US History
Sectionalism
It is 1832. The U.S. is a growing nation with three identifiable sections each with
special interests and needs.
Group task:
1. The class will be divided up into three groups. Each group will represent a
section of the United States in 1830: The Northeast, the West, or the South.
2. Each group will have a spokesperson who will give an opening speech that
clearly states your section’s position on the important issues. You must also
explain why your section is so important to America. The spokespersons are:
Northeast- Daniel Webster, West- Andrew Jackson, South- John C. Calhoun.
3. Issues to be covered in the speech include:
Slavery, the tariff, the National Bank, internal improvements, and your views on
the national government (how much power should it have).
4. Other witnesses from your section will also be called upon to further clarify the
views of people from your area. Witnesses from the Northeast: William Lloyd
Garrison, Nicholas Biddle, Martin VanBuren, Frederick Douglass. Witnesses from
the West: Henry Clay, Thomas Hart Benton, Amos Kendall. Witnesses from the
South: Robert Hayne, Thomas Dew, George McDuffie, George Fitzhugh.
5. Each section must present a song or a poem from that time period that reflects
life in their section. I will provide a record player or tape player to play the music.
If it is a poem, then someone from your section must read it to the class.
6. Each section must also provide a chart with graphs or statistics to prove that
your section is important to the nation.
SECTIONAL CONFLICT: SOUTH
The Game: You are from the South. Your side will attempt to pass laws which
benefit your section of the country. Your side scores points each time you pass a
law which benefits the South or each time you defeat legislation which does not
benefit the South. You may pass your own laws or amend laws proposed by the
North and West to score points.
Important: Your opponents do not know your objectives, nor do they know how
you will score points. Keep this information secret. Scoring instructions follow.
Your Role: You are a Southerner. You have lived in the South for 35 years and
own a large cotton plantation. In order to run your plantation you have 100 Negro
slaves who do the work. Without these slaves you could not run a profitable
business. Cotton is the only crop suited for your land. Because your soil is
wearing out you would like to see more land opened for sale in the new
territories. When it becomes possible, you would like to purchase some of this
land. You feel the government should make it available in large tracts. Smaller
farm should be discouraged.
You are concerned over the present money policy of the government. You
would like to see the Second Bank of the United States adopt more liberal money
policies. Inflated currency would help you pay off your debts.
On the tariff issue, you feel no tariff is a good tariff. You would like to
eliminate the protective tariff because you can sell your cotton to Britain for a
better price and in return buy manufactured goods from Britain at a lower price.
Transportation costs to you are minimum because you have a dependable,
efficient, and cheap river system in the South. You are against spending your tax
money for roads that will not directly benefit you. The Indians, once a problem in
parts of the South, have been subdued or moved.
Your one major concern is slavery. Without it you cannot operate a
plantation. You would like to prohibit the passage of any Federal laws on slavery
for the next 20 years.
Directions:
1. You and 1/3 of the class are Southerners. Meet with those from your
section. Read the following pages carefully. Find out what laws your section must
pass to score points.
2. Select a leader and two whips. The whips, as your agents, will approach
other groups and bargain for passage of your laws. Your leader will listen to other
Whips and speak for your group. Remember you have only 1/3 of the votes. You
must make deals to get your laws passed. The first 3 laws to be considered will
be handed out by your teacher.
3. When your section is organized, send your whips to the opposing groups
to bargain for the passage of your laws. This time will be limited by your teacher.
4. All three groups will combine and elect a single Speaker of the House.
Laws can only be passed by a majority vote after the Speaker has opened the
formal session.
5. Speaker calls the House to order, reads Bill Number 1, and calls for a
discussion. Members may speak for or against the Bill at this time. From this time
on the Bill can be passed, defeated amended, or tabled.
6. At the conclusion of action on Bill Number 1, any group can ask for a
caucus (secret meeting of their group), and bargain through their whips with
another group. (time will be limited by the Speaker)
7. Steps 5 and 6 are repeated with Bills Number 2 and 3. If the members of
the House wish to introduce new legislation ahead of Bills number 1 2 or 3, this
can be done only with a 2/3 vote. The Speaker votes only in case of a tie.
SCORING FOR THE SOUTH ONLY (keep this information secret)
5 points: for passing a law which prohibits Federal consideration of slavery
for the next 20 years.
4 points: for passing a law which does away with the tariff or amends a tariff
law so it is below 8c on the dollar.
