Deck 12: The New West and the Free North, 1840-1860

Question 1

What allowed factories to become more productive during the 1840s and 1850s?

A) Waterwheel technology dramatically improved.
B) Steam began to be used as an energy source.
C) Water and animal power had been phased out.
D) The use of electricity became widespread.

Answer 1

Steam began to be used as an energy source.

Question 2

What happened to most Irish immigrants who arrived in the United States in the 1840s and 1850s?

A) They worked as skilled artisans in the northeastern cities.
B) They became independent, self-sufficient property holders.
C) They entered at the bottom rung of the free-labor ladder.
D) They earned even less money than they had in Ireland.

Answer 2

They entered at the bottom rung of the free-labor ladder.

Question 3

Why did American manufacturers, unlike their European counterparts, invent labor-saving methods and devices during the first half of the nineteenth century?

A) The government offered tax incentives to new innovations and inventions.
B) Workers were unreliable and lacked the work ethic needed for optimal production.
C) American colleges had superior engineering schools that encouraged innovation.
D) Workers were in limited supply and thus more expensive.

Answer 3

Workers were in limited supply and thus more expensive.

Question 4

What did New York journalist and armchair expansionist John L. O'Sullivan mean when he coined the term manifest destiny in 1845?

A) The United States should expand into Canada and Mexico as soon as possible.
B) Americans were destined by a higher power to create a worldwide empire.
C) The United States should take advantage of economic turmoil in Europe to gain new markets.
D) Americans had the God-given right to expand their civilization across the continent.

Question 5

Who tended to benefit from America's impressive economic growth in the early nineteenth century?

A) Native-born white men
B) Anyone willing to work hard
C) White women
D) Recently arrived immigrants

Question 6

What was the effect of the growth of railroads in the 1850s?

A) People abandoned the stagecoach and horseback travel.
B) Pollution hampered agricultural productivity in the Midwest.
C) New industries, like telegraph communications, flourished.
D) The federal government ceased its land-grant program.

Question 7

The "American system" of standardized parts allowed manufacturers to

A) hire less expensive, unskilled workers.
B) abandon human labor in favor of mechanization.
C) produce the same amount of product but with less labor.
D) produce more than agricultural workers but with more labor.

Question 8

Which region led the nation in manufacturing?

A) New England
B) The Mid-Atlantic
C) The Upper South
D) The Lower South

Question 9

Agricultural productivity in the Midwest increased in the late 1830s partly because of

A) the influence of steam power on farming.
B) John Deere's steel plow.
C) the invention of threshers.
D) the numbers of freed slaves eager for wage-earning work.

Question 10

What did free-labor proponents believe about education?

A) It offered another opportunity for Americans to achieve their potential.
B) Classrooms provided another venue to denounce slave-labor systems.
C) It was a waste of time and took away from the real business of earning money.
D) Education was important, but it should not be government funded.

Question 11

Three-fourths of the almost 4.5 million immigrants who arrived between 1840 and 1860 came from either Ireland or

A) Norway.
B) Italy.
C) Germany.
D) England.

Question 12

To help facilitate the increase in U.S. agricultural productivity in the 1840s and 1850s, the federal government

A) outlawed land speculation.
B) gave away free land to anyone who would cultivate it.
C) prosecuted land squatters.
D) sold the land for as little as $1.25 an acre.

Question 13

How did the United States and Great Britain resolve competing claims on the Oregon territory in 1818?

A) The United States restricted English settlement.
B) The English restricted American settlement.
C) The English sold the territory to the United States.
D) The two nations decided on joint occupation.

Question 14

What helped fuel economic growth in the United States during the mid-1800s?

A) The movement of Americans from farms to cities
B) The rapid industrialization of the southern states
C) The abandonment of agriculture in favor of industry
D) The adoption of better tariff rates with England

Question 15

How did the government intervene to assist and protect whites who moved west for settlement in the mid-nineteenth century?

A) It sent soldiers with each wagon train of settlers heading west.
B) It built forts along the Oregon Trail.
C) It offered settlers military assistance but refused to intervene in Indians' lives.
D) It sent troops to round up all renegade Indians.

Question 16

Why did so many migrants move to the Midwest between 1830 and 1860?

