APUSH ch. 13 Test

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 - Created Nebraska and Kansas as states and gave the people in those territories the right to chose to be a free or slave state through popular sovereignty. It helped to convince millions of northerners that southern leaders aimed at nothing less than extending their peculiar institution throughout the West. The bill's unpopularity among their constituents would harm their chances for reelection (North), half the northern Democrats in the House cast negative votes.

Sumner-Brooks Incident

1856 - Charles Sumner gave a two day speech on the Senate floor. He denounced the South for crimes against Kansas and singled out Senator Andrew Brooks of South Carolina for extra abuse. Brooks beat Sumner over the head with his cane, severely crippling him.

economic woes of south

Although the southern economy was also growing and the continuing expansion of cotton production brought wealth to slaveholders, the South did not share in these broad economic changes. The sky-high price of slaves made it impossible for many planters' sons and upwardly mobile small farmers to become planters in their own right. Many white southerners felt that the opportunity was eroding for economic independence through ownership of land and slaves—liberty as they understood it.

"It was not automatically apparent how any of the filibustering targets of the post-1848 period could 'fit' into an American republic, or even into an American empire. . . . While it seemed only logical to some to simply take all of Mexico as booty [spoils] of the war, cut Mexico up, and turn it into new territories and states, most Americans rejected this idea. They did so because central Mexico was densely populated. . . . Many Americans feared the result of the integration of Mexico's people into the United States. Critics also doubted whether Americans could be happy in the alien landscape of central and southern Mexico." Amy Greenberg, historian, Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire, 2005 "American settlers had eclipsed the Mexicans in Texas and, with ample aid from southern Whites, had rebelled and won their independence. . . . A small band of Americans, many of them merchants, lived in Mexican California when war broke out in 1846. This dispersion of hardy migrants inspired observers to insist that pioneers and not politicians won the West. . . . "Pioneers played a role in expansion, but the historical record points to politicians and propagandists as the primary agents of empire. Racial, economic, social, and political factors coalesced [combined] to make territorial and commercial expansion enticing to American leaders. . . . "Denying any parallels between earlier empires and their own, expansionists insisted that democracy and dominion were complementary, not contradictory. Since leaders intended to transform [territorial] cessions into states and their inhabitants (at least Whites) into citizens, they scoffed at misgivings about governing a vast domain." Thomas Hietala, historian, Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire, 2003 Which of the following arguments about the Mexican-American War do the excerpts best support?

It generated debates over citizenship.

"No roads marked the way to the traveler in California then: but, guided by the sun and well-known mountain peaks, we proceeded on our journey. . . . Some forty or fifty men were at work with the cradle machines, and were averaging about eight ounces [of gold] per day to the man. But a few moments passed before I was knee deep in water, with my wash-basin full of dirt, plunging it about endeavoring to separate the dirt from the gold. After washing some fifty pans of dirt, I found I had realized about four bits' worth of gold. Reader, do you know how [one] feels when the gold fever heat has suddenly fallen to about zero? I do. . . . The Indians who were working for Capts. Sutter and Weber gave them leading information, so that they were enabled to know the direction in which new discoveries were to be made. . . . "The morals of the miners of '48 should here be noticed. No person worked on Sunday at digging for gold. . . . We had ministers of the gospel amongst us, but they never preached. Religion had been forgotten, even by its ministers, and instead of their pointing out the narrow way which leads to eternal happiness . . . they might have been seen, with pick-axe and pan, traveling untrodden [untraveled] ways in search of . . . treasure . . . or drinking good health and prosperity with friends." James H. Carson, describing life in the early California gold fields, 1848 Which of the following developments resulted most directly from the gold rush described in the excerpt?

People from America, Europe, and Asia migrated to the region.

american party principles

Republicans managed to convince most northerners that the Slave Power, as they called the South's proslavery political leadership, posed a more immediate threat to their liberties and aspirations than "popery" and immigration. The party's appeal rested on the idea of "free labor." In Republican hands, the antithesis between "free society" and "slave society" coalesced into a comprehensive worldview that glorified the North as the home of progress, opportunity, and freedom. Slavery, by contrast, spawned a social order consisting of degraded slaves, poor whites with no hope of advancement, and idle aristocrats. scale. Irish immigrants, Republicans concluded that it was their "dependent nature"—a lack of Protestant, middle-class virtues—that explained the plight of the immigrant poor.

