
7. Data on public school enrollment and literacy rates, 1840-1860

Task: Using the documents provided and your knowledge of the period, analyze the goals and impact of these reform movements on American society.


DBQ 2: The Civil War (1861–1865)
Prompt: Analyze the causes of the Civil War. To what extent was the conflict inevitable by 1861?
Documents Provided:

1. Excerpt from John C. Calhoun’s "Speech on the Compromise of 1850"
2. Excerpt from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
3. Map showing the division of free and slave states, 1860
4. Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s "House Divided" speech (1858)
5. South Carolina’s Ordinance of Secession (1860)
6. A Northern editorial cartoon on the Dred Scott decision (1857)
7. Economic data comparing the industrial capacity of the North and South (1860)

Task: Construct an argument that identifies the most significant factors contributing to the outbreak of the Civil War, addressing both long-term and immediate causes.


DBQ 3: Reconstruction (1865–1877)
Prompt: Evaluate the extent to which Reconstruction (1865–1877) succeeded in addressing the social, political, and economic challenges faced by the newly emancipated African Americans.
Documents Provided:

1. Excerpt from the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
2. Sharecropping contract (1867)
3. Illustration of Freedmen’s Bureau schools (c. 1868)
4. Testimony from African Americans on Black Codes (1866)
5. Excerpt from President Andrew Johnson’s veto of the Civil Rights Act (1866)
6. Ku Klux Klan poster warning Freedmen (c. 1870)
7. Economic data comparing African American land ownership, 1865 vs. 1875

Task: Using the documents and your knowledge of the period, assess the successes and failures of Reconstruction in reshaping American society and governance.