Question 1

Which of the following statements describes the historical significance of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin?

Accepted Answer

A)  It portrayed slaves as good-natured but unintelligent and unable to care for themselves. 
B)  It sparked an unprecedented discussion about race and slavery in the United States and abroad. 
C)  The book did not sell well until after the Civil War had begun,but it eventually made Stowe a rich woman. 
D)  The novel was made into an emotionally charged stage play that was banned throughout the North and South. 
A)  It portrayed slaves as good-natured but unintelligent and unable to care for themselves. 
B)  It sparked an unprecedented discussion about race and slavery in the United States and abroad. 
C)  The book did not sell well until after the Civil War had begun,but it eventually made Stowe a rich woman. 
D)  The novel was made into an emotionally charged stage play that was banned throughout the North and South.

Question 2

Why did the Compromise of 1850 fail?

Accepted Answer

Answer would ideally include:
- Fugitive

Question 3

The 1857 Dred Scott decision had which of the following consequences?

Accepted Answer

A)  It deprived the Republicans of their political platform by prohibiting slavery in any new territories. 
B)  The decision persuaded many Republicans that the Supreme Court and President Buchanan were part of the "slave power" conspiracy. 
C)  Chief Justice Roger Taney's influential majority opinion effectively smoothed over sectional tensions for two years. 
D)  The decision's nullification of the Northwest Ordinance persuaded Stephen A.Douglas to disavow the popular sovereignty doctrine. 
A)  It deprived the Republicans of their political platform by prohibiting slavery in any new territories. 
B)  The decision persuaded many Republicans that the Supreme Court and President Buchanan were part of the "slave power" conspiracy. 
C)  Chief Justice Roger Taney's influential majority opinion effectively smoothed over sectional tensions for two years. 
D)  The decision's nullification of the Northwest Ordinance persuaded Stephen A.Douglas to disavow the popular sovereignty doctrine.

Question 4

What was the outcome of the midterm election in 1858?

Accepted Answer

A)  Lincoln was elected to the Senate by the Illinois state legislature. 
B)  Republicans won control of the U.S.House of Representatives. 
C)  Douglas's Freeport Doctrine won favor from both proslavery and antislavery supporters. 
D)  Republican candidates won control of both the U.S.House and the U.S.Senate. 
A)  Lincoln was elected to the Senate by the Illinois state legislature. 
B)  Republicans won control of the U.S.House of Representatives. 
C)  Douglas's Freeport Doctrine won favor from both proslavery and antislavery supporters. 
D)  Republican candidates won control of both the U.S.House and the U.S.Senate.

Question 5

What did Stephen Douglas try to accomplish with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854? Was the act any more successful than the Compromise of 1850? Explain your answer.

Accepted Answer

Answer would ideally include:
- Douglas'

Question 6

How might the events of the 1850s have been different if Congress had extended the Missouri Compromise line instead of passing the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

Accepted Answer

It prohibited slavery north of the Misso

Question 7

Why did Democratic presidential candidate Lewis Cass propose the idea of squatter sovereignty in 1848?

Accepted Answer

A)  He was promoting a policy that would grant free federal land to homesteaders in the West. 
B)  Cass hoped the plan would maintain the unity of the contentious Democratic Party. 
C)  He was seeking a solution to the conflicts between whites and Native Americans in the West. 
D)  Cass believed it would bring free soilers back into mainstream political parties. 
A)  He was promoting a policy that would grant free federal land to homesteaders in the West. 
B)  Cass hoped the plan would maintain the unity of the contentious Democratic Party. 
C)  He was seeking a solution to the conflicts between whites and Native Americans in the West. 
D)  Cass believed it would bring free soilers back into mainstream political parties.

