So, as the AP FRQs were recently released on the College board website, I thought I would post about the potential answers for the Long Answer question. I chose the second option (#3), as many others did, so I will be discussing potential answers for it in this post.
The prompt reads, "Evaluate the extent to which the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) marked a turning point in the debate
over slavery in the United States, analyzing what changed and what stayed the same from the period before the
war to the period after it."
When doing some research, it seems that there are a series of themes surrounding slavery and the Mexican-American War. One of the things that tied together slavery and the Mexican-American War was the Wilmot Proviso. It was an attempted bill that would outlaw slavery in all newly acquired territories. However, it failed the first time through congress, and again when it was attempted to be added to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo because Southern pro-slavery voters wanted the slave state that seem granted to them in the Missouri Compromise. Another common idea expressed between sources was with the concept of Manifest Destiny. Americans wanted to extend their borders out along the West, but both the North and the South wanted new territories and states on their side of the slavery debate. The Mexican-American war inflamed these tensions as it gave the U.S. a lot of new land, and the South felt like they deserved the territory as more of them fought in the War.
Is there any other topics you wrote about?
Sources: http://www.understandingrace.org/history/gov/west_exp_post_mex.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/379134/Mexican-American-War
USHAP 2015 FRQs: https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap15_frq_us_history.pdf
Poll for which question you answered: http://strawpoll.me/4343632
Nathan, thanks for the heads up about the released FRQs. I also did the FRQ on the Mexican-American War. I remember talking about the Compromise of 1850, which defused the tense situation about the newly acquired territories.
ReplyDeleteI had more difficulty talking about what stayed the same from the period before the war to the period after it, so if anyone would mind sharing what they wrote for that, that would be great!
In terms of what stayed the same, I talked more about how sectionalism existed in both periods, and how while that did not change, the degree to which the tension changed. In terms of examples, I also discussed the Fugitive Slave Law, and Bleeding Kansas.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point. I think a lot of people (like myself) only focused on how things changed, but didn't outline how they stayed the same. I wonder if that has the potential for losing points.
DeleteIn addition to sectionalism, I also talked about slaves' rights and how they were still regarded as property instead of human beings. I used the Dred Scott court case as an example.
ReplyDelete