Chapter 13-19 Study Questions
1. Whigs and Van Buren (pp. 272–275) The current two-party political system begins to take shape during this period. The new anti-Jacksonian ______ Party is described as favoring 1) the more prosperous classes, and 2) making active use of the federal government to achieve national objectives. The Jacksonian _____________ Party is described as favoring 1) the “little guy,” and 2) a small federal government. In 1836, Jackson engineered the election of his successor, Martin ____ __________ of New York, whose term was dominated by the financial Panic of 18____.
2. Texas (pp. 275–280) Prior to 1836, Texas was a northern province of ___________, whose government had encouraged American colonizers in the 1820s under Stephen F. __________. Under the leadership of Sam ___________, Texas declared its independence in 18____ and won the military victory after eventually capturing Mexican General _______ ______. Why was the U.S. government at first unwilling to accept the request of Texas for admission to the Union?
3. Harrison and Popular Politics (pp. 280-284) The first Whig president, Gen. William Henry ___________, was elected in 1840. What are the two major political changes noted by the authors in the concluding section as having taken place by 1840?
(1)
(2)
4. Westward Movement (pp. 287–289) At the end of this section, the authors refer to the “heedless exploitation of the West’s natural bounty” while going on to say that Americans “revered nature and admired its beauty.” *** Can these two seemingly contradictory statements be reconciled?
5. Immigration and Urbanization (pp. 290–297) a. The population chart on p. 290 shows that, due to a high birth rate and immigration, the country in 1860 was roughly _____ times bigger than it was in 1790. If the population today is about 275 million, it is approximately _____ times bigger than it was in 1860. Also in this first section, the authors describe the squalid conditions in the new booming urban centers. *** Can you think of any similar city in the world today where growth is much too fast for the basic services (“infrastructure”) to catch up?
b. Briefly list a few distinctive characteristics of the Irish and the German immigrant groups.
IRISH GERMAN
c. The Protestant majority was concerned about the growing influence of __________________ (a religious denomination), which in the 1840s developed its own separate educational system. The American or “_________-_____________” Party began about 1849 centered around the concept of anti foreignism. (Note how America’s love/hate attitude toward immigrants constitutes a recurring theme.)
6. Industry and the Factory System (pp. 297–304) a. List two reasons cited by the authors that the Industrial Revolution didn’t hit America until the 1830s and 1840s, much later than it did in Britain.
(1)
(2)
b. What do the authors mean on p. 303 when they say that Eli Whitney gave a boost to slavery “and perhaps made inevitable the Civil War” but at the same time “helped factories to flourish in the North,” thus contributing to the ultimate Northern victory?
(1) “…Civil War inevitable”
(2) “…ultimate Northern victory”
c. What is distinctive about the new “limited liability corporations (p. 304)”? *** Can you guess why this form of business organization was so important to industrialization?
7. Workers and Women (pp. 304–309) a. *** What do you think would be the main differences between working in a craft shop (illustration p. 305) and the more efficient factories illustrated on pp. 307 and 309?
(1) Craft shop:
(2) Factory:
b. Regimented factory jobs, such as those at the first big water-powered textile mill at _________, Mass., were seen by many single girls as a way to escape the farm. Besides factory work, the “caring professions” open to women included nursing, domestic service, and ______________. Upon marriage, most women left the workforce. How do the authors define the “cult of domesticity (p. 307)”? *** What is your reaction to this view of women’s role in family life?
(1) Definition:
(2) Reaction:
8. Transportation (pp. 309–317) (Note: In 1800, the biggest obstacle to national development was that people, goods, and even letters could not move faster than animals could walk, rivers could flow, or the wind could blow. Revolutionary developments, primarily the steamboat and railroad, would change that fast.) The first major wagon road west, the National or _____________ Road, was started in 1811. The revolutionary steamboat, invented by Robert __________ in 1807, allowed people and goods to move upstream as well as down. The first big western canal, the _________ Canal, pushed through in 18____ by Governor DeWitt ___________, benefited its Atlantic terminus at _____ ________ City at the expense of cities like Boston. The first American railroad appeared in 18___ and soon superseded the canal system in terms of importance. Look at the railroad map on p. 313. By 1860, the Midwest was sending its agricultural products and raw materials mostly to the __________ (North or South), enabling that region to specialize in manufacturing and shipping. The South had to continue specializing in its cash crops such as ___________ (its biggest cash crop), which it sent out via its navigable waterways. This new regional specialization will provide a big advantage to the ___________ (North or South) in the eventual Civil War. (Note: Without these new transportation links, the South might have expected closer ties with the Midwest because Midwestern waterways all drain out through New Orleans.)
