HIST 15 CH 11

During the U.S.-Mexico War, Zachary Taylor's advance south was halted at

Buena Vista. In February 1847 in the Battle of Buena Vista, Santa Anna nearly destroyed Taylor's army in northeastern Mexico.

How did Democrats build up support for the annexation of Texas in 1844?

By linking Texas to the Oregon question Polk and the Democrats made Texas a popular issue by linking its annexation to the end of joint British-American occupation in Oregon, a popular issue with northerners.

What was one privilege propertyless whites could enjoy in the slaveholding South?

Enjoying the feeling of white supremacy As the U.S. senator from Georgia, Alfred Iverson, explained, a white man "walks erect in the dignity of his color and race, and feels that he is a superior being, with the more exalted powers and privileges than others."

The supposed designs of what nation on Texas, California, and Cuba encouraged southerners to demand the immediate annexation of Texas in the lead-up to the 1844 presidential election?

Great Britain Rumors swirled that Great Britain was encouraging Texas to remain independent; wanted California as payment for the Mexican debts owed to British investors; and had designs on Spanish Cuba, which some slave owners wanted to add to the United States. To thwart such imagined schemes, southern expansionists demanded the immediate annexation of Texas.

Which non-native animal transformed Native peoples' lives on the Great Plains in the 1840s and 1850s?

Horse The horse, which made Natives more mobile and thus facilitated Native peoples' hunting, war-making, and trade, drastically transformed Native peoples' lives on the Great Plains in the 1840s and 1850s.

Which Old World faith were Africans in the United States most likely to follow before the Second Great Awakening?

Islam Before the Second Great Awakening, Africans carried their traditional religious practices to the United States. Some practiced Islam.

What name is given the belief in a god-given American cultural and racial superiority that lay behind the desire to make the entire continent part of American democracy?

Manifest Destiny The belief in American cultural and racial superiority that lay behind the desire to make the entire continent part of American democracy was called Manifest Destiny.

What are two major hazards evident on this map that whites faced moving west on the Oregon Trail?

Native peoples and the Rocky Mountains This map makes evident that travelers needed to pass through Native peoples who could raid their wagons and then cross over the treacherous Rocky Mountains to reach Oregon.

During and after the Texas revolution, the boundary between the Republic of Texas and Mexico was disputed. Which of the following rivers served as the boundary between the Republic of Texas and the disputed territory?

Nueces River The Nueces River served as the boundary between the Republic of Texas and the disputed territory.

The top 5 percent of the southern white population owned what proportion of the entire slave population in 1860?

Over 50 percent Just 5 percent of the South's white population dominated the economy, owning over 50 percent of the entire slave population of 4 million and growing 50 percent of the South's cotton crop.

What was the cause of "Oregon fever"?

Reports of potential harbors and fertile soil in Oregon Reports of harbors for trade and fertile soil for crops led many Americans to head west to Oregon.

In what state was the Gullah dialect most likely to be spoken?

South Carolina The Gullah dialect, which combined words from English and a variety of African languages in an African grammatical structure, was spoken by blacks in the Carolina low country well into the twentieth century.

Mexico suspended diplomatic relations with the United States in 1836 over what issue?

Texas The U.S. recognition of the Republic of Texas, which Mexico did not recognize, in 1836 led to a rupture in diplomatic relations.

What nickname was given to the Great Plains in the 1820s and 1830s?

The Great American Desert U.S. explorer Major Stephen Long, with only basic information, viewed the Great Plains during the early 1800s as the Great American Desert and unfit for cultivation. This interpretation motivated Americans looking for land to turn south to Mexican territory in Texas.

Why did Californios raise cattle in the 1820s to the 1840s?

The hide and tallow trade Californios sold cattle hides and tallow made from beef fat to New England merchants, who delivered it to the shoe factories and candle and soap manufacturers in the American Northeast.

What story from the Old Testament appealed to many African American slaves in the antebellum years?

The liberation of the Jews African Americans, far more than white slaveholders, were drawn to the image of God in the Old Testament as a warrior who had liberated the Jews and so would also liberate them. Moses, who led his people out of slavery, had particular appeal to slaves.

