Contextualizing Period 5 Practice Test

Secondary-source context (1844–1877): In the 1840s and 1850s, many Americans linked national destiny to expansion across the continent. Yet each new territory raised the question of whether slavery would expand, threatening the fragile political balance between sections. Compromises temporarily reduced conflict, but repeated crises contributed to the breakdown of national parties and ultimately to civil war.

Which broader circumstance best contextualizes the connection between continental expansion and the coming of the Civil War?

A historian describes how, in the 1850s, Americans increasingly interpreted national politics through a sectional lens. The author highlights competing visions of the West: some Northerners promoted “free labor” and small farms, while many Southerners sought to protect slaveholders’ property rights in new territories. Which broader circumstance best contextualizes these arguments in Period 5 (1844–1877)?