American Civilization to 1877 Exam Practice Tests
Course Introduction
This course examines the major political, social, economic, and cultural developments in American civilization from its beginnings through the Reconstruction era of 1877. Emphasizing the experiences of diverse groups, it traces the establishment of European colonies, the growth of colonial society, the American Revolution, the formation of the Constitution, westward expansion, the rise of sectionalism, slavery, the Civil War, and the challenges of Reconstruction. Students will analyze primary sources and historical interpretations to better understand the creation and transformation of American identity during this formative period.
Recommended Textbook
The Brief American Pageant A History of the Republic Volume I To 1877 9th Edition by David M. Kennedy
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Chapter 1: New World Beginnings
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Sample Questions
Q1) When did North America begin to take on its geological shape?
A) 5 million years ago
B) 8 million years ago
C) 3 million years ago
D) 1 million years ago
E) 10 million years ago
Answer: E
Q2) What was Bartolome de Las Casas' relationship to the encomienda system?
A) He designed and implemented it.
B) He considered it the lynchpin of capitalism.
C) He considered it immoral and protested it.
D) He performed marriages between Spanish explorers and enslaved native women.
E) He convinced Moctezuma to provide slaves to Spanish settlements.
Answer: C
Q3) caravel
Answer: Answers will vary.
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Q1) Which statement best describes the Barbados slave code of 1661?
A) It guaranteed slaves the right to marry.
B) It denied slaves the most fundamental rights.
C) It protected slaves from the most vicious punishments.
D) It gave slaves the opportunity to purchase their freedom.
E) It assigned specific monetary value to slaves.
Answer: B
Q2) On the eve of its colonizing adventure,England possessed all of the following traits EXCEPT
A) a unified national state.
B) a measure of religious unity.
C) a sense of nationalism.
D) a popular monarch.
E) a strong desire to spread Christianity in the New World.
Answer: E
Q3) In many ways,North Carolina was the least typical of the five plantation colonies.Describe the unique features of colonial North Carolina,and explain why this colony was so unlike its southern neighbors.
Answer: NOT ANSWERED
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Chapter 3: Settling the Northern Colonies,1619-1700
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Q1) Which statement is NOT a characteristic of the Massachusetts Bay enterprise?
A) It was well equipped, with eleven vessels carrying nearly a thousand immigrants.
B) It started out on a larger scale than any of the other English settlements.
C) It experienced additional immigration due to continuing turmoil in England.
D) It merged with the Plymouth Bay Colony in 1691.
E) It began when Charles I dismissed Archbishop William Laud, a sympathizer with Puritanism.
Answer: E
Q2) Which statement about English Separatists is FALSE?
A) They were more radical than most Puritans.
B) They included the Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Bay Colony.
C) They authored the Mayflower Compact.
D) They sought to reform the Church of England from within.
E) Some sought refuge from English persecution in Holland.
Answer: D
Q3) "Penn's Woodland"
Answer: Answers will vary.
Q4) heresy
Answer: Answers will vary.
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Chapter 4: American Life in the Seventeenth
Century,1607-1692
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Sample Questions
Q1) During the seventeenth century,indentured servitude at first seemed the best solution to the labor shortage.What was NOT one of the underlying reasons for this?
A) The Indian population proved to be an unreliable work force because they died in such large numbers.
B) African slaves cost too much money.
C) Many poor Englishmen were willing to mortgage their labor in exchange for passage to America.
D) Slaves was impossible to obtain.
E) Settler families procreated too slowly.
Q2) The late-seventeenth-century rebellions in New York and Maryland partly reflected
A) the fear that whites might be enslaved alongside blacks.
B) resentment against the English government.
C) dissent against Puritan domination of government.
D) the resentment of ordinary settlers against upper-class pretensions.
E) ethnic conflict between English, Scottish, Dutch, and German settlers.
Q3) Chesapeake
Q4) jeremiad
Q5) Harvard College
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Colonial Society on the Eve of
Revolution,1700-1775
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Q1) Which statement describes a distinguishing feature of royal colonies as compared to proprietary colonies?
