US History

Christensen

Exam Review Guide

Our Exam is: Wednesday, January 13, 2pm
Room

The exam will be in two parts, objective and essay. The objective portion will focus on history from the
Revolutionary period through Reconstruction. The essay will ask you to combine your knowledge of the
history of the same period.

Materials to bring:
 #2 Pencils
 Pens (blue or black)
 A partial phrase outline with thesis and evidence

Objective Portion:

The objective portion will consist of 50 multiple choice questions. The test will be divided into five parts
centered around five documents. There will be three questions related to the document in each section and
seven questions related to the period to which the document relates.

Topics covered include (review the following):

Reasons for and events that lead up to the Revolution (Navigation Acts, salutary neglect, Enlightenment, Great
Awakening I, Jonathan Edwards, Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, Stamp Act, Townsend Act, Intolerable
Acts, Boston Tea Party, King George, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington)

Specifically:
 Growing distance between the colonies and Britain: What role did the French and Indian War
play?
 The Stamp Act: What was it and who did it affect?
 The Boston Tea Party: What brought it about?
 The Intolerable Acts: Why were they passed?
 Ideas: What intellectual movements were connected to the Revolution?
 How did the war begin?: What touched off the first battle?
 What/ Who brought an end to the war?: What role did France play in bringing the war to a
close?

The Constitution, Development of the Party system and defining democracy (What were the most difficult
issues of the Constitutional convention? Appeal to the common man, Indian Removal Act, Trail of
Tears, King Andrew, Pet Banks, Jacksonian Democrats, Whigs)

Specifically:
 Why were the Articles of Confederation so ineffective?
 What were the most contentious issues of the constitutional convention and how were they
resolved?
 Hamilton vs. Jefferson: What were the main differences between the Federalists and the
Republicans
 Jackson and the National Bank: Why did he hate it so much?
 Expansion of voting rights: How did expanding voting rights to those without property help
Jackson?
 Jackson and the spoils system
 Trail of Tears: What conditions did the Cherokee find themselves living in after the move?
Events leading up to the Civil War (differences between North and South, Tariff of Abominations, abolition
movement , John Calhoun, John Brown, Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, Kansas
(Nebraska Act, popular sovereignty, Henry Clay, Bleeding Kansas, Stephen Douglass, Abraham
Lincoln, Lincoln-Douglass Debates, Secession)

Specifically:
 Differences between North and South: What advantages did the North have at the start of the
war.
 Kansas-Nebraska Act: What Compromise did it repeal? What method of dealing with slavery
in the territories did it establish?
 Fugitive Slave Law: What were the provisions of this law? How did it undermine popular
sovereignty?
 Popular Sovereignty: Who supported this as the only democratic way to deal with slavery in the
South?
 Bleeding Kansas: How did this state come to be known as bleeding Kansas?
 Lincoln: What were his beliefs about the expansion of slavery before the war?

The Civil War: Beginnings and early campaigns, Life during war , turning points of the war and conditions of
the end of the war

Specifically:
 Secession of South Carolina: What pushed them out of the Union in 1860?
 How did Lincoln feel about popular sovereignty (remember he decries it in the House divided
speech?
 Fort Sumter: Who fired the war's first shot? Who won the war's first battle (HINT: it is the
same side!)
 Draft/Conscription: Why might this lead to riots in Northern cities?
 Emancipation Proclamation: What was it? On what states did it have an impact?
 Sherman's March to the Sea: How could this be seen as an example of total war?
 Union Troops in Richmond signal the end of the war

Ideas behind and developments of Reconstruction: Use your Reconstruction packets. Lincoln's Plan for
Reconstruction and his assassination, Johnson's Plan, Freedman's Bureau, Black Codes, Congressional
Reconstruction, the Post Civil War South, Legacy of Reconstruction

Specifically:

 Johnson's Plan: States must outlaw slavery (ratify the 13th amendment) and revoke their
declaration of secession. Why didn't this plan work?
 Black Codes: What were they and why were they created?
 Radical Reconstruction: What were the goals of the 14th and 15th amendments?
 End of Reconstruction: Why did Reconstruction come to an end?
 Crop Lien System: What impact did the crop lien system have on gains made by blacks during
reconstruction?
Document Sections include:

Declaration on Independence, July 4, 1776

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to
the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist 84- May 28, 1788

It has been several times truly remarked, that bills of rights are in their origin, stipulations between
kings and their subjects, abridgments of prerogative in favor of privilege, reservations of rights not
surrendered to the prince. Such was Magna Carta, obtained by the Barons, sword in hand, from king
John...It is evident, therefore, that according to their primitive signification, they have no application to
constitutions professedly founded upon the power of the people, and executed by their immediate
representatives and servants. Here, in strictness, the people surrender nothing, and as they retain
everything, they have no need of particular reservations. "We the people of the United States, to secure
the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the
United States of America." Here is a better recognition of popular rights than volumes of those
aphorisms which make the principal figure in several of our state bills of rights, and which would
sound much better in a treatise of ethics than in a constitution of government....
I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended
for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would
contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and on this very account, would afford a
colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which
there is no power to do? Why for instance, should it be said, that the liberty of the press shall not be
restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed?

John Brown’s Last Speech- November 2, 1859

I have another objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in
the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and
candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered in
behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends,
either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed
what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have
deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment. This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the
validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New
Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do
even so to them. It teaches me, further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I
endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet too young to understand that God is any
respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I
have done in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that
I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the
blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded
by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done!

Charity Bowery, April 5, 1860, Transcribed by Lydia Marie Child

Sixteen children I've had, first and last; and twelve I've nursed for my mistress. From the time my first baby was
born, I've always set my heart upon buying freedom for some of my children. I thought it was of more
consequence to them than me; for I was old and used to being a slave. But Mistress McKinley wouldn't let me
have my children. One after another she sold them away from me. Oh how many times that woman's broke my
heart…I set up a little oyster board; and when anybody come along that wanted a few oysters and a cracker, I
left my washtub and waited on him. When I got a little money laid up, I went to my mistress and tried to buy
one of my children…she wouldn't let me have one…She sold me and five children to speculators! Oh how did I
feel when I learned my children was sold to the speculators!

Second Inaugural Address- Abraham Lincoln, 1865

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us
strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the
battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations.

The Essay

For the final essay, you will be allowed to a partial outline that may include: a claim (your debatable thesis
statement) and a partial, topic outline as well as any quotes you would like to include. This outline may NOT
include any complete or near-complete sentences.

The Question:

Should America’s first 150 years (Independence period through Reconstruction) be seen as a triumph of
the people, a triumph of the states, or a triumph of the national government? Why?