Deck 8: The Early Republic

Question 1

What region lagged behind the others in providing opportunities for public education for children before the Revolution?

A) Northeast
B) Mid-Atlantic
C) West
D) South

Answer 1

South

Question 2

What was Thomas Jefferson's opinion of the nation's extensive frontiers?

A) It was untamed wilderness full of potential problems.
B) Indian territories were to be respected.
C) It was key to future national development.
D) It was viewed as a source of very expensive conflicts and thus to be avoided.

Answer 2

It was key to future national development.

Question 3

What position did nineteenth-century writer Washington Irving take on Indian-English conflicts?

A) He celebrated colonial accounts that celebrated Indian courage.
B) He challenged colonial accounts that celebrated white atrocities.
C) He celebrated colonial accounts that celebrated white atrocities.
D) He challenged colonial accounts for celebrating Indian courage.

Answer 3

He challenged colonial accounts that celebrated white atrocities.

Question 4

What group of Americans was thought to be the most avid readers of novels in the 1790s?

A) Poor women
B) Younger women
C) Women of all ages
D) Older women

Question 5

How did President Thomas Jefferson create a vibrant social culture in Washington, D.C.?

A) He was the first president to free his slaves.
B) Congressmen were required to live in the city year-round.
C) He authorized the creation of important cultural institutions.
D) He opened the White House to visitors regularly.

Question 6

Who built the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.?

A) Only slaves
B) Both slaves and free workers
C) Only free workers
D) Both indentured servants and slaves

Question 7

What development enabled Scots-Irish Presbyterians to cement their place in American society?

A) Newspapers and magazines
B) Small farms and businesses
C) Public elementary and middle schools
D) Frontier colleges

Question 8

What specifically American dilemmas were at the heart of the plays and essays produced by the Hartford Wits, a young literary group?

A) The role of the central government in a democratic republic
B) The role of taxation in a democratic republic
C) The question of citizenship and voting rights in a democratic republic
D) The morality of slavery in a democratic republic

Question 9

What percentage of households of middling wealth owned books by 1820?

A) 10 percent
B) 40 percent
C) 80 percent
D) 100 percent

Question 10

In 1789, which state became the first to institute free public elementary education for all children?

A) Pennsylvania
B) Massachusetts
C) New York
D) New Jersey

Question 11

Where was the capital city prior to the construction of the new capital in Washington, D.C.?

A) Boston
B) New York
C) Philadelphia
D) Charleston

Question 12

What did Noah Webster hope to achieve with the publication of his first book?

A) Uniform spelling and pronunciation for all
B) Education of the masses about U.S. history
C) More ethical and upstanding young men
D) Great profit to pay off his debt

Question 13

What university established the nation's first medical school?

A) The University of Pennsylvania
B) Yale University
C) Harvard University
D) Columbia University

Question 14

What did Thomas Jefferson believe was key to America's ability to develop a unique culture and institutions?

A) Distance from Europe
B) The influence of Native Americans
C) The revolutionary spirit
D) Democratic government

Question 15

The Library Company of Philadelphia commissioned Samuel Jennings to paint Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences to advance the position that:

A) Slaves should be provided with education.
B) Learning provides liberation from mental slavery.
C) Slaves should be employed for intellectual labor.
D) Slavery should be abolished.

Question 16

What culture inspired Washington Irving's writing, especially "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?

A) Native American culture
B) African American culture
C) Anglo-American culture
D) Dutch American culture

Question 17

How did Anglo-American attitudes toward Indians differ from those toward African Americans in the late eighteenth century?

A) Anglos believed that Indians were more similar to whites and could be assimilated.
B) Anglos believed that African Americans were more similar to whites and could be assimilated.
C) Indians were treated better because Anglos wanted Indian land even though they held them to be inferior.
D) African Americans were considered key to the nation's future even though they were inferior.

Question 18

What was Jefferson's philosophy about the role of government?

A) The government should reflect the values of the elected party.
B) The federal government should be abolished.
C) Federal power should be limited.
D) Federal power should be expansive.

Question 19

Who established the American Colonization Society in 1817?