A) The upper house of the colonial legislature was appointed by the crown in royal colonies and by proprietors in proprietary colonies.
B) The governors of proprietary colonies were popularly elected while governors of royal colonies were appointed by the king.
C) Unlike royal colonies, proprietary colonies were always running into trouble with the English king, who did not like their relative freedom from royal control.
D) Unlike in proprietary colonies, in royal colonies, the legislatures were obedient and accepted British oversight without question.
E) In proprietary colonies, business owners were exempted from all taxes, whereas in royal colonies, the king taxed business transactions heavily.
Q2) New York slave revolt
Q3) South Carolina came to rely on the importation of slaves more than other colonies as the eighteen century proceeded,yet it also sought to ban slave imports in 1760.Explain both elements of this seeming contradiction.
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Chapter 6: The Duel for North America,1608-1763
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Q1) What role did Indian tribes play in the early clashes between France and Britain in North America?
A) The French voyageurs and Jesuit missionaries fought alongside their Huron allies, but the British spurned any potential Indian allies.
B) Both the French coureurs de bois and British colonists sought Indian allies.
C) The Iroquois Confederation took the strife between French and English as an opportunity to launch a large-scale, coordinated attack on all colonists.
D) Indian tribes wanted no part of the Europeans´ disputes and remained above the fray.
E) Indian leaders proved essential peacemakers in ending warfare and negotiating treaties between British and French officials.
Q2) Where and when did France plant its first permanent settlement in the New World?
A) Nova Scotia in 1594
B) New Orleans in 1718
C) Fort Duquesne in 1756
D) Québec in 1608
E) Detroit in 1631
Q3) Iroquois
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Chapter 7: The Road to Revolution 1763-1775
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Sample Questions
Q1) "royal veto"
Q2) John Adams once said that the American Revolution occurred first in the minds of the people before it took place on the battlefield.What did he mean? Was he correct?
Q3) "no taxation without representation"
Q4) Boston Massacre
Q5) Despite the benefits of the mercantile system,the American colonists disliked the system because it
A) forced the South to adopt a one-crop economy.
B) favored the northern over the southern colonies.
C) reinforced class differences in the colonies.
D) reinforced dependence on the mother country and stifled economic initiative. E) encouraged harsh repression by British officials.
Q6) Arrange these events in chronological order: (A)Boston Massacre,(B)Townshend Acts,(C)Tea Act,and (D)Intolerable Acts.
A) A, B, C, D
B) D, B, C, A
C) C, B, D, A
D) B, A, C, D
E) A, C, D, B
Page 9
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Chapter
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Q1) Which group of Americans was LEAST likely to support the crown after 1776?
A) The well educated
B) The older generation
C) The Anglican church and its members
D) New Englanders
E) The wealthy
Q2) The colonies had been fighting with the British for a full fourteen months before declaring independence.What was NOT one of the reasons?
A) Continued belief that America was part of the transatlantic British community
B) Support for the tradition of loyalty to the empire
C) The realization that the colonies were not united
D) Fear of harsh British reprisals against rebels
E) Desire to trade with the British colony of India
Q3) More conservative Americans worried that a democratic republic would produce
A) constant revolutions.
B) atheistic doctrines and an attack on the churches.
C) too much equality and a lack of social order.
D) a potential military dictatorship.
E) an inadequate guarantee of individual rights.
Q4) Thomas Paine
Page 10
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Chapter 9: The Confederation and the Constitution,1776-1790
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Q1) John Marshall
Q2) Shays's Rebellion
Q3) Most delegates to the Constitutional Convention believed that
A) a government with two branches and checks and balances was ideal.
B) the central government's power should be weak compared to the states.
C) universal manhood suffrage should be a central tenet.
D) protecting private property was vital.
E) the president should be elected by direct vote.
Q4) Patrick Henry
Q5) Natchez
Q6) The land laws of the 1780s
A) created unintended problems for further expansion westward.
B) exacerbated conflicts among the states over settling western lands.