3 points: for defeating legislation which would spend federal money for the
construction of roads or canals, or amend that legislation so that the state pays
the cost of construction.
2 points: for electing the Speaker of the House from your Group of
Southerners.
1 point: for passing or amending a public lands law which would sell public
lands in very large tracts over 640 acres.
SECTIONAL CONFLICT: NORTH
The Game: You are from the North. Your side will attempt to pass laws which
benefit your section of the country. Your side scores points each time you pass a
law which benefits the North or each time you defeat legislation which does not
benefit the North. You may pass your own laws or amend laws proposed by the
South and West to score points.
Important: Your opponents do not know your objectives, nor do they know how
you will score points. Keep this information secret. Scoring instructions follow.
Your Role: By 1825, Your way of life in the North had become increasingly
different from those of the South and West. The lifeblood of your region was a
free flowing commerce that connected and unified New England and the Middle
Atlantic States. Your manufacturing plants had multiplied as the industrial
revolution progressed. You were quick to give up farming and move to a more
promising livelihood such as manufacturing. The climate and soils of your region
did not favor agriculture. Consequently, you had been thrifty, hard-working
people who drove yourselves mercilessly. Yet you could also display a crusading
enthusiasm for good cause or ideals such as the abolition of slavery or public
education.
You profited by a national policy which protected home industry (the tariff)
and kept currency stable by a national bank. Moreover, you did not favor
westward expansion because the new states would send congressmen to
Washington, thereby decreasing the North’s power in Congress. Manufacturers
saw that westward migration would draw away their labor supply as discontented
northern workers set out for the frontier. You were therefore against free land and
the removal of Indians. You were desirous of better means of transportation
because of the increased trade in manufactured goods throughout the North and
the other regions.
You Northerners had the greatest national outlook because of the steady
outflow of population to the other sections. Thus, friends and kin in other sections
would tend to give the Northerners more concern for the entire country.
Moreover, the dominant accepted dialect in the United States today was
that generally spoken in the Middle Atlantic States which again shows the great
influence of your region nationwide.
Directions:
1. You and 1/3 of the class are Northerners. Meet with those from your
section. Read the following pages carefully. Find out what laws your section must
pass to score points.
2. Select a leader and two whips. The whips, as your agents, will approach
other groups and bargain for passage of your laws. Your leader will listen to other
whips and speak for your group. Remember you have only 1/3, of the votes. You
must make deals to get your laws passed. The first 3 laws to be considered will
be handed out by your teacher.
3. When your section is organized, send your whips to the opposing groups
to bargain for the passage of your laws. This time will be limited by your teacher.
4. All three groups will combine and elect a single Speaker of the House.
Laws can only be passed by a majority vote after the Speaker has opened the
formal session.
5. Speaker calls the House to order, reads Bill Number 1, and calls for a
discussion. Members may speak for or against the bill at this time. From this time
on the bill can be passed, defeated, amended or tabled.
6. At the conclusion of action on Bill Number 1, any group can ask for a
caucus (secret meeting of their group), and bargain through their whips with
another group. (time will be limited by the Speaker)
7. Steps 5 and 6 are repeated with Bills Number 2 and 3. If the members of
the House wish to introduce new legislation ahead of Bills number 1, 2 or 3, this
can be done only with a 2/3 vote. The Speaker votes only in case of a tie.
SCORING FOR THE NORTH ONLY (keep this information secret)
5 points: for passing a protective tariff law of at least 50c on the dollar.
4 points: re-charter of the United States Bank, the old Bank has gone out of
business. You must charter a new bank to operate for 20 years at least.
3 points: for passing a law or amending a proposed law to exclude slavery
from the federal territories.
2 points: for electing the Speaker of the House from your Group of
Northerners.
1 point: for passing an internal improvements law which would pay for
roads and canals with federal money but only if the roads and canals connect the
Industrial North and West.
SECTIONAL CONFLICT: WEST
The Game: You are from the West. Your side will attempt to pass laws which
benefit your section of the country. Your side scores points each time you pass a
Law which benefits the West or each time you defeat legislation which does not
benefit the West. You may pass your own laws or, amend laws proposed by the
South or North to score points.
Important: Your opponents do not know your objectives, nor do they know how
you will score points. Keep this information secret. Scoring instructions follow.
