AQA
A-level
HISTORY
7042/2J
Component 2J America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877
Version: 1.0 Final
IB/M/Jun23/E7
... [Show More] 7042/2J
A-level
HISTORY
Component 2J America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877
Friday 9 June 2023 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 16-page answer book.
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is
7042/2J.
• Answer three questions.
In Section A answer Question 01.
In Section B answer two questions.
Information
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
• You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
• You are advised to spend about:
– 1 hour on Question 01 from Section A
– 45 minutes on each of the two questions answered from Section B.
2
IB/M/Jun23/7042/2J
Section A
Answer Question 01.
Source A
From a speech, ‘The Crime against Kansas’ made to Congress by Charles Sumner, a
Senator for Massachusetts, 19 May 1856.
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill has openly cleared the way for slavery. It can be presumed
those who wrote the Bill intended it to be used to extend slavery into these Territories.
This is the first stage in the crime against Kansas. The Bill is in every respect a swindle;
a swindle of the North by the South, a crime against Kansas. What could not be
accomplished peaceably is to be accomplished by force. The reptile monster that is
slavery could not be quietly and securely hatched there in Kansas and so must be
pushed into the Territory full-grown. All their efforts are devoted to the dismal work of
forcing slavery on free soil in the name of Popular Sovereignty. Slavery is being forcibly
introduced into Kansas, under the protection of a so-called law. But the North, stung by a
sense of outrage and inspired by a noble cause, has promised to establish a supremacy
of numbers there, in the name of freedom.
5
10
Source B
From an article in ‘Atlas’, a Whig newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts,
28 May 1856.
Charles Sumner, a Senator for Massachusetts, was yesterday brutally assaulted by a
ruffian named Brooks, who represents South Carolina in the Lower House. Those who
know Mr Sumner will readily believe that nothing in his conduct or conversation could
have provoked such an outrage. It can only be explained as a demonstration of the
problems caused by Kansas, which Mr Sumner had outlined in the Senate. So the reign
of terror is now to be transferred from Kansas to Washington. The mouths of the
representatives of the North are to be closed by knives, bludgeons and revolvers. The
sooner we in the North understand this the better. If violence must come, we shall know
how to defend ourselves. We hope, for the credit of our State, that every man in it will
feel this outrage upon Mr Sumner as a personal indignity, and an insult to Massachusetts
itself. We hope there will be such a spontaneous expression of opinion as will prevent
any repetition of such an act.
5
10
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IB/M/Jun23/7042/2J Turn over ►
Source C
From a letter to the editor of a Massachusetts newspaper, ‘The Hopkinson Patriot’, sent
by Edward Fitch, 23 July 1856. Fitch had emigrated from the North to Kansas.
It has been much quieter here in Kansas recently. Two or three men have been shot and
killed for attending the Free State legislature, but such occurrences are so common here
that they are hardly mentioned. Pro-Slavery men are determined to harass and trouble
us by all means in their power. Federal troops are still encamped in different places, to
disarm all parties of Free State men found gathered together. But I do not know of a
single pro-Slavery group they have disarmed, while I am acquainted with many persons
belonging to Free State groups who have been disarmed by them. The border ruffians
and the pro-Slavery legislators have everything prepared for the passage of the
Kansas Bill. They have driven out or imprisoned many of our men, and stopped men
from Free States from entering the Territory. If the Bill passes, they have hundreds of
men in Missouri, ready to move over the line into Kansas and become eligible to vote.
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10
0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context,
assess the value of these three sources to an historian studying the disputes over
Kansas in the mid-1850s.
[30 marks]
Turn over for Section B
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Section B
Answer two questions.
0 2 ‘In c1845, the issue of States’ Rights was the most important reason why divisions
between North and South widened.’
Assess the validity of this view.
[25 marks]
0 3 ‘In the years 1863 to 1865, there was little progress toward [Show Less]