History of the United States I / Unit 12 USH1 1688 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Virginia Debate
The idea
After Turner's rising the Virginia legislature considered ending slavery for the sake of security. It was the legislature of the largest slave state in the country, debating abolition in eighteen thirty-two. It chose instead to keep slavery, and to keep the state's central role in the domestic slave trade.
In practice
The alternative debated seriously and voted down.
Where people slip
This is the counterfactual that makes the decision visible. Nothing about the South's course was inevitable, and the clearest proof is that its largest slave state examined the alternative and declined it. A student who believes the South could not have chosen otherwise should be shown that it considered choosing otherwise and did not. Unit 14's secession looks different once you know this debate happened.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
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