The Early Republic 1790-1820

What prompted slave owners in the South in the early nineteenth century to provide slaves sturdier housing, better clothing, and increased food allotments?

An interest in slaves' procreation - The end of the international slave trade in 1808 helped blacks, since planters had to depend on natural reproduction to increase their labor supply. To ensure that slaves lived longer and healthier lives, planters were forced to provide sturdier housing, better clothing, and food allotments.

What did Robert Fulton and Eli Whitney have in common?

Both Fulton and Whitney developed important new technologies that transformed the American economy. Fulton launched the first successful steamboat in 1807, while Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1791 and a musket with interchangeable parts in 1798.

Why did President Thomas Jefferson send the U.S. navy and Marine Corps to North Africa in 1801?

Barbary pirates had attacked American ships. - Thomas Jefferson had refused to continue the payment of tributes to the Barbary States, and as a result pirates of the region quickly resumed attacks on American ships.

In the early republic, why were schools for black children most likely to be found in cities?

Cities were more likely to have a large free black population.

Which of the following elements from their history and culture provided Americans with a sense of a distinct national identity during the early republic?

Education - For many Americans, education offered a means of ensuring a distinctive national identity. Public schools could train American children in republican values, while the wealthiest among them could attend private academies and colleges.

Young couples of the early nineteenth century considered themselves as embarking on marriages that, in comparison to those of their parents, were more

Egalitarian.

What prompted the westward migration of Americans in the first quarter of the nineteenth century?

Exhaustion of farmland along the eastern seaboard - An increased population, combined with the exhaustion of farmland along the eastern seaboard, fueled migration to the West as well as the growth of cities.

What was Thomas Jefferson's attitude toward European nations at the beginning of his presidency?

He considered American isolation from Europe a great advantage.

Why was President Jefferson reluctant to agree to conclude the Louisiana Purchase?

He feared it would expand the federal government's power beyond the Constitution's limits.

Why were the Shoshones forced into the Rocky Mountains as early as 1800?

Indians from the Mississippi and Ohio valleys had moved into the Great Plains. -The Shoshones had originally inhabited the Great Plains. There, they were pushed out by Indian tribes moving from the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, who themselves were pushed out by increasing white settlements.

Why did the Maryland legislature tax the operations of the Second Bank of the United States in the early nineteenth century?

It believed that the bank had gained excessive power. -Notes of the Second Bank of the United States circulated widely in local business communities, replacing notes issued by state banks. The Maryland legislature tried to push the Bank of the United States out of business with the additional tax levy.

How did Noah Webster aim to make Americans more independent from Britain in the early republic?

Reforming American education - Webster believed that "America must be as independent in literature as in Politics, as famous for arts as for arms." To that end, he published the American Spelling Book (1810) and the American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) to promote an American style of education.

"The so much desired general Rochambeau is at length here. His arrival was announced . . . by the firing of cannon. . . . Nothing is heard of but the public joy. He is considered as the guardian, as the saviour of the people. Every proprietor feels himself already in his habitation [plantation] and I have even heard some of them disputing about the quality of the coffee they expect soon to gather. . . ." According to Leonora Sansay's letter to Aaron Burr, she greeted the French troops who arrived on Haiti as

Saviors of the people.

Which statement explains why Illinois and Louisiana became states after Ohio and Kentucky?

The Ohio River valley was settled before the Mississippi River valley.

Why did President Jefferson agonize over the constitutionality of the Louisiana Purchase?

The Constitution contained no provisions for buying land from foreign nations.

In 1801, Democratic-Republicans worked quickly to implement their vision of government by

The Democratic-Republican majority in Congress repealed the hated whiskey tax. In addition, Thomas Jefferson appointed the lawyer of the whiskey rebels, Albert Gallatin, as secretary of the treasury.

What transportation problem did canals and steamboats solve in the early republic?

The high cost of overland travel across the country

Why did southern whites fear the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution in 1791?

The revolution was a slave rebellion, which slave owners feared would inspire their bondsmen to revolt. - The Haitian Revolution began as a rebellion of slaves against white French authorities and ended up making Haiti the first independent black-led nation in the Americas. Slave owners feared that if such a rebellion could happen in Haiti it could happen to them as well.

How did inventors and mechanics try to overcome the problems of sending goods upriver in the early nineteenth century?

They built steam-powered boats.

Why did northern free blacks generally oppose the efforts of the American Colonization Society?

They thought the organization was less inspired by goodwill than by racism -Although some African Americans supported the colonization scheme, northern free blacks generally opposed it, understanding colonization as an effort that originated "more immediately from prejudice than philanthropy."

Why did affluent white Americans often embrace Indian names and symbols in the early republic?

To emphasize a distinctly American national identity

Why did Albert Gallatin urge Congress to fund internal improvements during Jefferson's administration?

To enhance the nation's economic development

Why did many states demand more public schools for children following the Revolution?

To inculcate an American culture to children growing up in a new country -Education advocates such as Noah Webster called for more schools to educate American children in a distinctly American culture.

Books such as Mercy Otis Warren's History of the Revolution and Mason Weems' Life of Washington were popular in the early republic because they

celebrated America's founding.

In one of his more serious essays, the writer Washington Irving challenged conventional American thinking by

prai sing the courage of Indians. -Although Irving was most known for his popular fiction, he also wrote a serious essay in which he argued that Americans had largely ignored courageous actions by Indians and applauded atrocities committed by whites against them.