Question 8

Answer the following  questions :
-chain migration

Accepted Answer

A) Lands taken by the United States in the U.S.-Mexico War (1846-1848). 
B) Whig politicians who opposed the U.S.-Mexico War on moral grounds,maintaining that the purpose of the war was to expand and perpetuate control of the national government. 
C) The 1846 proposal by Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania to ban slavery in territory acquired from the U.S.-Mexico War. 
D) The political argument,made by abolitionists,free soilers,and Republicans in the pre-Civil War years,that southern slaveholders were using their unfair representative advantage under the three-fifths compromise of the Constitution,as well as their clout within the Democratic Party,to demand extreme federal proslavery policies (such as annexation of Cuba)that the majority of American voters would not support. 
E) A political movement that opposed the expansion of slavery.In 1848 members of this movement organized their own political party,which depicted slavery as a threat to republicanism and to the Jeffersonian ideal of a freeholder society,arguments that won broad support among aspiring white farmers.
F)A discriminatory tax adopted in 1850 in the California Territory,that forced Chinese and Latin American immigrant miners to pay high taxes for the right to prospect for gold.The tax effectively drove these miners from the gold fields.
G)A plan,first promoted by Democratic candidate Senator Lewis Cass as "squatter sovereignty," then revised as "popular sovereignty" by fellow Democratic presidential aspirant Stephen Douglas,under which Congress would allow settlers in each territory to determine its status as free or slave.
H)The more than 80,000 settlers who arrived in California in 1849 as part of that territory's gold rush.
I)Laws passed in 1850 that were meant to resolve the dispute over the status of slavery in the territories.Key elements included the admission of California as a free state and a new Fugitive Slave Act.
J)Laws enacted in many northern states that guaranteed to all residents,including alleged fugitives,the right to a jury trial.
K)An 1854 treaty in which,after a show of military force by U.S.Commodore Matthew Perry,leaders of Japan agreed to permit American ships to refuel at two Japanese ports.
L)A small slice of land (now part of Arizona and New Mexico)purchased by President Franklin Pierce in 1853 for the purpose of building a transcontinental rail line from New Orleans to Los Angeles.
M)Private paramilitary campaigns,mounted particularly by southern proslavery advocates in the 1850s,to seize additional territory in the Caribbean or Latin America in order to establish control by U.S.-born leaders,with an expectation of eventual annexation by the United States.
N)An 1854 manifesto that urged President Franklin Pierce to seize the slave-owning province of Cuba from Spain.Northern Democrats denounced this aggressive initiative,and the plan was scuttled.
O)A pattern by which immigrants find housing and work and learn to navigate a new environment,and then assist other immigrants from their family or home area to settle in the same location.
P)Opposition to immigration and to full citizenship for recent immigrants or to immigrants of a particular ethnic or national background,as expressed,for example,by anti-Irish discrimination in the 1850s and Asian exclusion laws between the 1880s and 1940s.
Q)A controversial 1854 law that divided the Indian Territory into Kansas and Nebraska,repealed the Missouri Compromise,and left the new territories to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty.Far from clarifying the status of slavery in the territories,the Act led to violent conflict in "Bleeding Kansas."
R)The 1857 Supreme Court decision that ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.The Court ruled against slave Dred Scott,who claimed that travels with his master into free states and territories made him and his family free.The decision also denied the federal government the right to exclude slavery from the territories and declared that African Americans were not citizens. 
A) Lands taken by the United States in the U.S.-Mexico War (1846-1848). 
B) Whig politicians who opposed the U.S.-Mexico War on moral grounds,maintaining that the purpose of the war was to expand and perpetuate control of the national government. 
C) The 1846 proposal by Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania to ban slavery in territory acquired from the U.S.-Mexico War. 
D) The political argument,made by abolitionists,free soilers,and Republicans in the pre-Civil War years,that southern slaveholders were using their unfair representative advantage under the three-fifths compromise of the Constitution,as well as their clout within the Democratic Party,to demand extreme federal proslavery policies (such as annexation of Cuba)that the majority of American voters would not support. 
E) A political movement that opposed the expansion of slavery.In 1848 members of this movement organized their own political party,which depicted slavery as a threat to republicanism and to the Jeffersonian ideal of a freeholder society,arguments that won broad support among aspiring white farmers.
F)A discriminatory tax adopted in 1850 in the California Territory,that forced Chinese and Latin American immigrant miners to pay high taxes for the right to prospect for gold.The tax effectively drove these miners from the gold fields.
G)A plan,first promoted by Democratic candidate Senator Lewis Cass as "squatter sovereignty," then revised as "popular sovereignty" by fellow Democratic presidential aspirant Stephen Douglas,under which Congress would allow settlers in each territory to determine its status as free or slave.
H)The more than 80,000 settlers who arrived in California in 1849 as part of that territory's gold rush.
I)Laws passed in 1850 that were meant to resolve the dispute over the status of slavery in the territories.Key elements included the admission of California as a free state and a new Fugitive Slave Act.
J)Laws enacted in many northern states that guaranteed to all residents,including alleged fugitives,the right to a jury trial.
K)An 1854 treaty in which,after a show of military force by U.S.Commodore Matthew Perry,leaders of Japan agreed to permit American ships to refuel at two Japanese ports.
L)A small slice of land (now part of Arizona and New Mexico)purchased by President Franklin Pierce in 1853 for the purpose of building a transcontinental rail line from New Orleans to Los Angeles.
M)Private paramilitary campaigns,mounted particularly by southern proslavery advocates in the 1850s,to seize additional territory in the Caribbean or Latin America in order to establish control by U.S.-born leaders,with an expectation of eventual annexation by the United States.
N)An 1854 manifesto that urged President Franklin Pierce to seize the slave-owning province of Cuba from Spain.Northern Democrats denounced this aggressive initiative,and the plan was scuttled.
O)A pattern by which immigrants find housing and work and learn to navigate a new environment,and then assist other immigrants from their family or home area to settle in the same location.
P)Opposition to immigration and to full citizenship for recent immigrants or to immigrants of a particular ethnic or national background,as expressed,for example,by anti-Irish discrimination in the 1850s and Asian exclusion laws between the 1880s and 1940s.
Q)A controversial 1854 law that divided the Indian Territory into Kansas and Nebraska,repealed the Missouri Compromise,and left the new territories to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty.Far from clarifying the status of slavery in the territories,the Act led to violent conflict in "Bleeding Kansas."
R)The 1857 Supreme Court decision that ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.The Court ruled against slave Dred Scott,who claimed that travels with his master into free states and territories made him and his family free.The decision also denied the federal government the right to exclude slavery from the territories and declared that African Americans were not citizens.

