AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

American Civil War

American Civil War

1. Discuss the historical paradox inherent in the concept of Herrenvolk Democracy as applied to the antebellum South.

Ans. It appears then that the conception of a narrow distribution of slave ownership in the antebellum South, which is sometimes presented as a recent corrective to past distortions, largely originated with the early opponents of slavery. That conception was utilized to promote a negative view of slave society, particularly respecting its oligarchic nature and sometimes respecting the degraded state of the mass of southern whites as well. van den Berghe's use of the term "democracy" is acceptable because it refers to a political structure which, within its own limits, is undoubtedly democratic. "Herrenvolk democracy" is, a system where "the nation of the dominant group takes precedence over the state or civil society" is not a type which fits with any well-established conception of democracy because it subordinates democratic rights under an exclusivist national doctrine.

2. Why do you think the Kansas-Nebraska Act led directly to "Bleeding Kansas," and to the emergence of the Republican Party?

Ans. Bleeding Kansas is reference to many varied events involving abolitionists & pro-slavery elements in Kansas Territory roughly from 1854 to 1856. Neighboring Missouri was a slave state, making the area a battleground for pro & anti-slavery forces fighting over whether the future state of Kansas should become slave state, or free state. Of the 157 deaths at that time, many historians believe that only 56 were slavery/abolition or political, the other 101 were likely drunken brawls or personal disputes. (Edwards, John Carver. 2002, p 116.)

Regardless, it has been argued by some historians that this violent period - to include the political environment back east - was somewhat a beginning of the American Civil War.

The Kansas Nebraska Act was an Act ...