United States History: Unit One Worksheet
1) Why did Europeans wish to reach Asia? Why would an all water route to Asia be beneficial?
2) Identify the following:
a) Prince Henry the Navigator:
b) Christopher Columbus:
3) Explain the slogan "God, Glory, and Gold." How did it figure into the settlement at Jamestown in 1607?
Plymouth in 1620? Massachusetts in 1630?
4) Identify the following:
a) Richard Hakluyt:
b) Sir Humphrey Gilbert:
c) Sir Walter Raleigh:
d) Captain John Smith:
e) John Rolfe:
f) headright system:
g) House of Burgesses:
h) joint-stock company:
5) How did the Puritan "errand into the wilderness," reflect the idea of "theological patriotism"?
6) Identify the following:
a) "visible saints":
b) covenant theology:
c) Separating Congregationalists:
d) Non-Separating Congregationalists:
e) "city upon a hill":
f) William Bradford:
g) Mayflower Compact:
h) Squanto:
i) John Winthrop:
j) Roger Williams:
k) Ann Hutchinson:
l) New England Way:
m) Half-way Covenant:
7) How did the New England, Middle, and Southern Colonies differ from one another? How were they
similar?
8) Explain the shift in the South from reliance on indentured servants to reliance on slaves. What is meant
by the term "unthinking decision"?
9) Discuss the relative importance of education in the South and the North? How do you account for the
differences?
10) Identify the following:
a) Indentured Servants:
b) Staple Crop Agriculture:
c) Subsistence Agriculture:
d) peculiar institution:
e) proprietary colony:
f) George and Cecilius Calvert:
g) chain migration:
h) town meeting:
11) What were the sources of instability which characterized American life in the late seventeenth century?
How did this instability manifest itself?
12) Identify:
a) Bacon's Rebellion:
b) Leisler's Rebellion:
c) Dominion of New England:
d) John Peter Zenger
13) What was the Great Awakening? Who were its most important spokesmen? What were its chief
consequences?
14) Discuss the impact of the Enlightenment on America. Who was the most important representative of
the Enlightenment in America?
United States History: Unit Two Worksheet
1) How does the term "salutary neglect" describe British colonial policy between 1725-1763?
2) Describe the structure of colonial government. Explain how the colonial lower house assemblies
managed to acquire such a dominant position within colonial governments.
3) Define mercantilism. What role did colonies play in the mercantile system?
4) Explain how the Navigation Acts were designed to insure that the colonies played their appropriate role
within the mercantile system. What were "enumerated products"?
5) Identify the following:
a) Board of Trade:
b) Great War for Empire:
c) General Edward Braddock:
d) Fort Duquesne:
e) General James Wolfe:
f) General Louis Joseph de Montcalm:
g) Treaty of Paris (1763)
6) Why did British colonial policy change after 1763?
7) Describe the major components of George Grenville's fiscal policies towards the colonies. How did the
colonists respond? How did Parliament respond to the colonial reaction?
8) Identify the following:
a) Writs of Assistance:
b) Pontiac's Rebellion:
c) Proclamation of 1763:
d) James Otis:
e) Sugar Act:
f) Stamp Act:
g) Vice-Admiralty Courts:
h) Thomas Whately:
i) virtual representation:
j) Daniel Dulaney:
9) Analyze the major components of American Republican Ideology. How did this ideology contribute to
the coming of the American Revolution? How is it reflected in the Declaration of Independence?
10) How was the Stamp Act Crisis resolved? How did this resolution foreshadow future problems between
America and the mother country?
11) Describe Charles Townshend's colonial policy. How did the colonists respond? How did Parliament
respond to the American response?
12) Identify the following:
a) Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer:
b) Samuel Adams:
c) Massachusetts Circular Letter:
d) Glorious Ninety-Two:
e) customs racketeering:
f) Virginia Resolves and Second Virginia Resolves:
g) Lord North:
h) Boston Massacre:
i) Gaspee Incident:
j) committees of correspondence:
k) Thomas Hutchinson:
13) What was the intent of Lord North's Tea Act? What were its practical consequences? How did the
colonists manifest their displeasure with the legislation? How did the British react to this American
response? How did the Americans perceive this British reaction?
14) Identify the following:
a) Boston Tea Party:
b) Coercive/Intolerable Acts:
c) Quebec Act:
15) Describe the major steps discussed and taken by the First Continental Congress. What was Lord
North's response?