Question 9

After his inauguration in March 1861,Lincoln

Accepted Answer

A)  stated that secession was illegal and declared that he would enforce federal law. 
B)  declared his belief that slavery was evil and that he would oversee its elimination from the United States. 
C)  reaffirmed his support for the Crittenden Compromise as the only practical approach to slavery. 
D)  promised to stop collecting taxes and providing benefits in states that had seceded from the Union. 
A)  stated that secession was illegal and declared that he would enforce federal law. 
B)  declared his belief that slavery was evil and that he would oversee its elimination from the United States. 
C)  reaffirmed his support for the Crittenden Compromise as the only practical approach to slavery. 
D)  promised to stop collecting taxes and providing benefits in states that had seceded from the Union.

Question 10

Some historians claim that the mistakes of a "blundering generation" of political leaders led to the imminent breakup of the Union by 1860.Do you agree with their assessment? Explain your answer.
Answer Key

Accepted Answer

He then added fuel to the fire by recomm

Question 11

How did James Gadsden distinguish himself during Franklin Pierce's presidency?

Accepted Answer

A)  He tried to buy much of northwestern Mexico and Baja California from the Mexican government. 
B)  Gadsden negotiated the purchase of the Hawaiian Islands from their native queen Liliuokalani. 
C)  He made arrangements to buy Cuba from Spain,but the deal fell through after it leaked to the antiexpansionist press. 
D)  He bought a small amount of land from Mexico to facilitate a southern transcontinental railroad. 
A)  He tried to buy much of northwestern Mexico and Baja California from the Mexican government. 
B)  Gadsden negotiated the purchase of the Hawaiian Islands from their native queen Liliuokalani. 
C)  He made arrangements to buy Cuba from Spain,but the deal fell through after it leaked to the antiexpansionist press. 
D)  He bought a small amount of land from Mexico to facilitate a southern transcontinental railroad.