C) were a signature achievement of the American government under the Articles of Confederation.
D) settled the future of slavery by forbidding its extension westward.
E) were the spark for widespread Indian attacks on American pioneers.
Q7) George Washington
Q8) civic virtue Page 11
Q9) "mobocracy"
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Chapter 10: Launching the New Ship of State,1789-1800
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Q1) What happened at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794?
A) General Anthony Wayne defeated the Miami Confederacy led by Chief Little Turtle.
B) General Josiah Harmer defeated the Iroquois Confederacy.
C) The British were forced to surrender the chain of frontier forts they had maintained in violation of the peace treaty of 1793.
D) Generals Arthur St. Clair and Josiah Harmer combined their forces to defeat the Miami Confederacy under Chief Little Turtle.
E) U.S. forces suffered one of their worst military defeats on the frontier.
Q2) Compare and contrast the Federalists and Republicans,especially their views on democracy,government power,the economy,and foreign affairs.
Q3) Was the Hamiltonian-Jeffersonian divide in the politics of the 1790s a simple case of partisan conflict,as in other eras of America history,or was it a more fundamental philosophical dispute about the meaning of republicanism and the Constitution?
Q4) French Revolution
Q5) Bill of Rights
Q6) Tenth Amendment
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Chapter 11: The Triumphs and Travails of the Jeffersonian
Republic,1800-1812
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Q1) Federalists opposed the acquisition of Canada because A) there were too many French-speakers there.
B) Canadian agriculture and lumbering would compete with New England.
C) it would create more agricultural states sympathetic to the Democratic-Republicans.
D) they believed that the Canadians could never become Americanized.
E) they believed that a republic could not survive with such a vast territory.
Q2) William Henry Harrison
Q3) Thomas Jefferson's "Revolution of 1800" was most remarkable because it
A) finally brought the ideals of the Declaration of Independence to the White House.
B) marked the peaceful, orderly transfer of power based on election results accepted by both rival parties.
C) enabled poor farmers and the working class to overthrow the American elite.
D) brought the principles of the French Revolution to America.
E) occurred with violence in only a few places.
Q4) Aaron Burr
Q5) Battle of the Thames
Q6) Tenskwatawa ("the Prophet")
Q7) William Clark
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Chapter 12: The Second War for Independence and the Upsurge
of Nationalism,1812-1824
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Q1) The most devastating defeat suffered by the British during the War of 1812 took place at the Battle of
A) New Orleans.
B) Horseshoe Bend.
C) Tippecanoe.
D) the Thames.
E) Bladensburg.
Q2) Settlers from the South who moved into the Old Northwest territory were known as A) Dixiecrats.
B) Suckers.
C) Buckeyes.
D) Hoosiers.
E) Butternuts.
Q3) McCulloch v.Maryland
Q4) Battle of New Orleans
Q5) sectionalism
Q6) The text's authors claim that the Era of Good Feelings is "something of a misnomer" for the decade following the War of 1812.Do you agree? Why or why not?
Page 15
Q7) Battle of Plattsburgh
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Chapter 13: The Rise of a Mass Democracy 1824-1840
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Sample Questions
Q1) The section of the United States most hurt by the Tariff of 1828 was
A) New England.
B) the Great Lakes states.
C) the Southwest.
D) the South.
E) the Middle Atlantic states.
Q2) Twelfth Amendment
Q3) Nullification Crisis
Q4) Americans first moved into Texas
A) when invited by the Spanish government.
B) under an agreement between Mexican authorities and Stephen Austin.
C) when Sam Houston brought a militia force into the territory.
D) to create the conditions for an independent Texas Republic.
E) as part of a southern conspiracy to spread slavery.
Q5) What about Andrew Jackson appealed so deeply to the common man and made him the "Old Hero" of the new democratic age? How did both his strengths and his flaws reflect his deep connection with ordinary Americans?