9. Market Revolution (pp. 317–318) In this section, the authors summarize the drastic change from the home as a self-sufficient economic enterprise to the home as a refuge from more specialized, market-oriented work outside. They also point to the growing gulf between rich and poor that caused class warfare in many European countries. What two reasons do they give for the relative absence of class conflict in America, despite these wide disparities between rich and poor?
(1)
(2)
10. Religion (pp. 320–324) Note: Try to figure out why waves of “evangelical” religion periodically sweep over the country. The evangelical “religious right” makes up a potent cultural and political force today. a. What do the authors mean on p. 331 when they say that the Second Great Awakening was a “reaction against the growing liberalism in religion”? What ideas were they reacting against?
b. Revival religion stressed personal conversion (as opposed to predestination) and was particularly strong among Methodists and ____________. The evangelist most associated with the religious “Awakening” of the 1820s to the 1840s is Charles Grandison ____________, and the movement was especially strong in western New York along the route of the _________ Canal in what came to be called the __________-___________ District. Evangelical religion tended to appeal to women more than men and women spearheaded moral reform movements including abolitionism. One of the largest new denominations was ____________, founded in upstate New York in 1830 by Joseph __________. Eventually this group migrated to _________ under the leadership of Brigham __________ *** What do you find interesting about the Mormon Church?
11. Education and Reform (pp. 324–330) a. This section covers the growth of tax-supported public education in the mid-1800s, particularly the work of reformers such as Horace _________. Emma _________ and Mary ________ led efforts to increase educational opportunities for women. Reformers tackled many issues. The reformers included Dorothea _____, who successfully fought to change criminal codes and treatment of the mentally ill.
b. The American _____________ Society, formed in Boston in 1826, was part of this reform spirit. (Note that alcohol intake was then something like three times what it is today and it’s still a big problem today!) *** As you read the section about the fight against alcohol abuse, try to think of one similarity and one difference with the “war on drugs” of today.
(1) Similarity:
(2) Difference:
12. Women’s Rights and Utopian Movements (pp. 330–333) a. What three examples do the authors use to support their argument that women were “legally regarded as perpetual minors”?
(1)
(2)
(3)
b. In what areas do the authors say women were considered superior to men?
c. The three early feminist leaders mentioned here are Lucretia ________, Elizabeth Cady ____________, and Susan B. _____________. Two of these women were _____________, one of the earliest religious denominations to stress full equality. The Woman’s Rights Convention, commonly considered to mark the beginning of the modern feminist movement, was held in ____________ _________, New York in 18____. The Declaration of _____________, issued at the end of this convention, was modeled on the American Declaration of ______________, but it declared that “All men and ________ are created equal.” Many women at this convention and later argued against including a demand for the right to vote. *** If you had been a relatively conservative woman, what argument might you have used against demanding the ballot?
d. Perhaps as a forerunner of the hippies of the 1960s (or of certain “cults” today), a variety of noble but largely unsuccessful “communalistic” utopian societies sprang up in this individualistic and anti-authoritarian age including New __________ in Indiana, _________ Farm in Massachusetts, and the __________ Community in New York.
13. Science and Art (pp. 333–339) a. *** What impressed you most when reading about the state of health and medicine in the mid-nineteenth century?
b. The section on art is not overly complimentary about American contributions but does mention Thomas _____________ in the field of architecture and the _________ _________ school of landscape painters influenced by the upsurge of nationalism after the War of 1812.
14. Blossoming of a National Literature (pp. 339–345) a. What was distinctive about “Knickerbocker Group” writers such as Washington _________, James Fenimore ___________, and William Cullen ____________?
b. How do you summarize the “transcendentalist” philosophy of Ralph Waldo ____________ and how did Henry David ____________ implement that philosophy with his Waldon Pond experiences?
(1) Definition:
(2) Implementation:
c. Note a distinguishing feature of the works of three of the writers mentioned in the remainder of the chapter that you found most interesting. *** Have you read anything by any of these writers?
(1)
(2)
(3)
15. Southern Economy and Social Structure (pp. 350–356) a. Explain the connection between the invention of the cotton gin by Eli _________ in 17___ and the rapid expansion of short-staple cotton production based on slave labor in the South. If the cotton gin actually made picking seeds from cotton much easier, why did planters perceive a vastly increased need for slave labor?
b. Cotton was king in both the South and in Britain. By 1840, cotton amounted to _____percent of U. S. exports and accounted for more than _____percent of the world’s supply. Britain’s economy was based on cotton textiles, and Britain got _____percent of its fiber supply from the South. (No wonder Southerners thought England would “be tied to them by cotton threads” in the event of conflict with the North.)
c. List two negatives of this Southern plantation economy mentioned by the authors (pp. 352–353).
