1. Read Civil Disobedience. Try to understand in the context of the late 1840’s into the 1850’s. Henry David Thoreau published this in 1849 (partly in response to Polk’s actions in starting the Mexican War), but it became more widely quoted in the 1850’s in the wake of the Compromise Bill to which many people objected.
What does his essay argue for? Why do you think, from this reading, that people began to lose faith in their government, and argued that compromise was becoming impossible?
Lastly, how do you think Thoreau’s identification as a Transcendentalist influenced his thinking in regard to his ideas of Civil Disobedience?
2. How were reform movements in the North tied to the changes brought about by Market Capitalism? this relates to slavery, employment of women, and expansion to the west.
3. Read Division of Labor. Evaluate the speech that John C. Calhoun made in 1837. Keeping in mind the context that was happening then (just after the Bank Wars with Jackson, in the midst of an economic depression under Van Buren, and still all trying to avoid the looming debate on slavery), can you look at this as a longer-standing cause of the divisions between the North and South that makes it relevant to the divisions 20 years later?
4. How much is the federal government to blame for the Panic of 1837? Much of the blame was placed on Martin Van Buren, while others argue for the “hangover” from the bank wars. What were the effects within America?