Q6) corrupt bargain
Q7) "Divorce Bill"
Q8) pet banks
Page 16
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Chapter 14: Forging the National Economy,1790-1860
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Q1) The text's authors claim that on the eve of the Civil War,"a truly continental economy had emerged" in which "the principle of division of labor...applied on a national scale." Explain the operation of this regionally organized "national" economy and its political implications.
Q2) Why was industrialization slow to start in the United States,compared to Britain and Europe? What factors helped jumpstart American industrialization eventually?
Q3) Consider the impact of the Industrial Revolution from the perspective of workers.How did life change for workers in the move from farm to factory? Which workers were most exploited? Which workers were most able to demand improvements in their working conditions and communities?
Q4) Assess the validity of the following statement: "The Erie Canal was the single most important accomplishment contributing to economic expansion prior to the coming of the railroad."
Q5) cotton gin
Q6) John Jacob Astor
Q7) Ancient Order of Hibernians
Q8) Yellowstone Park
Q9) John Deere
Page 17
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Chapter 15: The Ferment of Reform and Culture,1790-1860
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Q1) Emily Dickinson
Q2) Oneida Community
Q3) Charles Grandison Finney
Q4) Why were women prominent in the reform crusades of the early nineteenth century? What contributions did they make to social reform?
Q5) Deists like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin endorsed
A) the belief in divine revelation.
B) the belief in original sin.
C) the belief in the deity of Christ.
D) the belief that a Supreme Being endowed human beings with a capacity for moral behavior.
E) the belief in the imminent end of the world.
Q6) "The American Scholar"
Q7) The Second Great Awakening partly reshaped American religion by making it
A) more dependent on a college-educated clergy.
B) more reliant on women as members and social reformers.
C) less socially and theologically diverse.
D) more sympathetic to hierarchical churches like Catholicism.
E) more centered on the life of the local parish.
Q8) Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Chapter 16: The South and the Slavery
Controversy,1793-1860
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Q1) mulattoes
Q2) Based on "Varying Viewpoints," discuss how new perspectives,including women's history,have altered the understanding of actual human relationships under slavery.
Q3) Who led a slave rebellion in 1831 in which sixty white Virginians were killed?
A) Nat Turner
B) David Walker
C) Frederick Douglass
D) Denmark Vesey
E) Gabriel
Q4) In the 1850s,Britain depended on the American South for how much of the raw cotton used by its leading industry,cotton textiles?
A) 10 percent
B) 40 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 75 percent
E) almost 100 percent
Q5) Why did the North,on the whole,react negatively to the radical abolitionists? Did the abolitionist arguments really affect northern public opinion?
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Chapter 17: Manifest Destiny and Its Legacy,1841-1848
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Q1) "Jimmy Polk's war"
Q2) Compare and contrast America's foreign policy relationships with Britain and Mexico in the 1840s.Why were most disputes with Britain able to be negotiated,while those with Mexico were not?
Q3) The largest single addition to U.S.territory in American history was
A) the Louisiana Purchase.
B) the Mexican Cession.
C) the Oregon Country.
D) the Old Northwest.
E) Alaska.
Q4) Tyler and the Whigs managed to compromise on the
A) bill creating the third Bank of the United States in 1843.
B) Tariff of 1842.
C) Walker Tariff.
D) annexation of Oregon.
E) elevation of young Abraham Lincoln to Secretary of State.
Q5) Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)
Q6) Lord Ashburton
Q7) California missions
Q8) Caroline
Page 20
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Chapter 18: Renewing the Sectional Struggle,1848-1854
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Q1) Stephen A.Douglas
Q2) "Union savers"
Q3) Underground Railroad
Q4) The "young guard" of Congressmen from the North
A) regarded preserving the Union as their top priority.
B) were ready to attack slavery in the South.
C) saw expansionism as a solution to the slavery question.
D) gave support to John C. Calhoun's plan for rescuing the Union.
E) were more interested in purifying the Union than saving it.
Q5) The issue of runaway slaves was important to southerners because
A) the South was losing a significant portion of its labor force.
B) the Underground Railroad might encourage a slave rebellion.
C) the loss of property was significant, but the loss of honor was felt more.
