According to the lecture, what were the four events between 1854-1860 that caused so much controversy, they resulted in Civil War in 1861.  What were these events?  

Why were southerners so concerned about the US tariff in the 1820s and 1830s?

What was the trigger for western expansion?   What drew large numbers of people into the  far west before the Civil War?

Which of the following is/are true of the Oregon Trail?

Lectures noted that the California Gold Rush is really overstated in history.  The amount of gold realized in California was under one million dollars’ worth – hardly worth all the attention it has received.

Americans got very interested in settling Oregon territory and the far west in the mid-1800s.  Consider, however, that the Pacific side of North America was separated from the United States by thousands of miles and the Rocky Mountains.  How did Americans even know that there was good land out there?

Why were southerners so concerned about the US tariff in the 1820s and 1830s?

Why did it take ten years to get Texas into the United States?  You would have thought Americans would have been happy to add such a large amount of territory to their nation.

What was the first major battle of the Civil War?   Which Civil War battle inflicted the greatest number of single-day casualties in national history?

This is an excerpt from Intruder in the Dust, by William Faulkner.  This is considered one of the most powerful descriptions of “southern memory” in American history.   “For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself . . .  his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it’s all in the balance, it hasn’t happened yet . . .” What terrible moment in what horrific Civil War battle is Faulkner recalling here?