Oklahoma Social Studies 8.C.12.1.A
The Standard
- 8.C.12
- Analyze the course and consequences of the Civil War.
- 8.C.12.1
- Analyze major issues of the presidential election of 1860 and its immediate consequences.
Describe the fragmentation of the national party system during the election of 1860 and its role in sectional division.
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026) · 8.C.12.1
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify the four major candidates and their parties. They explain why Democrats ran two candidates and how regional voting showed the country’s division over slavery.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can match Lincoln, Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell to their parties and strongest regions. They can explain how Lincoln won without Southern electoral votes and why that result increased sectional tension.
Common Misconceptions
- Some students think Lincoln won most of the popular vote or carried Southern states. Others think the Democratic split was just a feud between candidates. It grew from an existing conflict over slavery in the territories.
How to Assess It
- Ask on an exit ticket: Why did Democrats nominate both Douglas and Breckinridge, and how could Lincoln win without any Southern electoral votes?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a blank 1860 electoral map and candidate results; have them color each winner’s states and label where support clustered.
Ask students to write: Why did Northern and Southern Democrats choose different candidates, and what did that split reveal?
Hand out cards naming Lincoln, Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell; students race to match each candidate with a party and strongest region.
Print 2024 and 1860 electoral maps; have students circle regional voting patterns and write one difference between the elections.
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Related Standards
- 8.C.7.4
Examine the increased tension between Southern sectionalist and Northern nationalist perspectives toward the expansion of slavery into western territories.
- 8.C.12.1
Analyze major issues of the presidential election of 1860 and its immediate consequences.
- 8.C.13.4.C
Explain the effects of the presidential election of 1876 and the Compromise of 1877 on Reconstruction.
- 8.C.11.2.A
Explain how popular sovereignty in new territories regarding the institution of slavery led to factional feuds in “Bleeding Kansas.”
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