T Charts make it easy for students to look at different viewpoints side by side. This is especially useful when looking at two different sides of a debate!
For this activity, students will outline and define the arguments made by Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during their famous debates in Illinois’ senatorial election of 1854. Students will use a T-Chart to list, define, and explain the arguments each candidate made, which will help further define the political divide created by “the slave question”. Students should research and understand the several arguments Lincoln makes against slavery’s expansion and Douglas’s arguments for the extension of slavery, based off popular sovereignty and individual/state rights. Students should make note of Lincoln’s “A House Divided” speech and Douglas’s “Freeport Doctrine”, both instrumental in understanding the gravity of the debates.
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Student Instructions
Create a T Chart comparing and contrasting the arguments made by Lincoln and Douglas during the senatorial election of 1854.