Discuss the Dred Scott ruling. 

John C. Calhoun had little political experience and no legal education in 1828.

Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, James Madison, Zachary Taylor, George Washington.  One thing these four presidents share is war.  Each one either faced a war in office or got into office because of victorious leadership in combat.

The Mexican-American War made some politicians nervous because it added so much land to the United States.  Why were politicians so concerned about new land?  Wasn’t that a good thing?

When it comes to British colonization and colonies in North America, lectures noted

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution ended slavery in the United States.  Before that, the Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in states at war in 1863.

What terrible event in the 1600s revealed the ferocity that existed just below the surface in Northern culture?

What are we looking at here?   

After the tariff crisis of the 1830s, southerners realized the north and west together could pass any manner of laws they chose.  That must have been a bit intimidating, but how did southerners respond? 

Lectures noted that the Constitution of the Southern Confederacy was careful never to mention slavery.   This was so the southern nation could attract trade partners with nations that banned slavery.