Deck 12: Imperial Ambitions and Sectional Crises

Question 1

What impact did the massive migration west in the mid-nineteenth century have on the national identity of the United States?

A) The United States embraced its racial diversity.
B) The United States became an expanding empire.
C) The United States developed a rural western identity.
D) The United States became known as the land of opportunity.

Answer 1

The United States became an expanding empire.

Question 2

Why did so many Northerners ignore the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793?

A) Northerners resented the imposition of slaveholding values on their states.
B) The law was passed illegally by powerful Southerners.
C) The Fugitive Slave Act turned free states into slave states.
D) Northerners held less regard for the laws than Southerners did.

Answer 2

Northerners resented the imposition of slaveholding values on their states.

Question 3

As a result of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, slaveholders

A) felt the federal government finally addressed their needs.
B) lessened the level of violence against their slaves at home.
C) intensified their hunt for fugitive slaves.
D) had more respect for free blacks who were not fugitives.

Answer 3

intensified their hunt for fugitive slaves.

Question 4

All across the North, what groups lobbied against the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850?

A) Free blacks and poor whites
B) Predominantly free blacks
C) Predominantly wealthy whites
D) Both whites and blacks of varying backgrounds

Question 5

How did the gold rush influence racialized gender roles in the region?

A) Anglo-American women were vulnerable to sexual harassment and rape.
B) Indian and Mexican women were vulnerable to sexual harassment and rape.
C) Indian and Mexican women became valued members of Anglo families and communities.
D) Chinese women were recruited to marry the many single Anglo-American men.

Question 6

According to the passage, what was the greatest danger faced by most Oregon Trail travelers, such as Elizabeth Smith Geer?

A) The distance and the elements
B) Attacks by hostile Indians
C) Fraud by unscrupulous land brokers
D) Dysentery

Question 7

The small trading posts that opened up throughout the West in the mid-nineteenth century

A) inspired the settlement of communities nearby.
B) undermined western expansion and entrepreneurial spirit.
C) generated conflict between pioneers and local Indians.
D) led to an overuse of material resources in particular regions.

Question 8

What conditions of westward expansion created a market for the jeans Levi Strauss invented in the 1850s?

A) The reliance on horseback for transportation
B) The breakdown of gender roles and desire for uniform dress
C) The wide availability of cotton and advanced production facilities
D) The harsh weather and physical work environment

Question 9

How did the gold rush affect the demographic makeup of California?

A) The Anglo-American population increased dramatically.
B) The number of foreign-born immigrants outnumbered Anglo-Americans.
C) The number of foreign-born immigrants outnumbered Indians and Mexicans combined.
D) The number of Asian Americans increased dramatically.

Question 10

The first white women who migrated west on the overland trails in the 1830s were

A) prostitutes and camp followers.
B) those accompanying their husbands.
C) evangelical ministers.
D) wealthy women looking for land.

Question 11

Which groups populated the West in large numbers before American pioneers and other European immigrants began migrating westward?

A) Indians and Mexicans
B) Indians and Eskimos
C) Mexicans and Asians
D) Asians and Indians

Question 12

What was the impact of the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850?

A) Temporary peace and cooperation between slave and free states
B) Arousal of deeper hostilities between slave and free states
C) Realization that no free blacks were safe anywhere in America
D) Calls for President Zachary Taylor's impeachment

Question 13

How did "conductors" of the Underground Railroad coordinate efforts with one another from region to region?

A) They really didn't coordinate together.
B) They met monthly at Quaker meetings.
C) Secret messages were printed in newspapers.
D) They relied on slaves to transmit information.

Question 14

What development pushed the issue of slavery to the center of national debate?

A) The end of the international slave trade
B) The invention of the cotton gin
C) The expansion westward
D) The dedication and fervor of abolitionists

Question 15

What group of people was likely to make the trip west?

A) Free blacks and Irish immigrants
B) Single men without dependents
C) Poor families looking for opportunity
D) Families of middling status

Question 16

Under what circumstances did the greatest number of African Americans go to Texas, Missouri, and Kansas?

A) As slaves of white planters
B) As pioneers moving west
C) As members of Indian tribes
D) As slaves of Indians

Question 17

Where did the journey on the Oregon Trail begin for most overland pioneers?

A) Portland, Oregon
B) Albany, New York
C) Louisville, Kentucky
D) St. Louis, Missouri

Question 18

Why did opening up the Santa Fe Trail to commerce ultimately lead to the destruction of the Comanche empire?