A) The Indians of the Midwest were quick to cooperate with the settlers.
B) Slaveholders hoped to settle the area for cotton plantations.
C) Workers in the timber industry capitalized on the large number of trees there.
D) The rich soil made conditions favorable to farming.

Question 17

Which statement describes the economic status of Americans by 1860?

A) Adult white men had an average wealth of $10,000.
B) Most Americans owned no land.
C) About half of free blacks owned land.
D) Free labor had freed most people from wage labor.

Question 18

Supporters of the free-labor ideal claimed that the system

A) opened up doors to even the least-hard-working segments of the population.
B) allowed hired laborers to become self-employed.
C) provided slaves with well-deserved compensation for their labor.
D) rewarded Americans born into wealth or status.

Question 19

How did white settlers who traveled west in wagon trains during the mid-1800s bring devastation to the Plains Indians?

A) They killed off great herds of deer and antelope.
B) They attempted to kill all Indians they came in contact with.
C) They brought with them alcohol and deadly diseases.
D) They deliberately destroyed Indian farms.

Question 20

Most German immigrants who arrived in the United States between 1840 and 1860 were the families of

A) skilled tradesmen.
B) farmers.
C) wage laborers.
D) domestic servants.

Question 21

What did Mexico agree to do under the terms of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?

A) Mark the Nueces River as the Texas boundary
B) Pay $15 million to American citizens for claims against Mexico
C) Give up Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Utah
D) Give up all claims to Texas above the Rio Grande

Question 22

Why were Mexico's northern borderlands vulnerable to American expansionists?

A) Mexico was plagued by civil war and could not defend its northern provinces.
B) Northern Mexico had a strong, wealthy economy that Americans could exploit.
C) Northern Mexico was dominated by Protestants who shared Americans' religious beliefs.
D) Native Americans secretly welcomed American invaders.

Question 23

How was President James Polk able to add Oregon to U.S. holdings?

A) He annexed it without Britain's approval.
B) He bought it from the British for the price of the Louisiana Purchase.
C) He authorized military action and seized it.
D) He renewed an old offer to divide Oregon along the forty-ninth parallel.

Question 24

When Mexico refused the Polk administration's offer to buy Mexico's northern territories, the United States realized manifest destiny would require

A) further negotiations.
B) more money.
C) military force.
D) assistance from France.

Question 25

Texans gained their independence from Mexico in 1836 after

A) Santa Anna surrendered following a bloodless coup.
B) two-thirds of the inhabitants voted to establish the Lone Star Republic.
C) Sam Houston's army defeated Santa Anna's troops in a surprise attack.
D) U.S. government troops defeated Santa Anna's troops at the Alamo.

Question 26

Who led the Mormon exodus to the Great Salt Lake?

A) Joseph Smith
B) Brigham Young
C) Sarah Everett
D) Thomas Hart Benton

Question 27

What was the dominant issue in the 1844 presidential election campaign?

A) Territorial expansion
B) Abolishing slavery
C) The American system
D) War with Mexico

Question 28

Who were the migrants who settled on the Texas land granted to Stephen F. Austin by Mexico in the 1820s?

A) New Englanders who were looking for a warmer climate
B) Irish Catholics who wanted land of their own
C) Southerners who brought cotton and slaves with them
D) Tejanos who came east from California

Question 29

Why did massive numbers of immigrants pour into California in the late 1840s and early 1850s?

A) They sought religious freedom.
B) California's relaxed laws welcomed immigrants.
C) They desired open land for farming.
D) They hoped to find gold.

Question 30

What was the experience of most women settlers in Oregon?

A) They embraced a newfound independence.
B) They worked tirelessly.
C) They made significant money.
D) They participated in politics.

Question 31

Within ten years of arriving at the territory around the Great Salt Lake, the Mormon community

A) abolished polygamy.
B) was dislodged by an invasion of U.S. troops.
C) developed an efficient irrigation system.
D) almost perished due to extreme hunger.

Question 32

In the 1820s, Americans were beginning to trickle into thinly populated California. In an effort to increase Mexican migration to that area, the Mexican government

A) posted guards along the California border.
B) paid local Indians to discourage American settlers.
C) built forts to stop further American squatting.
D) granted huge estates to new Mexican settlers.