Your Role: You are part of a, family which crossed the mountains and first saw
the Ohio River in 1805. It was still pretty wild then. The trees stretched on
forever, and only a few small farms had been cleared. It was rough getting
started, but now you have forty acres of good bottom land cleared. Your crops
have been good, the corn will hide a horse and rider when it is up; and with the
hogs you will make a good living.
In the West equality is just a fact of life. A man is what he makes of himself.
Back East, men are judged by their book learnin, family, or money. Here a man is
judged by how he swings an axe or by how straight his furrows are. Even
government is not just reserved for the “best.” Any man can vote or run for public
office.
You believe that any man should be able to squat on a good piece of
public land and make it his own. If not, then public land should be sold so
cheaply that any poor working man could afford to buy some. The public land
should be open to everyone -- not just a wealthy few. Those fat speculators back
East just buy land and sit on their backsides. They never get blisters or bunions,
but they rake fortunes reselling land that they have never seen. They also lend
money at ridiculous rates to the western farmer. You feel that if the government
continues to follow a policy of limited money, the farmer who is in need of money
or who is in debt will never have a chance. State banks should be allowed to
issue large sums of money not backed by gold. If money remains hard to get,
you will have little chance of success.
You believe in a tariff -- but not one that is too high. You want
manufacturing cities to develop in the East, but you don’t want prices on
manufactured articles to skyrocket. Where will you sell your whiskey, corn, and
hogs if big cities don’t develop back East? You also need roads, canals, and
bridges; and you feel that national government should pay for them. The
government is taxing whiskey. Why not spend the money on improving
transportation, and at the same time send a few soldiers to move the Indians
west of the Mississippi?
Naturally, you are against slavery. If slavery comes, it will spell the end of
the small, independent farmer. Soon there would only be large plantations.
Morally slavery is wrong, but more important economically it is unfair competition.
How could you compete with a man who pays his laborers nothing? You are very
much in favor of stopping the spread of slavery.
Directions:
1. You and 1/3 of the class are Westerners. Meet with those from your
section. Read the following pages carefully. Find out what laws your section must
pass to score points.
2. Select a leader and two whips. The whips, as your agents, will approach
other groups and bargain for passage of your laws. Your leader will listen to other
whips and speak for your group. Remember you have only 1/3, of the votes. You
must make deals to get your laws passed. The first 3 laws to be considered will
be handed out by your teacher.
3. When your section is organized, send your whips to the opposing groups
to bargain for the passage of your laws. This time will be limited by your teacher.
4. All three groups will combine and elect a single Speaker of the House.
Laws can only be passed by a majority vote after the Speaker has opened the
formal session.
5. Speaker calls the House to order, reads Bill Number 1, and calls for a
discussion. Members may speak for or against the bill at this time. From this time
on the bill can be passed, defeated, amended or tabled.
6. At the conclusion of action on Bill Number 1, any group can ask for a
caucus (secret meeting of their group), and bargain through their whips with
another group. (time will be limited by the Speaker)
7. Steps 5 and 6 are repeated with Bills Number 2 and 3. If the members of
the House wish to introduce new legislation ahead of Bills number 1, 2 or 3, this
can be done only with a 2/3 vote. The Speaker votes only in case of a tie.
SCORING FOR THE WEST ONLY (Keep this information secret)
5 points: for passing a law which provides free or cheap western land in
small parcels (not more than 640 acres) 50c an acre or less.
4 points: for passing a law which would remove the Indians to lands West of
the Mississippi.
3 points: for passing a law which would provide money for the construction of
roads and canals in the West at Federal expense.
2 points: for excluding slavery from the new territories by passing a law or by
amendment.
1 point: for lowering the tariff to 8c on the dollar or reducing it below that
figure.
1 point: for defeating the charter attempt of the Second Bank of the United
States.
House Bill #1
Be it enacted that no petitions letters, nor communications touching upon
the subject of slavery shall be read nor discussed on the floor of Congress nor
published in the Congressional Journal for a period of 20 years.
House Bill #2
Be it enacted that a tariff shall be charged and collected on all goods
imported into these United States. Said tariff shall be collected at the port of
entry. Said tariff collected shall amount to 50% of the value of the imported
product.
House Bill #3
Be it enacted, all public lands of the United States shall be available for
settlement. Any adult person 21 years of age who lives on and improves by
farming or building on 200 acres of land shall receive free title to that land at the
end of 3 years.