16) Identify the following:
a) Galloway Plan:
b) Declaration of American Rights:
c) Suffolk Resolves:
d) Continental Association of 1774:
e) Summary View of the Rights of British America:
f) Conciliatory Resolution:
17) Identify the following:
a) Logic of Rebellion:
b) Olive Branch Petition:
c) Prohibitory Act:
d) Common Sense:
e) Saratoga:
f) General William Howe:
g) Lord Charles Cornwallis:
h) General George Washington:
i) Margaret Corbin, Mary Ludwig Hays, and Deborah Sampson:
j) Noah Webster and Jedediah Morse:
k) Articles of Confederation:
l) "Landed" States
18) How revolutionary was the American Revolution? (Be sure to include remarks on the status of women
and blacks.)
19) Analyze the burst of "constitution making" that occurred during the revolutionary period at both the
state and national levels.
20) How did the revolutionary experience shape the emergence of the United States both as a national and
cultural entity?
United States History: Unit Three Worksheet
1) Why are the years between 1782 and 1787 referred to as the "critical period? Who coined this phrase?
Is it an accurate description of the time?
2) Describe the financial weaknesses that plagued the Confederation Congress.
3) Identify the following:
a) Robert Morris:
b) Bank of North America:
c) Newburgh Conspiracy:
d) coup d'etat:
4) Why did the Newburgh Conspiracy fail?
5) Describe the land policy of the Confederation government as manifested in the Ordinance of 1785 and
the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
6) Describe the economic difficulties that plagued merchants and manufacturers during the "critical
period." Why did the Confederation not intervene to help them?
7) Describe the diplomatic difficulties which confronted the new nation. What did the Confederation
Congress do about them?
8) Describe the financial difficulties that confronted the United States during the "critical period."
9) Identify the following:
a) Old Northwest:
b) Adam Smith and Wealth of Nations:
c) Jay-Gardoqui Treaty:
d) legal tender laws:
e) debtors:
f) creditors:
g) stay laws:
h) Trevett v. Weeden:
i) Shays' Rebellion:
10) Why did leading Americans from various walks of life conclude that the United States must have a
more powerful government?
11) Identify the following:
a) Mount Vernon Conference:
b) Annapolis Convention:
c) Philadelphia Convention:
d) Founding Fathers:
12) Describe the general characteristics of the men who wrote the Constitution. On what points did they
almost all agree?
13) Compare and contrast James Madison's Virginia Plan with William Paterson's New Jersey Plan. What
motivated the differences in the two proposals? How were these differences reconciled by Roger
Sherman's Connecticut Plan? Time proved those who worried about a power struggle between large
states and small states wrong. Where did the real power struggle develop?
14) How was the Constitution to be ratified?
15) Name the group who favored ratification. Name the group who opposed ratification. Which side
occupied the strongest position in the struggle over ratification? Why?
16) Identify the following:
a) Charles A. Beard:
b) Forrest McDonald:
c) Jackson Turner Main:
17) What was The Federalist? Who wrote it? Which edition of The Federalist proved most important?
What did it argue?
18) Describe the chief objections against ratification made by the Anti-Federalists.
19) Could the struggles between Federalists and Anti-Federalists be described as a generational struggle.
Why?
20) Name the original members of Washington's cabinet and the positions they occupied.
21) Why could it be said that the first Congress played a role in shaping American government rivaled only
by the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia?
22) Describe Alexander Hamilton's vision for America as revealed in his reports to Congress.
23) Identify the following:
a) First Report on the Public Credit:
b) Second Report on the Public Credit:
c) Report on a National Bank:
d) Report on Manufacturing:
24) Describe the debates regarding the adoption of Hamilton's program and James Madison's role in
opposing it.
25) Describe the debate between Hamilton and Jefferson over the creation of a national bank? Who won?
Who had the best constitutional argument? Why?
26) What issue provided the basis for the emergence of the first national political parties in United States
History? Why did the Hamiltonians and the Jeffersonians resist the emergence of political parties?
Why did political parties emerge despite their reluctance? What were the names of the first two
American political parties?
27) Describe Thomas Jefferson's record as a reformer. Describe his vision for America as revealed in his
book Notes on Virginia.
28) Identify the following:
a) John Fenno:
b) Philip Freneau:
29) Why did foreign affairs figure so prominently during Washington's second term?
30) Analyze the split between Hamilton and Jefferson regarding foreign affairs.