Question 33

Who triumphed at the Alamo in March 1836?

A) Santa Anna
B) Davy Crockett
C) James Bowie
D) William B. Travis

Question 34

Why did President Polk alter his battle strategy in the Mexican-American War and decide to target Mexico City?

A) Native Americans helped Mexican soldiers defeat the Americans in the borderlands.
B) Despite heavy losses on the battlefield, Mexico refused to trade land for peace.
C) Polk sought a dramatic victory to prevent U.S. soldiers from deserting the army.
D) Santa Anna surrounded the American troops at Veracruz.

Question 35

Which general made a successful amphibious landing at Veracruz on March 9, 1847?

A) Zachary Taylor
B) Winfield Scott
C) Stephen F. Austin
D) Santa Anna

Question 36

Which group was most outspoken in its opposition to the Mexican-American War?

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

Question 37

Of the 13,000 American soldiers who died during the Mexican-American War, most

A) were killed in guerilla warfare.
B) died in the Alamo.
C) were killed at San Jacinto.
D) died from diseases.

Question 38

What was President Polk's strategy to win the Mexican-American War?

A) To delegate all military planning to military experts
B) To divide and conquer Mexico, beginning with the northern provinces
C) To quickly capture the southern provinces and then take Mexico City
D) To win a battle or two and force Mexico to sue for peace

Question 39

Why did Congress initially refuse to annex Texas into the Union?

A) Most members feared an attack by English profiteers.
B) Congressional leaders refused to allocate money for annexation.
C) Texas would come into the Union as a slave state.
D) Congress did not want to increase the number of Indians under its jurisdiction.

Question 40

President John Tyler obtained approval for the annexation of Texas

A) through a joint resolution of Congress.
B) through Senate approval of a treaty to annex Texas.
C) by secretly negotiating with Mexican officials.
D) by paying the Mexican government.

Question 41

What was the goal of the American Colonization Society?

A) To help freed slaves settle in the North
B) To send freed slaves and other black Americans to Liberia
C) To urge Congress to colonize Haiti for the expansion of slavery
D) To end racial discrimination in both the North and the South

Question 42

Why did Germans and the Irish immigrate to the United States between 1840 and 1860? Which skills did they bring with them, and which trades or jobs did they enter on arrival?

Question 43

What did the Mexican-American War reveal about nineteenth-century American politics and culture?

Question 44

Discuss the history of the Mormons before they went to Utah, including the discrimination they faced.

Question 45

What changes in American society led to the phenomenal economic growth that occurred between 1840 and 1860?

Question 46

Which group attracted scrutiny owing to its members' dress, eating habits, and recreational use of opium during the California gold rush?

A) Californios
B) The Chinese
C) Indians
D) Rancheros

Question 47

What did transcendentalists believe?

A) Women should get the vote.
B) Formal religion provided truth and guidance.
C) Competition was good for the economy.
D) Individuals should not conform to the materialistic world.

Question 48

In 1855, African American leaders saw their most notable success to date when, in Massachusetts,

A) public schools were integrated.
B) blacks received voting rights.
C) slavery was abolished.
D) gradual emancipation was approved.

Question 49

How did the gold rush affect California Indians?

A) Many found gold and made money.
B) They sold their land to American settlers.
C) They fought American settlers who tried to take their land.
D) Most died due to disease, starvation, and murder.

Question 50

How did many abolitionists in the 1840s and 1850s attempt to make their issue more attractive to white northerners?

A) They called for a complete and immediate end to slavery in the United States.
B) They advocated slave insurrections against plantation owners.
C) They called for limitations on the geographic expansion of slavery.
D) They called for slavery to end by 1870.

Question 51

Discuss the controversial issue of Texas under the presidency of John Tyler.

Question 52

When women began to break out of their traditional roles in the 1840s, what were some of the causes they embraced, and how did women promote them?

Question 53

In which ways did individual African Americans contribute to the abolitionist movement?

Question 54

The 1848 convention at Seneca Falls advocated

A) women's suffrage.
B) outlawing divorce.
C) a minimum wage for women workers.
D) voting rights for slaves.

