The correct answer is A) the nation had grown increasingly divided over the future of slavery.
The other options of the question were B) Northern and Southern voters were united in support of popular sovereignty. C) Support for the abolitionist movement decreased during this period. D) Americans had lost confidence in the plan for Reconstruction.
“Uncle Tom’s cabin stirs controversy” “Kansas rocked by bloody conflict." "John Brown’s raid anger south.” The statement about the United States in 1850 that is best supported by these headlines is "the nation had grown increasingly divided over the future of slavery."
Those were the moments in which the country was on the brink of war. The nation was divided. The Southern states depended so much on slavery to produce the crops in the large plantations that had to be exported to Europe. The Northern states were more industrialized and supported the abolition of slavery. The country was getting close to the beginning of the American Civil War.