Alabama Social Studies SS24.US1.11b
The Standard
- SS24.US1.11
- Analyze how government policies and events related to slavery led to increased sectionalism throughout the United States prior to the Civil War.
Develop an argument to show how the causes and consequences of the Texas Revolution and Mexican-American War escalated sectional tension in the debate over slavery and expansion.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain why settlers in Texas fought Mexico and why the United States later went to war with Mexico. They trace how Texas annexation and land gained from Mexico raised the question of slavery in new states and territories. They support an argument with historical evidence.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain how slavery and Mexican rule shaped the Texas revolt, and why annexation raised concerns about slave-state power. They can connect the border dispute to war, then use the Wilmot Proviso to show how the land gained deepened the North-South split.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think Texas became a U.S. state as soon as it won independence; annexation came nine years later. Others treat the war as only a border fight and miss the debate over slavery in the new territories.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: In four sentences, explain how the Texas Revolution and Mexican-American War increased North-South tension over slavery. Include one cause and one consequence of each event.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
On 1835 and 1848 maps, have pairs place cards for Texas independence, annexation, war, and the Wilmot Proviso, then draw arrows between them.
Ask: Why did Texas annexation and the Wilmot Proviso alarm different groups in Congress? Write a claim using one fact about each.
Match printed cause and effect cards: Mexico's slavery limits to revolt, Texas annexation to slave-state fears, and the Mexican Cession to the Wilmot Proviso.
Compare a current U.S. map with an 1848 Mexican Cession map; label California and New Mexico and explain why slavery became contested there.
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Related Standards
- SS24.4.13
Describe how slavery contributed to sectional disagreements, divisions over states’ rights, and economic disputes resulting in the Civil War.
- SS24.4.13a
Identify and describe how key events from the Missouri Compromise (1820) to the election of Abraham Lincoln (1860) contributed to growing sectional divisions.
- SS24.US1.5
Explain causes, courses, and consequences of United States’ expansionism and the rise of Manifest Destiny ideology prior to 1848.
- SS24.US1.11
Analyze how government policies and events related to slavery led to increased sectionalism throughout the United States prior to the Civil War.
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