A) Ministers, merchants, and slave owners from North and South
B) Southern slave owners and northern merchants
C) Southern slave owners and southern ministers
D) Northern merchants and ministers

Question 20

What caused most slave owners to refuse to emancipate their slaves in the 1790s?

A) A weak market for slaves
B) The upcoming end of the international slave trade
C) The expansion of cotton production
D) A decrease in available immigrant workers

Question 21

What helped the American economy recover from the Embargo Act?

A) Removal of Democratic-Republicans from office
B) Expansion of markets for sugar and tobacco
C) Development of the Louisiana Purchase
D) The end of conflict between France and Great Britain

Question 22

How did the Embargo Act undermine Jefferson's reputation as a strong Democratic-Republican?

A) Despite years of support from both farmers and merchants, the Embargo Act made Jefferson unpopular.
B) Jefferson became a Federalist after being rejected by Democratic-Republicans.
C) Jefferson's Democratic-Republican views were contradicted by the Embargo Act.
D) Jefferson was no longer heralded as a hero who fathered the American republic.

Question 23

According to the passages, why does Thomas Jefferson express greater confidence about the chances of suppressing slave insurgency in Virginia than Leonora Sansay does about suppressing it in Haiti?

A) Jefferson believed that slaves in the United States were more easily controlled.
B) The rebels in Haiti had already tasted freedom and would not give it up.
C) The former slaves in Haiti vastly outnumbered the white population.
D) American troops were tougher than their French counterparts.

Question 24

Why was the invention of the cotton gin such a big deal?

A) One person operating a cotton gin could clean as much cotton in one day as several workers cleaning by hand could do in a week.
B) One person operating a cotton gin could clean as much cotton in one hour as several workers could clean by hand in a day.
C) The cotton gin could be operated by anyone, while hand-picking required technical skills.
D) The cotton gin was cheaper to build and more durable than its predecessor, the cotton brush.

Question 25

Napoleon wanted to unload the entire Louisiana Territory on the United States because

A) Jefferson offered him a price he couldn't refuse.
B) his defeat in Haiti had soured him on the Americas.
C) he thought it would resolve the conflict with the Indians along the U.S. border.
D) the French Revolution required all of his attention.

Question 26

The rapid growth of the United States in the early nineteenth century

A) gave Democratic-Republicans an excuse to expand federal powers in secret.
B) resulted in stronger, localized state governments with diverse priorities.
C) forced the federal government to pay attention to the needs of western states.
D) required the expansion of powers of the federal government.

Question 27

New England merchants responded to the Embargo Act of 1807

A) with support because they saw it as a way to punish Great Britain.
B) by opposing it in spirit but complying in practice as a sign of national unity.
C) by opposing it and seeking to have Jefferson removed from office.
D) by opposing it and attempting to smuggle goods through Canada.

Question 28

Why was John Marshall one of the most important chief justices of the Supreme Court in U.S. history?

A) He was the longest-serving chief.
B) He led hearings on cases that established the structure of the federal government.
C) He served during a time of great conflict and turmoil.
D) He achieved more unanimous rulings than any other chief justice.

Question 29

What happened when Jefferson refused to continue paying the Barbary States of North Africa for protection of American merchant ships?

A) American ships went on the offensive and attacked Barbary ships.
B) Nothing, but it revealed Jefferson's savvy and strength as a leader.
C) Barbary pirates resumed their attack on American ships.
D) Barbary and the United States began a decade-long war.

Question 30

How did technological advances affect the lives of both free and enslaved men and women?

A) It made their work easier and shortened the workday.
B) It added to their burdens by increasing employer expectations.
C) It made their work easier but their workday longer.
D) It did not really trickle down to common working people.

Question 31

The Louisiana Purchase raised constitutional questions regarding the

A) right of religious freedom.
B) right of the federal government to buy land from foreign nations.
C) rights of Indians in land disputes.
D) authority of the judiciary.

Question 32

The power of judicial review, established by the Supreme Court by 1820, was significant to the development of the young nation because it

A) determined that the judiciary was as powerful as Congress or the president.
B) led to the establishment of a court system that was more powerful than Congress.
C) ultimately led to the weakening of the federal judiciary in favor of the state judiciary.
D) created another branch of government as corrupt and political as the others.