D) escaped slaves might establish free colonies in the West.
E) free blacks demonstrated that the racist theory of slavery was wrong.
Q6) Nebraska territory
Q7) "forty-niners"
Q8) Free Soil party
Q9) John C.Calhoun
Q10) California gold rush Page 21
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Chapter 19: Drifting Toward Disunion,1854-1861
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Q1) Lawrence,Kansas
Q2) As a result of reading Uncle Tom's Cabin,many northerners
A) felt more sympathy for the plight of poor whites.
B) vowed to halt British and French efforts to help the Confederacy.
C) gained a more realistic picture of the South and slavery.
D) swore that they would have nothing to do with the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law.
E) sent guns to antislavery settlers in Kansas ("Beecher's Bibles").
Q3) "Tom shows"
Q4) In the presidential election of 1856,the Republicans
A) revealed astonishing strength for a brand-new party.
B) lost behind their most popular leader, Senator William Seward.
C) made their debut as the most successful third party in American history.
D) proved unable to present a clear platform on slavery expansion.
E) finished third behind the Democrats and the Know-Nothings.
Q5) John Brown
Q6) Lecompton Constitution
Q7) Confederate States of America
Q8) Harriet Beecher Stowe
Q9) "the despotic majority of numbers"
Page 23
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South,1861-1865
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Q1) To fill the army's demand for troops,prior to 1863,the North relied mainly on A) the draft.
B) bounty brokers.
C) foreign mercenaries.
D) volunteers.
E) the militia (National Guard).
Q2) Trent affair
Q3) France abandoned its attempt to control Mexico
A) because the French working class opposed the effort.
B) when the British pressured them to leave.
C) when it decided not to recognize the Confederacy.
D) because the Mexicans declared independence.
E) because the United States threatened to send the victorious Union army against the French in Mexico.
Q4) Compare and contrast the characteristics that "Billy Yank" and "Johnny Reb" brought to the battlefield and their wartime experiences.
Q5) Charles Francis Adams
Q6) Napoleon III
Q7) West Virginia
Q8) National Banking System
Page 25
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Chapter 21: The Furnace of Civil War,1861-1865
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Q1) What happened at the Seven Days´ Battles in July 1862?
A) Confederate and Union forces bogged down and fought to a standstill in the Virginia woods.
B) News of Lincoln´s Emancipation Proclamation created a flood of escaped slaves over the Union lines.
C) The momentum of the war decisively shifted in favor of the Union after this naval victory.
D) Confederate capture of key forts along the Kentucky-Tennessee border dealt a serious blow to the Union´s Border-State strategy.
E) A Confederate counterattack repelled the Union´s drive toward Richmond in the Peninsula Campaign.
Q2) The historic battle between the Merrimack (Virginia)and the Monitor
A) gave the North a decisive victory.
B) signaled the end of the era of wooden warships.
C) ended in relatively insignificant victory for the South.
D) revived the issue of impressment.
E) dealt a fatal blow to the Union naval blockade.
Q3) Union party
Q4) Battle of Gettysburg
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Chapter 22: The Ordeal of Reconstruction,1865-1877
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Q1) The white South viewed the Freedmen's Bureau as
A) a meddlesome federal agency that threatened to upset white racial dominance.
B) an agency acceptable only because it also helped poor whites.
C) a valued partner in rebuilding the South.
D) a political arm of the Republican party.
E) a threat to state social service agencies.
Q2) In the 1866 congressional elections,the main issue was
A) how many voters approved of the Thirteenth Amendment.
B) whether radicals would replace moderates as the dominant faction in Congress.
C) whether Reconstruction would proceed with or without the Fourteenth Amendment.
D) how much progress ex-slaves had made with their new rights.
E) whether the Homestead Act should be repealed.
Q3) Pacific Railroad Act
Q4) As a politician,Andrew Johnson had developed a reputation as
A) a supporter of the planter aristocrats.
B) an opponent of slavery.
C) an advocate of social reform.
D) a champion of the poor whites.
E) a secret Confederate sympathizer.
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