(1)
(2)
d. Although most slaves were owned by the large-scale planters, most slave-owners held only a few slaves each, and often worked together with them in the fields. The chart on p. 353 shows that, out of about 345,000 slave-owning families, only about ________ families owned fifty or more slaves, representing about ____percent of the total. Fully _____percent of Southern whites owned no slaves at all. List two reasons cited by the authors to explain why many poor whites without slaves remained staunch defenders of the slave system.
(1)
(2)
16. Conditions of Slavery (pp. 356–362) a. If northerners were really against slavery, why do you think they treated individual free blacks with such disdain?
b. With slave importation outlawed since 1808, the slave population grew to a total of __ million by 1860 primarily by natural reproduction. Unlike the North, wealth in the South was not held in monetary form, but rather in the form of land and _________. What did it mean to sell a slave “down the river”? Slaves were being sold from where to where?
c. List two examples of the fact that slaves had absolutely no political or civil rights.
(1)
(2)
d. What do the authors conclude on pp. 360–362 about black family and religious life?
e. *** Did anything surprise you about the extent of slave resistance and rebellion (p. 362)?
17. Abolitionism (pp. 362–368) a. The _____________ (a religious sect) were among the first to advocate abolitionism. In the early 1820s, the emphasis was on sending ex-slaves back to Africa, especially to the West African country of ____________. A small minority of fervent abolitionists emerged in the 1830s, encouraged by the freedom given by ___________ (a country) to its West Indian slaves, and by the religious spirit of the Second Great ______________. What is the essential difference between a radical abolitionist, such as William Lloyd ___________, and a more practical or political abolitionist, such as the ex-slave Frederick ___________? *** Had you been against slavery at the time, put an (*) by the approach you would have favored.
(1) Radical:
(2) Political/practical:
b. *** If you had been a moderate Southerner at the time, list two legitimate arguments you might have used against the call of the radical abolitionists for the immediate release of all slaves with no compensation to their owners.
(1)
(2)
c. Look at the cartoon on p. 367. In reaction against increasingly perceived threats to their way of life, Southerners began advancing arguments as to why slavery was a “positive good.” *** What do you think of the argument that the North was hypocritical because southern slaves had it better than did the “wage slaves” of the North? Was there any truth in this charge?
d. Were the abolitionists popular or unpopular in the North? Why?
18. Compromise of 1850 (pp. 396–401) a. In the momentous debate sparked by California’s request for statehood, summarize the positions and critical roles played by the following three Old Guard politicians in putting together the Compromise of 1850.
(1) Henry Clay:
(2) John C. Calhoun:
(3) Daniel Webster (“7th of March Speech”):
b. The Compromise of 1850 achieved some Northern objectives by admitting _____________ as a free state, taking away some disputed territory from the slave-holding state of ____________, and abolishing the slave trade (although not slavery per se) in _____________ D.C. In return, the main concession to the South was the tightening up of the ____________ Slave Law. Why do the authors conclude that the North “got the better deal” and that emphasizing fugitive slaves was “an appalling blunder on the part of the South”?
19. Expansionism in the 1850s (pp. 401–404) a. In 1852, the Democrat and “pro-southern northerner” Franklin __________ won the presidency. Why, on p. 401, do the authors conclude that this election was “fraught with frightening significance”?
b. Expansionists, especially in the South, had a field day in the early 1850s. Note the adventures of William _________ in Nicaragua and the resolution of disputes with Britain over a potential canal route across the Isthmus of Panama in the Clayton-_________ Treaty of 1850. A fleet under Commodore Matthew _________ helped open ________ to trade ties in 1854. And plans to grab _______ from Spain were foiled when the __________ Manifesto became public in 1854.
20. Douglas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 (pp. 404–408) a. The issue of a railroad to the Pacific precipitated a major sectional split in 1853 when the ___________ Purchase of territory from __________ seemed to favor the technically easier southern route. Motivated by a desire to benefit both his region and himself, Illinois Senator Stephen A. _____________ countered in 1854 with a northern route proposal that would require the area west of the Missouri River to be formally organized into a territory. His proposal was to split this territory into two parts, with the status of slavery to be decided on the principle of “_____________ sovereignty.” The northern territory, to be called _____________, would presumably vote for “free-soil,” while the southern territory, to be called _____________, was expected to favor slavery. Despite opposing a northern railroad route, why did the South “rise to the bait” (p. 406) and support this act?
b. The authors obviously consider pushing the Kansas-Nebraska Act to have been a major blunder on the part of Douglas, making the “dreaded sectional rift” permanently irreversible. The act he pushed through in 1854 required repeal of the _____________ Compromise of 1820, which had prohibited slavery in any territories formed from the ____________ Purchase north of the southern boundary of Missouri (latitude 36° 30'). Why did Northern free-soilers, soon to form the purely-sectional ____________ Party around this very issue, so vehemently oppose the bill, even though it would promote a railroad that would benefit their region economically?
