United States History to the Civil War
History 310
Final Exam Study Questions
Professor Heningburg
I have included two questions from each of the areas we have covered in class from the end of the second hour exam until now. The final exam format will be as follows: five of seven identifications, one of two short essay questions, and one comprehensive essay question. The id portion and the short essay of the exam are worth fifty points each. The comprehensive essay portion is worth one hundred points. Study the id list and practice the exam questions. This will help you prepare for the exam and receive a good grade.
Area One: Post Revolutionary America.
1. Discuss the various reform movements in the early nineteenth century. What motivated the social reformers of that day? Were they benevolent helpers or dictatorial controllers? What methods of persuasion did they use? Why were the effects of antislavery activism so politically explosive?
2. Define and discuss the concept of Manifest Destiny. How does the Mexican-American War and the California Gold Rush fit into this notion?
Area Two: Prelude to the Civil War
1. Compare and contrast the Missouri Compromise of 1820 with the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854. What are their significant issues? Why were they so important?
2. In view of the United States’ Constitution, what is the significance of the Dred Scott decision of 1857. Include as much relevant detail as possible.
Area Three: The Civil War.
1. Until 1863, President Lincoln refused to admit blacks into the Union Army. However, with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln reversed himself and allowed blacks to volunteer. With this in mind, what was the historical significance of the battle at Fort Wagner in South Carolina, 1863.
2. In what ways did the actions of African Americans, both slave and free, come to determine the course of the Civil War? Why were African Americans so eager to participate in this conflict?
3. In the historical documentary “The Civil War: Causes,” by Ken Burns, writer Shelby Foote, argues that the Civil War was caused by America’s “failure to compromise.” Historian, Barbara Fields argues that the Civil War was caused by the “establishment of the United States with slavery in its foundation.” Discuss these competing points of view using evidence from lectures, the textbook and the film.
History 310 - United States History to 1865
Identifications for Final Exam
Identification List for
Post-Revolutionary War
America
The Free Soil Movement
Organized Slave Resistance
Types of Individual Slave Resistance
Social Reform Movements:
Women’s Rights
Temperance
Anti-slavery & Abolition
William Lloyd Garrison
The Liberator
Frederick Douglass
The North Star
David Walker
Government Sponsored Exploration
Expansion and Indian Policy
Manifest Destiny
Mexican-American War, 1846-1848
California Gold Rush
Prelude to the Civil War:
1820 Missouri Compromise
John C. Calhoun
1832 Nullification Crisis Wilmot Proviso, 1846 Compromise of 1850 Fugitive Slave Law/Act
Solomon Northrup
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854
John Brown Pottawatomie Massacre, 1856
Charles Sumner
“Bleeding Kansas”
Dred Scott Decision, 1857 Harper’s Ferry, 1859
The Politics of Nativism
Election of 1860
Secession of South Carolina
Identifications for the Civil War
Civil War:
Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861
Bull Run / Manassas, 1861
Antietam, 1862
Emancipation Proclamation, 1/1/1863
Gettysburg, 1863
54Th Massachusetts Regiment Colored Infantry
Fort Wagner, 1863
Atlanta, September, 1864
Lincoln Reelection, November 1864
April, 1865:
Richmond, VA
General Lee Surrenders
Lincoln Assassinated