31) Identify the following:
a) Neutrality Proclamation:
b) "Citizen Genet Affair":
c) Orders in Council:
d) League of Armed Neutrality:
e) Jay Treaty:
32) Describe the background and terms of the Jay Treaty. Describe how Alexander Hamilton undermined
Jay's negotiations. How did most Americans react to the Jay Treaty? Why?
33) Identify the following:
a) Whiskey Rebellion:
b) Pinckney' Treaty of 1795:
c) Fallen Timbers:
34) Describe Washington's Farewell Address.
35) Name the presidential and vice presidential candidates in the election of 1796. What was the chief
significance of this election? Who was elected president? Vice president? Why was this significant?
36) Describe John Adams' view of the appropriate structure of government. In what works did he define
this view?
37) What issue dominated Adams' term of office? Describe the difficulties which the United States
confronted in its relations with Britain and France?
38) How did Adams' respond to pressures for war in 1797? in 1800?
39) Identify the following:
a) XYZ Affair:
b) Quasi-War:
c) Convention of 1800:
d) Alien and Sedition Acts:
e) Kentucky and Virginia Resolves:
f) state compact theory:
40) How did the Federalists use the crisis abroad as an excuse to curtail the liberties of their opponents at
home? Was this justified? Could it ever be justified during a time of crisis? When?
41) How did Jefferson and Madison respond to the threat posed to their liberties and party by the Alien and
Sedition Acts? Was this a justified response to the threat posed by the Alien and Sedition Acts? Could
the state compact theory of the Constitution ever provide a justifiable defense against the activities of
the federal government? When?
United States History: Unit Four Worksheet
1) Describe the election of 1800.
2) Identify the following:
a) Judiciary Act of 1801:
b) "Midnight Appointments":
c) Major Pierre L'Enfant:
d) Abigail Adams:
e) "We are all Republicans; we are all Federalists.":
f) "Revolution of 1800":
3) Describe L'Enfants's vision for Washington D.C.
4) What was the most revolutionary aspect of Jefferson's election in 1800?
5) Describe the ways in which Jefferson served as a party leader while president.
6) Describe Jefferson's efforts to pry the Federalists out of the judicial stronghold. Overall, did he succeed
or fail? Was this good or bad for the future of the country?
7) Identify the following:
a) Marbury v. Madison:
b) John Marshall:
c) judicial review:
d) John Pickering and Samuel Chase:
8) Describe Jefferson's domestic policies. Were these generally successful of generally failures? Why?
9) Describe Jefferson's foreign policies. Were these generally successful or generally failures? Why?
What was Jefferson's greatest foreign policy success?
10) Identify the following:
a) Barbary Pirates:
b) Louisiana Purchase:
c) James Monroe and Robert Livingston:
d) Lewis and Clark:
e) Zebulon Pike:
f) Timothy Pickering:
g) Essex Junto:
h) Weehawken, New Jersey:
i) Old Republicans:
j) John Randolph of Roanoke:
k) Yazoo Fraud:
l) Tertium Quid:
m) "Burr Conspiracy":
n) executive privilege:
11) What was the significance of the Burr trial?
12) Describe the role of foreign affairs during Jefferson's second term.
13) Identify the following:
a) Essex Case:
b) paper blockade:
c) Continental System:
d) impressment:
e) Leopard v. Chesapeake:
f) "peaceable coercion":
g) Embargo Act:
14) Anaylze the consequences of Jefferson's policy of "peaceable coercion."
15) Identify the following:
a) Non-Intercourse Act:
b) Macon's Bill #2:
c) Cadore Letter:
d) War Hawks:
16) "The War of 1812 need not have been fought." Assess the validity of this statement.
17) Why did the United States go to war with Great Britain in 1812?
18) Why did the War of 1812 go so badly for the United States?
19) Identify the following:
a) Constitution:
b) Albert Gallatin:
c) Commodore Oliver Hazzard Perry:
d) General William Henry Harrison:
e) Tecumseh:
f) Tenskwatawa:
g) Battle of Tippecanoe:
h) Battle of Horseshoe Bend:
i) Andrew Jackson:
j) Treaty of Fort Jackson:
k) Fort McHenry:
l) Francis Scott Key:
m) Battle of New Orleans:
n) Pensacola:
o) Treaty of Ghent:
p) status quo antebellum:
q) "Mr. Madison's War":
20) Why was New England so disaffected regarding the War of 1812? How did New Englander's manifest
their dissatisfaction? What was the Hartford Convention? What did delegates to the convention
demand? What was the chief consequence of the Hartford Convention?