Which of the following groups would most likely have supported secession from the United States after the 1860 presidential election?

Southern Democrats

defense of manifest destiny

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed to "male citizens" of the area "the free enjoyment of their liberty and property" and "all the rights" of Americans—a provision designed to protect the property of large Mexican landowners in California. As to Indians whose homelands and hunting grounds suddenly became part of the United States, the treaty referred to them only as "savage tribes" whom the United States must prevent from launching incursions into Mexico across the new border. The spirit of manifest destiny gave a new stridency to ideas about racial superiority. During the 1840s, territorial expansion came to be seen as proof of the innate superiority of the "Anglo-Saxon race" (a mythical construct defined largely by its opposites: blacks, Indians, Hispanics, and Catholics.

"No roads marked the way to the traveler in California then: but, guided by the sun and well-known mountain peaks, we proceeded on our journey. . . . Some forty or fifty men were at work with the cradle machines, and were averaging about eight ounces [of gold] per day to the man. But a few moments passed before I was knee deep in water, with my wash-basin full of dirt, plunging it about endeavoring to separate the dirt from the gold. After washing some fifty pans of dirt, I found I had realized about four bits' worth of gold. Reader, do you know how [one] feels when the gold fever heat has suddenly fallen to about zero? I do. . . . The Indians who were working for Capts. Sutter and Weber gave them leading information, so that they were enabled to know the direction in which new discoveries were to be made. . . . "The morals of the miners of '48 should here be noticed. No person worked on Sunday at digging for gold. . . . We had ministers of the gospel amongst us, but they never preached. Religion had been forgotten, even by its ministers, and instead of their pointing out the narrow way which leads to eternal happiness . . . they might have been seen, with pick-axe and pan, traveling untrodden [untraveled] ways in search of . . . treasure . . . or drinking good health and prosperity with friends." James H. Carson, describing life in the early California gold fields, 1848 Which of the following developments most directly led to the activities described in the excerpt?

The acquisition of significant territory following the Mexican-American War

"No roads marked the way to the traveler in California then: but, guided by the sun and well-known mountain peaks, we proceeded on our journey. . . . Some forty or fifty men were at work with the cradle machines, and were averaging about eight ounces [of gold] per day to the man. But a few moments passed before I was knee deep in water, with my wash-basin full of dirt, plunging it about endeavoring to separate the dirt from the gold. After washing some fifty pans of dirt, I found I had realized about four bits' worth of gold. Reader, do you know how [one] feels when the gold fever heat has suddenly fallen to about zero? I do. . . . The Indians who were working for Capts. Sutter and Weber gave them leading information, so that they were enabled to know the direction in which new discoveries were to be made. . . . "The morals of the miners of '48 should here be noticed. No person worked on Sunday at digging for gold. . . . We had ministers of the gospel amongst us, but they never preached. Religion had been forgotten, even by its ministers, and instead of their pointing out the narrow way which leads to eternal happiness . . . they might have been seen, with pick-axe and pan, traveling untrodden [untraveled] ways in search of . . . treasure . . . or drinking good health and prosperity with friends." James H. Carson, describing life in the early California gold fields, 1848 The excerpt best reflects the development of which of the following?

The widely held belief that the United States had a right to expand westward

"It was not automatically apparent how any of the filibustering targets of the post-1848 period could 'fit' into an American republic, or even into an American empire. . . . While it seemed only logical to some to simply take all of Mexico as booty [spoils] of the war, cut Mexico up, and turn it into new territories and states, most Americans rejected this idea. They did so because central Mexico was densely populated. . . . Many Americans feared the result of the integration of Mexico's people into the United States. Critics also doubted whether Americans could be happy in the alien landscape of central and southern Mexico." Amy Greenberg, historian, Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire, 2005 "American settlers had eclipsed the Mexicans in Texas and, with ample aid from southern Whites, had rebelled and won their independence. . . . A small band of Americans, many of them merchants, lived in Mexican California when war broke out in 1846. This dispersion of hardy migrants inspired observers to insist that pioneers and not politicians won the West. . . . "Pioneers played a role in expansion, but the historical record points to politicians and propagandists as the primary agents of empire. Racial, economic, social, and political factors coalesced [combined] to make territorial and commercial expansion enticing to American leaders. . . . "Denying any parallels between earlier empires and their own, expansionists insisted that democracy and dominion were complementary, not contradictory. Since leaders intended to transform [territorial] cessions into states and their inhabitants (at least Whites) into citizens, they scoffed at misgivings about governing a vast domain." Thomas Hietala, historian, Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire, 2003 Greenberg's argument most differs from Hietala's in that Greenberg claims that

most Americans believed that Mexicans in the new territories could not assimilate