Question 12

Americans who lined up behind the free soil cause in the late 1840s

Accepted Answer

A)  argued that Texas should be returned to Mexico to halt the spread of slavery. 
B)  demanded that Texas be the final slave state admitted to the Union. 
C)  declared that slavery threatened American republicanism by undermining family farms. 
D)  called for the immediate abolition of the sinful institution of slavery. 
A)  argued that Texas should be returned to Mexico to halt the spread of slavery. 
B)  demanded that Texas be the final slave state admitted to the Union. 
C)  declared that slavery threatened American republicanism by undermining family farms. 
D)  called for the immediate abolition of the sinful institution of slavery.

Question 13

In the late 1850s,so-called fire-eaters like Robert Barnwell Rhett of South Carolina and William Lowndes Yancey of Alabama

Accepted Answer

A)  advocated federal investments in internal improvements. 
B)  repudiated the Union and actively promoted secession. 
C)  supported ending slavery in the territories. 
D)  asserted states' rights to collect tariffs on foreign trade. 
A)  advocated federal investments in internal improvements. 
B)  repudiated the Union and actively promoted secession. 
C)  supported ending slavery in the territories. 
D)  asserted states' rights to collect tariffs on foreign trade.

Question 14

Which of the following statements describes the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?

Accepted Answer

A)  The treaty was passed by the House but rejected in the U.S.Senate. 
B)  It prohibited slavery in all territories ceded by Mexico,including Texas. 
C)  It ceded California and New Mexico to the United States and required $50 million in Mexican reparations. 
D)  The treaty purchased more than one-third of Mexico's territory for a mere $15 million. 
A)  The treaty was passed by the House but rejected in the U.S.Senate. 
B)  It prohibited slavery in all territories ceded by Mexico,including Texas. 
C)  It ceded California and New Mexico to the United States and required $50 million in Mexican reparations. 
D)  The treaty purchased more than one-third of Mexico's territory for a mere $15 million.

Question 15

Why was the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861 significant?

Accepted Answer

A)  It was the first battle of the Civil War. 
B)  It marked a turning point of the war in the Confederates' favor. 
C)  It was a major victory for the Union army and rallied the soldiers. 
D)  Lincoln called for 200,000 militiamen to enlist after the defeat. 
A)  It was the first battle of the Civil War. 
B)  It marked a turning point of the war in the Confederates' favor. 
C)  It was a major victory for the Union army and rallied the soldiers. 
D)  Lincoln called for 200,000 militiamen to enlist after the defeat.

Question 16

President Buchanan responded to the secession crisis by

Accepted Answer

A)  ordering a naval assault on Charleston,which the Confederates repelled. 
B)  ignoring the situation and leaving it for Lincoln to resolve. 
C)  supporting the secessionists and helping the Confederacy to secure diplomatic recognition. 
D)  declaring secession illegal but claiming that the federal government had no power to reverse it. 
A)  ordering a naval assault on Charleston,which the Confederates repelled. 
B)  ignoring the situation and leaving it for Lincoln to resolve. 
C)  supporting the secessionists and helping the Confederacy to secure diplomatic recognition. 
D)  declaring secession illegal but claiming that the federal government had no power to reverse it.

Question 17

How do you explain northern attempts to circumvent the Fugitive Slave Act with personal-liberty laws and denunciations of states rights' theory?

Accepted Answer

Answer would ideally include:
- Northern

Question 18

Which of the following events took place in Kansas during the summer of 1856?