Question 33

Jefferson supported political revolutions in America and France but not Haiti because the Haitian Revolution

A) was not by the people, for the people.
B) was not backed by republican principles.
C) was unlikely to succeed, and he didn't want to alienate France.
D) challenged racial slavery and encouraged black freedom.

Question 34

How did Indians assist the expedition of Lewis and Clark?

A) Indians tricked Lewis and Clark into believing they were lost when they were not in order to protect their land.
B) Indians agreed not to harm the expedition members in exchange for weapons.
C) Indians lived throughout the territory and provided food, shelter, and navigation assistance.
D) Indians did not challenge the authority of the expedition leaders even when they made bad decisions.

Question 35

Jefferson was popular among farmers when he stood for reelection in 1804 because he

A) cut taxes on agricultural production and incentivized mass distribution.
B) ran a racist campaign that celebrated rural, white, working men.
C) gave away federal land for free to working farmers.
D) made it easier for farmers to purchase land from the federal government.

Question 36

What act or case determined that the Supreme Court had the authority to decide if federal laws were constitutional?

A) Marbury v. Madison
B) McCulloch v. Maryland
C) Judiciary Act
D) Marshall Act

Question 37

Who originally integrated steam power technology with the spinning wheel?

A) British manufacturers
B) Moses Brown
C) Eli Whitney
D) American manufacturers

Question 38

In the 1810s, what region of the United States was home to a vast series of cotton mills built to look like meetinghouses?

A) New England
B) Mid-Atlantic
C) South
D) West

Question 39

Eli Whitney earned a fortune with the invention of the

A) cotton gin.
B) spinning wheel.
C) rifling lathe.
D) coffee press.

Question 40

What did the continued practice of impressment of American sailors by the British Royal Navy signal in the nineteenth century?

A) The United States was politically strong.
B) France was militarily strong.
C) Great Britain was militarily weak.
D) The United States was still politically weak.

Question 41

What impact did the invention of the cotton gin have on slavery?

A) People were inspired to abolish slavery more rapidly because less labor was required.
B) Cotton plantations expanded, which increased reliance on slavery.
C) People promoted abolition for women and children but continued enslavement of men.
D) It led to the end of the international slave trade in 1808.

Question 42

The technological advancements in the production of clothing meant the typical southern plantation mistress

A) continued to do much of her work herself as a way to maintain her domestic authority, only employing others for cooking and cleaning.
B) maintained control over food preparation while delegating more tedious tasks related to weaving, spinning, and sewing to servants and slaves.
C) increasingly served as domestic managers and divided the tasks of clothing production and other household duties among her servants and slaves.
D) primarily ordered premade clothing and precut fabric from the recently established factories in northern cities, the most convenient option.

Question 43

Many white planters felt threatened by the evangelical spirit displayed by slaves in religious worship because they

A) were against black religious life and culture, believing blacks were evil and brought the devil into the community.
B) wanted blacks to worship only the Christian God, not African gods.
C) feared religious fervor combined with revolutionary ideas would inspire an insurrection.
D) feared that if blacks believed in the Christian God and converted, then the planters would have to free the slaves on theological grounds.

Question 44

How did husbands and wives work together in making clothing and other fabrics?

A) Men did the weaving while women spun the yarn and sewed together the cloth.
B) Women did the weaving while men spun the yarn and sewed together the cloth.
C) The tasks of weaving, spinning, and sewing became interchangeable for men and women.
D) Men were only involved with fabric at the point of purchase of materials; women completed other aspects such as weaving, spinning, and sewing.

Question 45

What was the most common practice among southern planters to increase their slave population after 1808?

A) Reliance on natural reproduction
B) Smuggling from Africa and the Caribbean
C) Trade with France and Spain
D) Enslavement of free blacks

Question 46

How did the expansion of cotton cultivation affect Indian relations?

A) Relations improved because there was greater opportunity for wealth for everyone.
B) Relations stabilized because Indians cultivated cotton and benefited as well.
C) Tensions were aggravated because whites wanted more and more Indian land for cotton.
D) Relations were aggravated because Indians adopted white Americans' technological developments for their own gain.