A) One of the Comanche's most crucial trading items, bison, was destroyed and greatly weakened the tribe economically.
B) Opening the trail made it easy for great numbers of Anglo-Americans to migrate, and they declared war on the Comanche.
C) Vast tracts of land were planted with corn and other vegetation that were used to feed travelers but were virtually worthless for trade.
D) Opening the trail facilitated the building of a coalition of competing tribes who ultimately defeated the Comanche.

Question 19

A growing number of Northerners challenged the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 on the basis of the

A) right of the police to arrest a white person for aiding a fugitive.
B) states' rights to determine their own policies.
C) right of slaveholders to hire slave catchers.
D) federal government's right to enforce the law.

Question 20

According to the passages, how do William Neill and Millard Fillmore differ in evaluating the role of bystanders in the controversy over the Fugitive Slave Act?

A) Neill begs for help, and Fillmore demands assistance.
B) As president, Fillmore understands that he may simply order citizens to assist in the capture of fugitives.
C) Neill and Fillmore both understand that they must persuade bystanders to win their cooperation.
D) Neill believes that bystanders would naturally take the side of the fugitives, and the law is intended to deter them.

Question 21

What forced many Indian nations to settle in the northern half of the Louisiana Territory?

A) They were displaced by white American settlers again.
B) The northern land was more fertile and productive than the southern.
C) Indians had to move north under the purchase agreement between France and the United States.
D) A drought destroyed the plants and animals in the southern plains.

Question 22

What party emerged and stood against the expansion of slavery in the 1854 congressional elections?

A) Democratic
B) Republican
C) Whig
D) Democratic-Republican

Question 23

What was a consequence of the United States' new alliance with Japan under Pierce's presidency?

A) A shared approach to governance and defense
B) U.S. respect for nations with different values and lifestyles
C) Strained relations with China and Russia
D) U.S. acquisition of Formosa and other nearby territories

Question 24

What was Lincoln's position on the rights of free blacks during his 1858 senatorial campaign?

A) Economic opportunity but not social or political equality
B) Economic opportunity and social equality but no political rights
C) Social and political equality along with economic opportunity
D) Economic opportunity and political rights but no social equality

Question 25

The Ostend Manifesto, drafted by a group of U.S. foreign ministers, suggested that the United States

A) was vulnerable to attacks by several European nations.
B) had the right to take by force any territory it desired.
C) planned to raid Nicaragua and Honduras simultaneously.
D) was weakened by slavery and should abolish the institution.

Question 26

The Democratic Party was victorious in the 1852 presidential election, which

A) provided a powerful platform for abolitionist sentiment.
B) still left the party weak and somewhat fragile.
C) inspired Free-Soilers to throw their support to the Democrats.
D) isolated the Democratic Party from the others.

Question 27

Which southern state was the first to secede from the union in the wake of Abraham Lincoln's election as president in 1860?

A) Virginia
B) North Carolina
C) South Carolina
D) Georgia

Question 28

In preparing their presidential ticket for the election of 1850, the Whigs hoped to

A) promote an expansionist vision that was antislavery.
B) add abolition to their platform without alienating Southerners.
C) rally slaveholders and those indifferent to slavery alike.
D) gain southern support while maintaining their northern base.

Question 29

Why was it challenging for election organizers to determine who had the right to vote on the Kansas referendum about slavery?

A) Abolitionists stormed the central office and destroyed the voting cards.
B) New people settled in the region daily hoping to influence the vote.
C) Voting requirements were also hotly contested and unclear.
D) Slaveholders tried to get the right to vote for their slaves.

Question 30

Why did presidential candidate for the American Party Millard Fillmore receive so few votes in the election of 1856?

A) He was tainted by his legacy as a failed former president.
B) His own party refused to campaign for him.
C) He was too much of a staunch abolitionist.
D) The strength of nativist sentiment was waning.

Question 31

Why does this banner for the Republican presidential ticket promise "Protection to American Industry?"

A) The Republican platform promised to quash organized labor, favoring industry.
B) The Republican platform favored industrial development over agricultural subsidies.
C) The Republican platform included a tariff to prevent foreign industrial competition.
D) The Republican platform promised naval development to protect American shipping from pirates.

Question 32

What popular book combined accounts from former slaves as well as tales gathered by abolitionist lecturers and writers to promote the abolitionist cause?

A) The Planter's Northern Bride, by Caroline Hentz
B) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass
C) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs
D) Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Question 33

The Lecompton Constitution declared that Kansas

A) would be a slave state.
B) would be a free state.
C) would be reserved as an Indian Territory.
D) would postpone the question of slavery indefinitely.