Dred Scott

Dred Scott. During the 1830s, Scott had accompanied his owner, Dr. John Emerson of Missouri, to Illinois, where slavery had been prohibited by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and by state law, and to Wisconsin Territory, where it was barred by the Missouri Compromise. - free soil = free slave - courts: only white citizens

Election of 1860

In the South, the Republicans had no presence and three candidates contested the election—Douglas, Breckinridge, and John Bell of Tennessee, the candidate of the hastily organized Constitutional Union Party. - Lincoln (54%) - Breckinridge captured most of the slave states - Bell (40% o/ south states) - Douglas (Missouri) (failure to carry either section = loss)

Comprimise of 1850

Senator Henry Clay offered a plan with four main provisions that came to be known as the Compromise of 1850. California would enter the Union as a free state. The slave trade, but not slavery itself, would be abolished in the nation's capital. A stringent new law would allow southerners to reclaim runaway slaves. And the status of slavery in the remaining territories acquired from Mexico would be left to the decision of the local white inhabitants.

"It was not automatically apparent how any of the filibustering targets of the post-1848 period could 'fit' into an American republic, or even into an American empire. . . . While it seemed only logical to some to simply take all of Mexico as booty [spoils] of the war, cut Mexico up, and turn it into new territories and states, most Americans rejected this idea. They did so because central Mexico was densely populated. . . . Many Americans feared the result of the integration of Mexico's people into the United States. Critics also doubted whether Americans could be happy in the alien landscape of central and southern Mexico." Amy Greenberg, historian, Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire, 2005 "American settlers had eclipsed the Mexicans in Texas and, with ample aid from southern Whites, had rebelled and won their independence. . . . A small band of Americans, many of them merchants, lived in Mexican California when war broke out in 1846. This dispersion of hardy migrants inspired observers to insist that pioneers and not politicians won the West. . . . "Pioneers played a role in expansion, but the historical record points to politicians and propagandists as the primary agents of empire. Racial, economic, social, and political factors coalesced [combined] to make territorial and commercial expansion enticing to American leaders. . . . "Denying any parallels between earlier empires and their own, expansionists insisted that democracy and dominion were complementary, not contradictory. Since leaders intended to transform [territorial] cessions into states and their inhabitants (at least Whites) into citizens, they scoffed at misgivings about governing a vast domain." Thomas Hietala, historian, Manifest Design: American Exceptionalism and Empire, 2003 Both authors would most likely suggest that the historical situation described in the excerpts contributed to which of the

The continued alteration of Native American culture and society

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was intended to resolve debates about which of the following issues in the 1850s?

The expansion of slavery

gold rush life

The law was very fragile in gold-rush California. In 1851 and 1856, "committees of vigilance" took control of San Francisco, sweeping aside established courts to try and execute those accused of crimes. White miners organized extralegal groups that expelled "foreign miners"—Mexicans, Chileans, Chinese, French, and American Indians—from areas with gold. infinite opportunity, where newcomers could start their lives anew. But the boundaries of freedom there were tightly drawn. The state constitution of 1850 limited voting and the right to testify in court to whites, excluding Indians, Asians, and the state's few blacks. - Gold seekers overran Indian communities. Miners, ranchers, and vigilantes murdered thousands of Indians. Determined to reduce the native population, state officials paid millions in bounties to private militias that launched attacks on the state's Indians. Although California was a free state, thousands of Indian children, declared orphans or vagrants by local courts, were bought and sold as slaves.

Reasons for secession

Those advocating secession did not believe Lincoln's administration would take immediate steps against slavery in the states. Slaveowners, moreover, feared Republican efforts to extend their party into the South by appealing to non-slaveholders.