Topics: Anything assigned to read on Part III of the syllabus, units 23-30.
What: You will be asked to write one long essay (SA) on a general question and four brief term-identification (ID) essays in which you will identify (who, what, when, where) and explain the significance (it's role in US history) of the term.
General themes:
How America became a modern industrial democracy and the consequences.
How the issue of slavery tore the nation apart.
You will be asked to answer a question like one of these on the exam by writing a coherent, factual, multi-paragraph essay. You will have two to choose from but will be writing only on ONE.
Was life better for people living in the subsistence-oriented or the market-oriented economy in the early 19th Century? Which system was better for democracy?
Why did the women's equality movement arise when it did?
Was Jackson the first truly democratic president or a dangerous tyrant, or both?
To what extent was the relationship between slaves and masters governed by paternalism?
“No one person (or group of people) did more to prevent peaceful resolution of the slavery crisis than Stephen A. Douglas.” Assess this statement by considering what Douglas did and the role of others. Do any of them come close or supersede Douglas in influence?
Explore the similarities and differences between Lincoln and Douglas in the positions they took in their 1858 debates. What if anything made Lincoln the more attractive anti-slavery candidate?
In which you are asked to identify and explain the significance of a term related to what we have studied. Here are some examples of terms that might appear on the test from the units we have studied so far. I will put seven of the bolded terms on the test and ask you to write about four of them. The other terms may help you think about your answer to the SA questions, but the list is not exhaustive. This list is currently under construction and subject to change until Friday, Nov. 18.
Coming of the Civil War. The Civil War represents a catastrophic failure of American democracy to resolve its citizens’ differences peacefully. Choose one item from the list below (drop-down menu) and explain how it/they/he played a key role in causing the breakdown of democratic politics and resort to secession and war.
There is no one right answer and you might be just trying to explain the role that one factor played rather than what makes you think this is the ONE most important factor. This is an exercise in demonstrating your understanding of causation (how one thing led to another), and the sequence of events from the end of the Mexican War to the start of the Civil War. You will notice that the list includes some items that pointed more toward reconciliation. Part of your answer might be to explain why those things failed to head off secession. What would a thesis look like? Perhaps the story you tell offers a lesson about democracy and how to save it from polarization (that would certainly be a valuable lesson for your 2023 readers).
[1] “Unlike some Northern Whigs, Wilmot and other anti-slavery Democrats were largely unconcerned by the issue of racial equality, and instead opposed the expansion of slavery because they believed the institution was detrimental to the ‘laboring white man’" (Wikipedia).
[2] EG, manifest destiny (McDouglall, 229-230); the civilizational narrative; free labor ideology (McDougall, 348); the pro-slavery argument; popular sovereignty.
The Mexican War
David Wilmot’s Proviso[1]
Agitators (radicals)
Southern agitators
Northern agitators
Moderates
The Compromise of 1850
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Cotton
Stephen Douglas
Diverging cultures
Transcontinental RR
Ideas[2]
Conspiracy-mongering
Failure of empathy
Abraham Lincoln/Republicans
revecoeur
Tocqueville
Proletarianizing
Henry David Thoreau
Debt peonage
Company store
Industrialization
Productivity
Division of Labor
Mechanization
Putting out
Steam power
Pro-slavery argument
Market Revolution
laissez faire
Second Great Awakening
Andrew Jackson
Jacksonians
Trail of Tears
Whig Party
Internal improvements
Tariff
Lucretia Mott
Lucy Stone
Seneca Falls
Women's sphere
Female Education
Cult of domesticity
Separate spheres
William Lloyd Garrison
Frederick Douglass
The Liberator
Moral suasion
Elijah Lovejoy
Immediatism
Gradualism
Wage slaves
John C. Calhoun
Free labor ideology
Gag rule
Slave Power
White trash
New Orleans slave market
Slave religion
Nat Turner
Virginia Debate
Br’er Rabbit
Cavaliers
Plantation women
Paternalism
Texas
Mexican War
James K. Polk
David Wilmot
Wilmot Proviso
Manifest Destiny
Popular Sovereignty
Henry Clay
Daniel Webster
Omnibus bill
Fugitive Slave Act
Fire-Eaters
Stephen Douglas
Compromise of 1850
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Transcontinental RR
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Bleeding Kansas
Border ruffians
John Brown
Pottawatomie
Charles Sumner
Preston Brooks
Irrepressible conflict
Blundering generation
Roger Taney
Dough Faces
James Buchanan
Dred Scott
Lecompton Constitution
Black Republicans
House Divided Speech
Lincoln-Douglas debates
Doctrine of necessity
Contingency & Judgement
Election of 1860
John Brown
Secret six
Harper's Ferry
Better Angels