Accepted Answer

A)  Abolitionist vigilantes attacked the proslavery town of Lawrence. 
B)  John Brown led abolitionists in an assault on a federal arsenal at Topeka. 
C)  A proslavery mob captured John Brown and other abolitionists and hanged them at Lawrence. 
D)  John Brown and his followers murdered and mutilated five proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie. 
A)  Abolitionist vigilantes attacked the proslavery town of Lawrence. 
B)  John Brown led abolitionists in an assault on a federal arsenal at Topeka. 
C)  A proslavery mob captured John Brown and other abolitionists and hanged them at Lawrence. 
D)  John Brown and his followers murdered and mutilated five proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie.

Question 19

How did the Compromise of 1850,the Kansas-Nebraska Act,and the Dred Scott decision address the issue of slavery? What was the effect of each of them on sectional conflicts?

Accepted Answer

Answer would ideally include:
- Compromi

Question 20

The movement toward secession in the winter of 1860-1861 proceeded the most rapidly in the

Accepted Answer

A)  Upper South. 
B)  Middle South. 
C)  Deep South. 
D)  border states. 
A)  Upper South. 
B)  Middle South. 
C)  Deep South. 
D)  border states.

Exam 12: Sectional Conflict and Crisis, 1844-1860

Which of the following statements describes the historical significance of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin?

Why did the Compromise of 1850 fail?

The 1857 Dred Scott decision had which of the following consequences?

What was the outcome of the midterm election in 1858?

What did Stephen Douglas try to accomplish with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854? Was the act any more successful than the Compromise of 1850? Explain your answer.

How might the events of the 1850s have been different if Congress had extended the Missouri Compromise line instead of passing the Kansas-Nebraska Act?

Why did Democratic presidential candidate Lewis Cass propose the idea of squatter sovereignty in 1848?

Answer the following questions : -chain migration

After his inauguration in March 1861,Lincoln

Some historians claim that the mistakes of a "blundering generation" of political leaders led to the imminent breakup of the Union by 1860.Do you agree with their assessment? Explain your answer. Answer Key

How did James Gadsden distinguish himself during Franklin Pierce's presidency?

Americans who lined up behind the free soil cause in the late 1840s

In the late 1850s,so-called fire-eaters like Robert Barnwell Rhett of South Carolina and William Lowndes Yancey of Alabama

Which of the following statements describes the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?

Why was the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861 significant?

President Buchanan responded to the secession crisis by

How do you explain northern attempts to circumvent the Fugitive Slave Act with personal-liberty laws and denunciations of states rights' theory?

Which of the following events took place in Kansas during the summer of 1856?

How did the Compromise of 1850,the Kansas-Nebraska Act,and the Dred Scott decision address the issue of slavery? What was the effect of each of them on sectional conflicts?

The movement toward secession in the winter of 1860-1861 proceeded the most rapidly in the

Colliding Worlds, 1491-1600

American Experiments, 1521-1700

The British Atlantic World, 1607-1750

Growth, Diversity, and Conflict, 1720-1763

The Problem of Empire, 1754-1776

Making War and Republican Governments, 1776-1789

Hammering Out a Federal Republic, 1787-1820

Economic Transformations, 1800-1848

A Democratic Revolution, 1800-1848

Religion, Reform, and Culture, 1820-1848

Imperial Ambitions, 1820-1848

Bloody Ground: the Civil War, 1861-1865

Reconstruction, 1865-1877

Conquering a Continent, 1860-1890

Industrial America: Corporations and Conflicts, 1877-1910

Making Modern American Culture, 1880-1917

Civilizations Inferno: the Rise and Reform of Industrial Cities, 1880-1917

Whose Government Politics, Populists, and Progressives, 1880-1917

An Emerging World Power, 1890-1918

Unsettled Prosperity: From War to Depression, 1919-1932

Managing the Great Depression, Forging the New Deal, 1929-1938

The World at War, 1937-1945

Cold War America, 1945-1963

Triumph of the Middle Class, 1945-1963

Walking Into Freedom Land: the Civil Rights Movement, 1941-1973

Uncivil Wars:liberal Crisis and Conservative Rebirth, 1961-1972

The Search for Order in an Era of Limits, 1973-1980

Conservative America in the Ascent, 1980-1991

Confronting Global and National Dilemmas, 1989 to the Present

Filters