21. Literary Incendiaries (pp. 409–412) List two effects cited by the authors of the publication of Uncle Tom’s ________, written by Harriet _________ ___________ in 18____, including the significance of its impact on public attitudes in England and France.
(1)
(2)
22. “Bleeding Kansas” (pp. 412–414) Although not really suited for plantation agriculture, the South expected a pro-slavery vote in Kansas following the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act. Outsiders in both New England and the South helped finance settlers who would favor their position on slavery, creating an explosive situation. The most famous and fanatical antislavery outsider was John ____________ who, in 1856, massacred some proslavery people at _______________ Creek. In a semirigged 1857 election, the proslavery _______________ Constitution was passed and sent to Democratic President _____________ in Washington, but Democratic Senator ____________ (author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act) smelled a rat and blocked approval. What did this whole Kansas mess do to the nationwide Democratic Party?
23. Election of 1856 (pp. 414–417) The enflamed passions of the time were reflected in 1856 when South Carolina Senator Preston ________ blasted abolitionist Massachusetts Senator Charles __________ over the head with a cane on the Senate floor. In the 1856 election, the mediocre Democrat James ____________ beat the first candidate of the two-year-old ____________ Party, John C. ____________ - the western explorer and California hero of the Mexican War. (Remember, the Republican Party was formed largely of free-soilers and Northern Whigs after the “popular sovereignty” Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854.) What do the authors believe (p. 417) might have happened if the Republicans had won and the South had succeeded following the 1856 election?
24. 1857: Dred Scott and Financial Crash (pp. 417–419) a. The slave Dred Scott had been taken to a free territory by his master and therefore sued for his freedom. In 1857, the Southern-dominated Supreme Court, under the leadership of Roger B. ___________, ruled 1) that slaves couldn’t sue, 2) that slaves were property and could be taken anywhere, and 3) that because property rights were protected by the ______ Amendment, Congress didn’t have the power to ban slavery anywhere. This effectively invalidated the ______________ Compromise of 1820 and caused deep resentment in the North. *** From a strictly legal perspective, do you see any valid points in the Court’s decision in the Dred Scott case?
b. Problems were exacerbated by the “Crash of 1857.” (Note again the more-or-less twenty year cycle of economic downturns, so far 1819, 1837, and 1857.) The authors note that _______ prices remained high and the South therefore avoided the full effects of the economic downturn. This, they say, gave the South a false sense that it could prosper economically as a separate country and that it would inevitably gain the support of its major customers, _________ and France. When the Democratic president vetoed a __________ act and Congress failed to raise protective _________, the authors say that what “two surefire economic issues” were handed to the Republicans for the 1860 election?
25. Abraham Lincoln (pp. 419–422) In 1858, Lincoln challenged Sen. Stephen A. Douglas to a series of very high-toned debates in their race for his Senate seat. Summarize the subtle differences between Lincoln and Douglas on the issue of slavery in the territories.
(1) Lincoln:
(2) Douglas:
26. John Brown’s Raid (pp. 422–424) After abolitionist John Brown’s unsuccessful and fanciful attempt to start a slave rebellion by attacking the federal arsenal at ____________ Ferry, Virginia, in 18____, why do the authors say that Brown realized that he would be “worth much more to the abolitionist cause dangling from a rope than in any other way”?
27. The 1860 Election (pp. 424–427) This “most fateful election in American history” was the first fought almost exclusively along regional lines. The Democrats split in two, with the Northern Democrats nominating Steven A. _____________ and the Southern Democrats nominating John C. _______________. The all-Northern Republicans went for the little-known Abraham ______________. Look at the chart on p. 425. *** Testing your knowledge of constitutional quirks (Art. II, Sect. I, Clause 2), explain how it is possible that Lincoln could receive only 40 percent of the popular vote but still obtain almost 60 percent of the electoral vote (180 out of 303).
28. Secession (pp. 427–431) a. Before Lincoln could take office in March 1861, seven states led by South ___________ had seceded from the Union, formed the _______________ States of America, and elected Jefferson _________ as president. Although Lincoln pledged not to interfere with Southern institutions (i.e. slavery), these states felt they had lost all power in Washington. Kentucky Senator James Henry _____________ then proposed a last ditch compromise, which would have extended the old Missouri Compromise line (36°30') all the way to California. Lincoln rejected this because at least theoretically it might allow some extension of slavery. *** If you had just been elected president under these circumstances, would you a) let the southern states go in peace, trusting that they would apply for readmission once they discovered they couldn’t make it on their own; b) try to buy time by accepting the Crittenden Compromise; or c) prepare to use force to keep all states in the Union? Why would you choose this course?
b. Southerners felt that they were simply following the principles of the Declaration of Independence in seeking self-determination and freedom from oppression (p. 431). *** Do you buy this argument? What differences or similarities do you see between the two cases?
