Text of the M25 Midterm Review

Where was the first English settlement in North America?
Jamestown (in the Chesapeake region)
What product eventually became the key export of the Chesapeake?
Tobacco
Who provided much of the labor in the early years in the Chesapeake? How did they pay for their passage?
Indentured servants, 3-7 years of service to their master
Where did these West Indies sugar growers eventually take the practice of African slavery?
The Carolinas, and it eventually spread to Virginia
What are two key reasons slaves became a more desirable form of labor than indentured servants?
Lifetime term of service, property according to law (any treatment acceptable), slaves could bear more slaves
What was the “middle passage”?
The journey on slave ships from Africa to the colonies
Why did the Puritans want to leave England?
religious persecution
What was the basis for Puritan religion? Why was this significant?
Calvinism, they believed they were chosen and had a covenant with God and each other
What colonial region boasted the most religious diversity? What were some of these groups?
Middle Colonies, Quakers, Catholics, Lutherans, etc.
What religious movement of the early 1700’s was focused on getting an emotional response from its audience?
Great Awakening
What city was the finance, trade, and shipping hub of the New England colonies?
Boston
How did colonial governors view their role?
Saw themselves as “mini kings” of their colonies
Where did the colonists feel they had legitimate representation?
Their colonial assemblies
What was the primary cause of the Seven Years (French & Indian) War?
Claims over colonial territories in North America
In the eyes of the British throne, what was the primary role of the colonies? How did they ensure this?
As a source of revenue, a series of trade regulations
Why did the British begin taxing the colonists in 1763?
pay for debts incurred in the French & Indian (7 yrs.) War
What were the first taxes the British passed? How did the colonists respond?
Stamp and Sugar Acts, strongly resisted (boycotted, protested, etc.)
What was the significance of the Boston Massacre?
First armed conflict of the revolution
What was the British response to the Boston Tea Party?
Coercive (or Intolerable) Acts
Identify two ways the colonists mobilized politically after the Intolerable Acts.
Committees of correspondence & First Continental Congress
What was significant about the First Continental Congress?
All colonies acting together in common interest, claimed their own political authority
What was the dual task of the Second Continental Congress?
Trying to negotiate peace with Great Britain while simultaneously preparing for war
What famous pamphlet in 1776 called for Americans to reject monarchy & support independence? Who was its author?
Common Sense, Thomas Paine
Who was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence? What does the document do?
Thomas Jefferson, lays out ideology of the revolution and grievances against King George
Who was chosen to lead the Colonial Army? What were some of the challenges he faced?
George Washington, forming militias into an army, lack of funding & resources
What was the key to early British strategy in the early years of the war?
Control the Hudson and cut off the revolutionary radicals in Massachusetts
What colonial victory helped bring increased aid from the French?
Defeating Burgoyne at Saratoga
After losing patience on their northern strategy, where did the British turn?
To the South in an effort to shut down Virginia
Where does the Colonial Army finally force the British to surrender?
Yorktown, with help from the French navy
Identify two key contributions women made to the revolutionary cause.
Economic (boycotts), took over household economies, supported revolutionary army
Which enlightenment thinker advocated a three branch government?
Montesquieu
Which enlightenment thinker was an advocate for the protection of “natural rights” (life, liberty, property)? Where did they believe these rights came from?
Locke, GOD
What document set up our nation’s first government but ended up giving too much power to the states?
Articles of Confederation
Name two weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
no power to tax, no power to coin money, no executive branch, weak central government
Why was the question of the western lands so important? How was it finally resolved?
States made claims on land all the way to Mississippi River, Jefferson and the NW Ordinance
What was required for full citizenship (and voting rights) during the critical period (1781-1787)?
Property ownership
What uprising of impoverished Revolutionary war vets clearly demonstrated the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
Shay’s Rebellion
What area of the nation abolished slavery after the adoption of the constitution?
New England states
Where did slavery continue to flourish? Why?
Southern states, seen as integral to their cash crop economy
How many houses are their in our Congress? What are their names?
2, the Senate and the House of Representatives
Is our government under the Constitution more republican or democratic?
Republican (indirect representation)
What were the two major compromises made during the drafting of the United States Constitution?
Great Compromise (large states: House, small states: Senate), 3/5 Compromise (5 slaves count for 3 men)
What part of the government did the Federalists want strengthened in the new constitution?
the national (Federal) government, get it…Federalists
What group pushed hard for the inclusion of the Bill of Rights?
Anti-Federalists
What was Hamilton’s (the Federalist) vision for America?
A country based on manufacturing and a strong central government
What was Jefferson’s vision of America? What large acquisition was designed to make this a reality?
Agricultural society, everybody owns land or a small business, strong state’s rights Louisiana Purchase
Who was sent to explore the Louisiana Territory?
Lewis & Clark
How did the rivalry between the French & British affect us in the early 1800s?
War of 1812
What was the Monroe Doctrine?
don’t mess around in our hemisphere & we’ll stay out of yours (to Europe)
Where did Jackson’s political support come from? Which of his policies built this up?
Common Man (new Democratic Party)expand opportunity for all white men National bank, Indian policies (Trail of Tears)
What party opposed Jackson’s policies
The Whigs
What is “Manifest Destiny”?
The belief that the U.S. would someday control the land from coast to coast.
Who opposed the Mexican-American War? Why did they oppose it?
Whigs and Abolitionists, opposed extension of slavery in the Southwest
What issue was hotly debated in the new territories as our country expanded westward?
slavery
What were two of the main provisions of the Missouri Compromise?
MO is a slave state, ME is a free state, no slavery above 36-30 line
What were two of the main provisions of the Compromise of 1850?
CA free state, tougher fugitive slave law, UT & NM slave territories
What was the name of the nativist party that split from the Whigs in the 1850’s? Who was the target of their nativism?
Know-Nothings, Irish and German immigrants
What groups joined to form the Republican Party in the 1850’s?
Free labor & free soil advocates, abolitionists (everyone who opposed expansion of slavery in new territories)
What were the key outcomes of the Kansas Nebraska Act?
Northern route for transcontinental RR, popular sovereignty on slavery in K-N
How did the Dred Scott Decision further inflame the slavery debate?
Ruling slaves never citizens, rights therefore cannot be violated (regardless of travel, etc.)
Why did John Brown take over the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry?
attempt to arm slaves and lead a revolt
Name two advantages the South had at the start of the Civil War.
Better generals, defensive war, passion for their cause
Name 3 advantages the North had at the start of the war.
larger population, more industry, better transportation, more food production
What was the purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation?
Free the slaves in rebel states, provide moral cause for the war
What two battle in July of 1863 proved to be a turning point in the Civil War?
Gettysburg & Vicksburg
Who marched through the South with the goal of forcing them to surrender?
Sherman
What did the 13th Amendment do?
Made slavery illegal
Why did the Radical Republicans push for the 14th Amendment?
Southern States were passing Black Codes
What President did the Radical Republicans have a major problem during Reconstruction? Why?
Andrew Johnson, much to friendly to the South (unwilling to make big reforms)
Name 2 things that kept freedmen from gaining true equality.
sharecropping, KKK, black codes, racist attitudes
Name 2 ways Southern states kept freedmen from voting.
poll taxes, literacy tests, threats & violence