Question 34

Why did the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn send "Beecher's Bibles" to Kansas before the 1856 elections?

A) To help convert local Indians
B) To promote self-defense of abolitionists
C) To encourage the infusion of Christian principles in the election
D) To encourage the use of violence in the name of abolition

Question 35

When fugitive slave Anthony Burns was ordered removed from Boston and returned to his master in the South, why were hundreds of ordinary citizens agonized by the process and trying to stop it?

A) It forced them to reflect on their complicity with the institution of slavery.
B) It made them realize how powerless they were over the federal government.
C) Burns was actually a free black man known for working out of Boston's seaport.
D) The Burns case first awakened white northern abolitionists to the horrors of the Fugitive Slave Act.

Question 36

Why did the proslavery ruling in the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision backfire on the South?

A) It preserved the right of slaves to sue in federal courts.
B) Since blacks were not citizens, it nullified the three-fifths compromise.
C) It gave Congress the power to exclude slavery from future territories.
D) It convinced Northerners of a proslavery conspiracy in the federal government.

Question 37

What enabled the Republican Party to attract followers rapidly?

A) Their proposal for commercial development and internal improvements
B) Their expansionist vision for the West and South
C) Their willingness to advocate the complete abolition of slavery
D) Their successful promotion of Abraham Lincoln as an ordinary man with humble roots

Question 38

The introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 was the result of political maneuvering by Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, who

A) hoped to swing the balance of power in favor of the free-states by encouraging popular referendum on the issue.
B) was appealing to constituents who were long victims of Indian violence by aiming to strip Indians of long-held territory.
C) hoped to get support for his railroad from Southerners by enabling slavery in the West.
D) was politically indebted to the Democratic Party and hoped to gain favor for his next campaign.

Question 39

Foreign officials pressured Congress to mediate the crisis triggered by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 on the basis

A) of the sheer violence of the institution of slavery.
B) of the bad publicity enforcement of the act generated.
C) of the fact that no other powerful nation supported slavery.
D) that exploitation of slave labor gave the United States an economic advantage over other countries.

Question 40

What political party attracted both ardent abolitionists and men whose only concern was keeping western territories open to free white men?

A) Democrats
B) Whigs
C) American
D) Republicans

Question 41

How did Lincoln win the election of 1860 with barely 40 percent of the popular vote?

A) The other candidate turned his votes over to Lincoln.
B) Lincoln won the electoral college.
C) The contest was decided by the Supreme Court.
D) The runner-up died two weeks prior, turning those votes over to Lincoln.

Question 42

In response to news of John Brown's raid, capture, and execution, Quaker abolitionists

A) asserted Brown was wrong in that he used violence.
B) celebrated Brown for drawing attention to the cause of emancipation.
C) expressed disappointment that Brown solicited their involvement.
D) quickly disavowed Brown's action for fear it would undermine their movement.

Question 43

What effect did the execution of John Brown have on southern whites?

A) Their fears were allayed because his execution sent a message in defense of slavery.
B) Southern whites used even greater violence toward their slaves.
C) Brown's execution did little to assure southern whites that the institution of slavery was safe.
D) Southern whites were motivated to arm themselves and their plantations against the next Brown.

Question 44

Because of John Brown's raid, the Republican Party platform of 1860

A) distanced itself from the radical wing of abolition.
B) stood for total abolition of slavery.
C) defended Brown but still accepted slavery where it already existed.
D) embraced Southerners' rights to defend slavery in the territories.

Question 45

Lincoln and the Republicans rejected John Crittenden's proposal to save the nation from southern secession because it

A) protected and encouraged the expansion of slavery.
B) undermined the will of the people expressed in the election of 1860.
C) submitted the federal government to the whims of several wealthy slaveholders.
D) was unconstitutional.

Question 46

Abolitionists were cautious and not jubilant when Lincoln was elected president in 1860 because Lincoln

A) was a weak figure and would not likely prevent the spread of slavery.
B) was against slavery but didn't have a clear plan for getting rid of it.
C) never spoke out against slavery.
D) still supported slavery.

Question 47

What happened when the Democratic Party could not select a candidate at its convention for the election of 1860?

A) The Democrats did not run a candidate in the national election.
B) The Democrats split into northern and southern factions.
C) Some party members supported Republicans, while others joined the Constitutional Union party.
D) The Democrats held three ballots until settling on Abraham Lincoln as a candidate.