21) Identify the following:
a) "Second War for Independence":
b) Barbary Pirates:
c) "Federalized Republicans":
22) What was the "new nationalism." Focusing on the national bank, the Tariff of 1816, and the issue of
internal improvements, analyze the economic nationalism that emerged in the aftermath of the War of
1812. What groups opposed this economic nationalism? Why?
23) Describe the dipolmatic nationalism which characterized the period after the War of 1812.
24) Identify the following:
a) "Era of Good Feelings":
b) Commercial Convention of 1815:
c) Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817:
d) Convention of 1818:
e) General Andrew Jackson:
f) Adams-Onis Treaty:
25) Analyze the evolution of the Monroe Doctrine. What were its four main components?
26) In general terms, describe the emergence of judicial nationalism in the period after the War of 1812.
27) Identify the following:
a) Marbury v. Madison and Fletcher v. Peck:
b) Martin v. Hunter's Lessee and Cohen v. Virginia:
c) Dartmouth College v. Woodward:
d) McCulloch v. Maryland:
e) Gibbon v. Ogden:
28) Analyze the limits of the new nationalism as reflected in the Panic of 1819 and the Missouri Crisis. (Be
sure to describe the resolution of the Missouri Crisis.)
United States History: Unit Five Worksheet.
1) Identify the following:
a) William H. Crawford:
b) Henry Clay:
c) Andrew Jackson:
d) John Quincy Adams:
e) John C. Calhoun:
2) Describe the presidential election of 1824. Was there a "corrupt bargain"?
3) Analyze the reasons that John Quincy Adams' administation proved a failure.
4) Identify the following:
a) National Republicans:
b) Democratic Republicans:
c) "Perilous experiment":
d) Treaty of Washington:
e) Tariff of 1824:
f) Tariff of 1828:
g) South Carolina Exposition and Protest:
5) Describe the presidential election of 1828.
6) Describe the basic charateristics of "Jacksonian Democracy." To what extent was Andrew Jackson the
creator of this trend? To what extent did Jackson embody the image of "Jacksonian Democracy"?
7) Identify the following:
a) "Vox populi, vox Dei":
b) rotation in office:
c) spoils system:
8) How did Jackson justify his policy on "rotation in office"?
9) What was Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet"?
10) Describe the events surrounding and implications of the "Peggy Eaton Affair."
11) Describe how Martin Van Buren used the issue of internal improvements to embarass John C. Calhoun.
12) Describe Jackson's policy towards internal improvements. What was the significance of this policy?
13) Discuss the Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833. (Be sure to address causes and consequences.)
14) Discuss the events surrounding and issues argued in the Hayne-Webster Debate.
15) Identify the following:
a) "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!":
b) "Our Federal Union -- It must be preserved!":
c) "The Union, next to our liberty most dear":
d) Denmark Vessey Slave Revolt:
e) Nat Turner Slave Revolt:
f) Nullification Proclamation:
g) Compromise Tariff of 1833:
h) Force Bill:
16) Describe the Indian removal policy of the Jackson administration. Did this policy originate with
Jackson?
17) Identify the following:
a) Indian Removal Act of 1830:
b) "civilized tribes":
c) Osceola:
d) Cherokee Nation v. Georgia:
e) Worcester v. Georgia:
f) Treaty of New Echota:
g) "Trail of Tears":
18) Discuss the causes and consequences of the "Bank War." (Be sure to assess the impact of the
presidential election of 1832 on the struggle over the Bank.)
19) Describe the presidential election of 1832.
20) Identify the following:
a) "pet banks":
b) "wildcat":
c) Distribution Act:
d) Specie Circular:
21) Explain the unintended consequences of the Specie Circular.
22) Describe the presidential election of 1836.
23) Who were the Whigs? Describe their platform. Why was this so?
24) Describe the presidency of Martin Van Buren, paying special attention to the Panic of 1837. How did
Van Buren respond to this economic disaster?
25) Identify the following:
a) "Little Magician":
b) bank runs:
c) independent treasury:
26) Describe the presidential election of 1840. (Be sure to comment on the innovations of the campaign.)
27) Identify the following:
a) "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!"
b) The Log Cabin:
c) "Tippecanoe Democracy":
28) Assess the Jackson years.
United States History: Unit Six Worksheet.
1) Describe the important role played by cotton in both the southern and national economies.
2) Describe the impact of technological developments on the development of western agriculture.
3) Identify the following:
a) Eli Whitney:
b) cotton gin:
c) "cotton kingdom":
d) iron plow:
e) John Deere:
f) John Oliver: