Franklin Pierce

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

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Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/franklin-pierce

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Franklin Pierce born?November 23, 1804
2. Where was Franklin Pierce born?Hillsborough, New Hampshire
3. What is the presidential term?March 4, 1853 – March 4, 1857
4. What is the key legislation?Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), Gadsden Purchase (1854)
5. Who was Franklin Pierce?Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a Northern Democrat who had also served in the House, Senate, and as a brigadier general in the Mexican‑American War.
6. What was the Kansas‑Nebraska Act?The Kansas‑Nebraska Act was a law passed in 1854 that let settlers in Kansas and Nebraska decide for themselves whether to allow slavery. It ended the Missouri Compromise and caused violent conflict known as "Bleeding Kansas."

Sectionalism: Loyalty to one's own region or section of the country, rather than to the country as a whole.
Compromise of 1850: A package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress that diffused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states.
Ostend Manifesto: A document written in 1854 that proposed the U.S. should buy Cuba from Spain or take it by force.
Cirrhosis: A disease of the liver, often caused by excessive drinking, that can lead to liver failure.