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Period 4: 1800-1848 Videos 17 videos

AP U.S. History 1.1 Period 4: 1800-1848
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AP U.S. History 1.1 Period 4: 1800-1848. The "separation" that the American Colonization Society advocates for is...what?

AP U.S. History 1.2 Period 4: 1800-1848
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AP U.S. History 1.2 Period 4: 1800-1848. A growing trend among slaveholders in the South was to argue that slavery was...what?

AP U.S. History 1.3 Period 4: 1800-1848
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AP US History: Politics in Antebellum America Drill 1, Problem 1. Expanding government and regulation into the Louisiana territory proved chal...

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AP U.S. History 1.5 Period 4: 1800-1848 231 Views


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AP U.S. History 1.5 Period 4: 1800-1848. Southern plantation owners supported slavery in the Louisiana Territory primarily because of what environmental development?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:03

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by Tobacco Road,

00:07

the cloudiest street in the neighborhood.

00:09

All right.

00:14

Southern plantation owners supported slavery

00:17

in the Louisiana Territory primarily because of

00:20

what environmental development?

00:23

And here are your potential answers.

00:24

[ toilet flushes ]

00:28

All right. So what's this question asking?

00:30

Well we know that Southern plantation owners

00:32

would have supported the expansion of slavery

00:34

pretty much anywhere.

00:36

But this question makes it sound like there was something related

00:38

to the environment that made this new acquisition

00:41

particularly acquirable.

00:43

So let's check out the answers.

00:45

Did plantation owners want slavery in the Louisiana Territory

00:48

because of A - the ongoing drought in the West Indies?

00:52

Hmm. The weather was pretty normal in the West Indies

00:54

at that time, so it's not A.

00:57

Did they want slavery in the Territory because of B -

00:59

the lack of usable ports along the Atlantic Coast?

01:02

Well, actually, the Atlantic Coast had dozens

01:04

of major ports. That's how all these colonies

01:07

got started in the first place. So that eliminates B.

01:10

Were plantation owners supportive of the expansion of slavery

01:13

because of D - the rise of plantation farming in New England?

01:16

Oh, no way.

01:18

New England has never relied on plantation farming.

01:20

That was exclusively the South's game. So D is a no-go.

01:24

And that means they supported slavery in the Louisiana Territory because of C -

01:27

the over-cultivation of arable land in the South.

01:30

Tobacco is as bad for the land as it is for your lungs.

01:33

And when it's planted year after year, the soil ends up

01:36

losing its nutrients, which makes it

01:38

inhospitable for crops down the line.

01:40

So with all this over-cultivation happening in the South,

01:44

plantation owners looked to the new Territories

01:46

for more arable land.

01:48

So this means that choice C is the right answer.

01:50

Well, looks like too much of a good and bad thing can kill you.

01:56

[ hiss ]

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