Which statement characterizes the religious practices of African American slaves in the Deep South in the early nineteenth century?

The majority of them worshipped African gods and spirits. The majority of slaves worshipped African gods and spirits. As late as 1842, Charles C. Jones, a Presbyterian minister, noted that the blacks on his family's plantation in Georgia believed "in second-sight, in apparitions, charms, witchcraft . . . [and other] superstitions brought from Africa."

What connection did John L. O'Sullivan's term Manifest Destiny have to American expansion of the mid-nineteenth century?

The phrase embodied the dreams of American expansionists. O'Sullivan's phrase was the ideology of conquest that proclaimed the God-given duty to extend American republicanism and capitalism to the Pacific Ocean.

Why did many African American slaves choose not to run away?

They did not want to leave family and kin. Family ties within slavery made escape problematic. Blacks in the South could flee to the North, but only by leaving their loved ones, and there was no telling what angry masters might do to those left behind.

Why did zealous Presbyterian ministers like Charles C. Jones try to convert slaves to the evangelical faith in the antebellum years?

They feared for their own souls if they did not do so. Fearing for their own souls if they withheld "the means of salvation" from African Americans, Jones and other zealous Protestant preachers set out to convert slaves.

Who was the American merchant who lived in California under the Mexican regime in the early 1820s?

Thomas Larkin Thomas Oliver Larkin, a successful merchant in the coastal town of Monterey, worked closely with Mexican ranchers. However, he remained an American in outlook and eventually fostered California's annexation to the United States.

How did Major Stephen H. Long describe the grassland plains west of Arkansas and Missouri?

Wholly unfit for cultivation Army explorer Major Stephen H. Long thought the plains west of Arkansas and Missouri "wholly unfit for cultivation" and in 1820 labeled them "the Great American Desert."

American settlement of Oregon differed from American settlement of Texas because Oregon's settlement was based on

an intergovernmental agreement. Unlike with Texas, where the Spanish and later the Mexican governments agreed to American settlement with private individuals like Stephen F. Austin, the U.S. government and the British government agreed to divide Oregon.

In the decades before the Civil War, black Protestantism differed from Protestantism aimed toward whites in its

avoidance of unthinking obedience to authority. Black Protestant preachers didn't use biblical passages that encouraged unthinking obedience to authority. A white minister in Liberty County, Georgia, reported that when he urged slaves to obey their masters, "one half of my audience deliberately rose up and walked off."

Mexico's central government did not devote necessary resources to combating Comanche raids in far northern Mexico in the 1830s and early 1840s because it

could not afford the cost to do so. Mexico's federal system of government tended to serve the northern frontier states poorly, while two decades of political instability resulted in a stagnant economy and modest tax revenues, which debt payments to European bankers quickly devoured. In the 1830s and 1840s, Comanche warriors conducted dozens of campaigns against the settlements of the Mexican north. Mexico's central government lacked the resources to respond effectively, and the northern territories were devastated.

In 1830, about 36 percent of white families in the South held slaves. By 1860, the share of white families owning slaves had

declined. Increasing social divisions among white slave owners led to a decline in ownership to about 25 percent, leaving a larger concentration of slave populations in the hands of the few.

Which European nation was the first to reach and to trade with the Native peoples of Alaska?

Russia crossing from the west, Russian traders made contact with Aleut and Tlingit communities in Alaska in the late eighteenth century and developed a lucrative trade in sea otter pelts, which was controlled after 1799 by the Russian-American Company.

To add military muscle to this scheme to prepare for war with Mexico, President James K. Polk ordered American naval commanders in 1846 to seize what Mexican territory?

San Francisco Bay To add military muscle to this scheme, Polk ordered American naval commanders to seize San Francisco Bay and California's coastal towns in case of war with Mexico.

Which marriage rules existed among slaves but not among the planter elite in the decades before the Civil War?

Shunning of marriages between cousins Cousin marriages were frequent among South Carolina planters, whereas their slaves avoided it, continuing a practice common in Africa.