The antebellum era refers to the period in American history between the War of 1812 and the start of the American Civil War in 1861. This was a time of great change, growth, and tension in the United States as the country expanded westward, dealt with the controversial issue of slavery, and moved towards the devastating Civil War.
Let’s explore this complex time in American history through some riddles! Test your knowledge of the economics, politics, key figures, and pivotal events that characterized the antebellum period in 19th century America.
Geography & Expansion Riddles
Q: I’m a large area of land that the United States purchased from France in 1803, doubling the size of the country at the time. What am I?
A: The Louisiana Purchase
Q: I’m an 1846 treaty between the United States and Britain that set the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase at the 49th parallel. What am I?
A: The Oregon Treaty
Q: I’m a term for the belief that the United States was destined to expand across North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. What am I?
A: Manifest Destiny
Q: I’m a wagon route across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains to the Oregon Territory in the Pacific Northwest. What am I?
A: The Oregon Trail
Q: I’m the movement of settlers into Texas in the 1820s and 1830s that led to its secession from Mexico in 1836. What am I?
A: The Texas Annexation
Economics & Technology Riddles
Q: I’m the first telegraph line opened in the United States in 1844, running from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. What am I?
A: The Washington-Baltimore Telegraph Line
Q: I’m an 1828 tariff passed under President John Quincy Adams that placed protective taxes on imported goods to help American businesses, especially in the northern states. What am I?
A: The Tariff of Abominations
Q: I’m the period from 1836 to 1839 when banks were lending out paper money too freely, causing land speculation and risky investments. What am I?
A: The Panic of 1837
Q: I’m a farming method that combines single-crop planting with crop rotation and cover crops to preserve soil health. It became popular in northern states in the early 1800s. What am I?
A: Crop rotation
Q: I’m a series of canals and locks in New York state that opened in 1825, connecting the Hudson River to Lake Erie and facilitating trade. What am I?
A: The Erie Canal
Politics Riddles
Q: I’m the belief that political power in the federal government should be balanced between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. What belief system am I?
A: Checks and balances
Q: I’m the debate in Congress in the 1820s over rights for states versus federal power. What am I?
A: The tariff debate
Q: I’m the Missouri resident who applied for Maine statehood in 1820 to preserve the balance between slave states and free states. Who am I?
A: Missouri resident Henry Clay
Q: I’m the group led by President Andrew Jackson that favored states’ rights and opposed federal power over banking and trade. Who am I?
A: Jacksonian Democrats
Q: I’m the case in 1857 when the Supreme Court said that Scott, an enslaved man who had lived in free territory, had no rights and could not sue. What case am I?
A: Dred Scott v. Sandford
Key Figures Riddles
Q: I’m the seventh president who in 1832 vetoed the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States. Who am I?
A: Andrew Jackson
Q: I’m the famous abolitionist who was executed after leading a violent slave revolt in Virginia in 1859. Who am I?
A: John Brown
Q: I’m the escaped slave who became an abolitionist speaker and writer, playing a crucial role in the growing tensions between the North and South. Who am I?
A: Frederick Douglass
Q: I’m the author of the 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin that depicted the harsh realities of slavery and strengthened abolitionist sentiments in the North. Who am I?
A: Harriet Beecher Stowe
Q: I’m the prominent senator in the 1840s who introduced proposals that laid the framework for the Compromise of 1850. Who am I?
A: Henry Clay
Literature & Culture Riddles
Q: I’m a philosophical and literary movement that emerged in the 1820s-1850s emphasizing emotion, imagination, and the individual. What movement am I?
A: Transcendentalism
Q: I’m a transcendentalist writer who lived at Walden Pond and wrote about self-reliance and nature. Who am I?
A: Henry David Thoreau
Q: I’m Thoreau’s most famous book recounting his experience living simply in nature at Walden Pond. What work am I?
A: Walden
Q: I’m a novelist and poet at the center of American Romanticism who wrote about individualism and defiance of convention. Who am I?
A: Edgar Allan Poe
Q: I’m a poetic movement reacting against transcendentalism and emphasizing human fallibility. What movement am I?
A: Anti-transcendentalism
Abolition & Sectional Tensions Riddles
Q: I’m the series of negotiations in Congress in 1820 that preserved equal slave state and free state representation. What compromise am I?
A: The Missouri Compromise
Q: I’m the social reformer who published The Liberator newspaper and co-founded the American Anti-Slavery Society. Who am I?
A: William Lloyd Garrison
Q: I’m the network that secretly helped enslaved people escape to free northern states and Canada before the Civil War. What am I?
A: The Underground Railroad
Q: I’m the violent reaction by armed settlers in “Bleeding Kansas” in 1856 over whether Kansas would allow slavery. What am I?
A: Bleeding Kansas
Q: I’m the failed 1859 raid on the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia led by radical abolitionist John Brown. What uprising was I?
A: John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry
Events Leading to the Civil War Riddles
Q: I’m the series of five bills passed in 1850 that aimed to ease tensions over slavery and sectional disputes. What compromise am I?
A: The Compromise of 1850
Q: I’m the 1852 novel criticized for perpetuating stereotypes that strengthened abolitionist sentiment. What book am I?
A: Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Q: I’m the 1854 act that allowed settlers to determine whether to allow slavery in western territories, repealing the Missouri Compromise. What act am I?
A: The Kansas-Nebraska Act
Q: I’m the 1857 Supreme Court decision denying citizenship and rights to African Americans. What decision am I?
A: The Dred Scott Decision
Q: I’m the series of seven debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas over slavery. What famous debates was I?
A: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Conclusion
From geographic expansion to political battles over states’ rights, these riddles cover many key people, events, ideologies and cultural movements that characterized the antebellum period in American history. This era witnessed growing divide around issues like slavery and tension between the agrarian Southern economy and industrial Northern states. These unresolved disputes would ultimately lead to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 after over half a century of precarious unity.
I hope you enjoyed challenging your knowledge of this pivotal time! Let me know if you have any other riddles about 19th century America and the road to the devastating conflict that lay ahead.