Question 55

The gold rush created a social environment that was

A) extremely egalitarian and rapidly growing.
B) prosperous but stagnant and isolated.
C) competitive and unhealthy but growing rapidly.
D) prosperous and peaceful but growing slowly.

Question 56

Summarize the beliefs of transcendentalists and utopians in the 1840s and 1850s.

Question 57

Describe the ideology of manifest destiny and give an example of how U.S. government policies specifically reflected it.

Question 58

Railroads had a major impact on the American economy and industry. Discuss some of the changes brought about by the advent of railroads.

Question 59

The Oneida community was known for its

A) strict Catholicism.
B) literary and artistic pursuits.
C) matriarchal social structure.
D) permissive view of sex.

Question 60

Who founded the "underground railroad" to help fugitive slaves escape from the South?

A) William Wells Brown
B) Harriet Tubman
C) Martin Delany
D) Frederick Douglass

Question 61

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Most Americans deemed them heretics. After Smith's death at the hands of an angry mob in 1844, Brigham Young moved the people to Utah in 1846.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad

Question 62

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
The practice of manufacturing and then assembling interchangeable standardized parts. This practice spread quickly across American industries and allowed manufacturers to employ cheap, unskilled workers.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad

Question 63

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Network consisting mainly of black homes, black churches, and black neighborhoods that helped slaves escape to the North by supplying shelter, food, and general assistance.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad

Question 64

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Independent republic established by a rebellion of Texans against Mexican rule. The victory at San Jacinto in April 1836 helped ensure the region's independence and recognition by the United States.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad

Question 65

Between 1840 and 1850, the United States gained one-third more land than it had previously, achieving its expansionist goal of stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Briefly discuss three major land acquisitions made during that decade. Include important events and their final outcomes, and outline which lands were added to America.

Question 66

Discuss three of the many changes that took place in America between 1840 and 1860 (the antebellum years).

Question 67

Free-labor ideology fit the experience of some Americans much more than others. In what ways did the free-labor ideal include and exclude various groups of Americans?

Question 68

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Utopian community organized by John Humphrey Noyes in New York in 1848. Noyes's opposition to private property led him to denounce marriage as the root of the problem. The community embraced sexual and economic communalism, to the dismay of its mainstream neighbors.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad

Question 69

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
February 1848 agreement that ended the Mexican-American War. Mexico gave up all claims to Texas north of the Rio Grande and ceded New Mexico and California to the United States. The United States agreed to pay Mexico $15 million and to assume American claims against Mexico.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad

Question 70

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Tools usually powered by horses or oxen that enabled farmers to harvest twelve acres of wheat a day, compared to the two or three acres a day possible with manual harvesting methods.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad

Question 71

During the 1840s and 1850s, America experienced a profound economic transformation. Remarkable economic growth meant success for many Americans. This impressive economic performance did not reward all Americans equally, however. Discuss several of the groups who found it difficult, if not impossible, to take advantage of this new economic age.

Question 72

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
1848 declaration at the first national woman's rights convention in the United States, held in New York. The document adopted the style of the Declaration of Independence and demanded equal rights for women, including the franchise.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad

Question 73

Mexico opened itself up to a future loss of land beginning with the land grant to Stephen F. Austin. Describe how Mexico lost Texas, including the events leading up to the Mexican-American War of 1846-48.

Question 74

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Route to the Northwest Territory traveled by American settlers starting in the late 1830s. Disease and accidents caused many more deaths along the route than did the Indian attacks, which migrants feared.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad

Question 75

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Term coined in 1845 by journalist John L. O'Sullivan to justify American expansion. The concept framed the American conquest of the West as part of a divine plan.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad

Question 76

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Mining frenzy initiated by James Marshall's discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in 1848.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad

Question 77

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
An organization dedicated to sending freed slaves and other black Americans to Liberia in West Africa. Although some African Americans cooperated with the movement, others campaigned against segregation and discrimination.

A)American Colonization Society
B)American system
C)California gold rush
D)Lone Star Republic
E)manifest destiny
F)mechanical reapers
G)Mormons
H)Oneida community
I)Oregon Trail
J)Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments
K)Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
L)underground railroad