Period 4: 1800–1848

"In a slaveholding community, the white man, however poor or humble, is a member of the ruling class. He is equal to the wealthiest planter. Color, not wealth, is the mark of distinction, and the poorest white citizen feels that he belongs to an elevated caste, sharing in the dignity and privileges of the dominant race. This creates a bond of union among whites that transcends all differences of property or education, rendering our society remarkably stable..."

— Adapted from Thomas R. Dew, Review of the Debate in the Virginia Legislature, 1832

Which of the following developments during the early nineteenth century best explains the social dynamic described in the excerpt?

Chief Justice John Marshall, majority opinion, *Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward* (1819):

'It can require no argument to prove, that the circumstances of this case constitute a contract. An application is made to the crown for a charter to incorporate a religious and literary institution. ... The charter is granted, and on its faith the property is conveyed. Surely, in this transaction, every ingredient of a complete and legitimate contract is to be found. ... The opinion of the Court, after mature consideration, is, that this is a contract, the obligation of which cannot be impaired without violating the Constitution of the United States.'

Which of the following was a major long-term consequence of the decision excerpted above?

"In the decades following the War of 1812, the simple market gardener, the local blacksmith, and the housewife at her spinning wheel were rapidly being replaced. In their stead, we see the rise of the manufacturing corporation, which gathers hundreds of operatives under one roof to perform specialized, repetitive labor. No longer does a family produce its own clothing and consume its own crops in isolation; the steam engine, the canal, and the railroad have bound the planter of the South, the farmer of the West, and the manufacturer of the North into a single, interlocking web of national exchange."
—An observer of American economic development, c. 1845

Which of the following historical developments in the period from 1800 to 1848 best supports the description of the economic changes in the passage?

"It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. ... In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions... to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society... have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government."
— President Andrew Jackson, Veto Message, 1832

Which of the following best describes how the ideas expressed in the excerpt influenced the debate over federal power during the Jacksonian era?

“We find ourselves subjected to a system of labor that reduces us to mere machines, dependent on the wills of a monied aristocracy. The division of labor and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few have destroyed the independence of the individual mechanic and divided society into two distinct classes: the idle rich and the laboring poor. Our families, once the centers of domestic industry, are now disrupted as members must seek employment in distant workshops and factories to subsist.”

— Address of the Working Men's Party of Boston, 1830

Which of the following developments in the early nineteenth century most directly contributed to the conditions described in the excerpt?

Whitemarsh B. Seabrook, Southern planter and politician, essay on the management of slaves, 1834:

"The slave of the South is well-fed, well-clothed, and well-sheltered... he is under the care of a master who is bound by self-interest, if not by humanity, to protect him. In sickness and old age, he is cared for. Contrast his condition with the northern factory worker, who is cast off when his labor is no longer profitable."

The views expressed in the excerpt were most directly used by Southern defenders of slavery to support which of the following claims?

Before the Market Revolution, most manufacturing in the United States took place within rural households or small local workshops. As textile mills and factories expanded in the early nineteenth century, production increasingly shifted to centralized urban facilities.

Which of the following was a direct social consequence of this shift in the organization of labor?

Read the following excerpt from a letter written by John Doyle, an Irish immigrant in Philadelphia, to his wife in Ireland, 1818:

"I have to write to you that this is a good country for a man who is willing to work... The wages are high, and the demand for labor on the canals and turnpikes is constant. Many of our countrymen are here, clustering in the cities and along the lines of transport, finding strength in their numbers and their faith."

The migration and settlement patterns described in the excerpt most directly contributed to which of the following social developments in the United States between 1800 and 1848?

"If [woman] is to be regarded as a being of equal value with her brother... then she is bound to do all she can for the promotion of the great work of the world's conversion, and the reformation of the world's morals. ... If the Lord Jesus has anointed her to preach the gospel of deliverance to the captive, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, who shall stay her hand, or say unto her, what doest thou?"
— Sarah Grimké, *Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman*, 1837

Which of the following historical developments during the early nineteenth century most directly contributed to the arguments expressed in the excerpt?

“The votes of the convention, after a warm debate, excluded the women delegates... This decision, while it showed the narrow prejudice of the leaders of the movement, did more than any other single event to open the eyes of women to their own political degradation, and to lead them to organize for their own defense.”
— Elizabeth Cady Stanton, recalling the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, 1840

The debate and exclusion described in the excerpt most directly highlight which of the following tensions within antebellum reform movements?

"I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed."
— President Andrew Jackson, Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, 1832

The ideas expressed in the excerpt were most directly written in response to South Carolina's attempt to do which of the following?

Read the excerpt below from President Andrew Jackson’s Proclamation to the People of South Carolina (1832).

"I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which It was founded..."

Which of the following was the immediate cause of the political crisis described in this excerpt?

Read the excerpt below.

"He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.... He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead."
— Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Convention, 1848

Which of the following factors most directly contributed to the development of the ideas expressed in the excerpt?

"I am now making progress in the manufacture of muskets. My general plan of manufacturing these arms by machinery is designed to make the parts so much alike that any part of a lock may be used for any other lock of the same pattern..."
— Eli Whitney, letter to the U.S. government, 1803

Which of the following describes the most direct effect of the technological innovation described in the excerpt?

Read the following excerpt from the inaugural issue of William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, *The Liberator*, published in 1831:

"I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm... but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard."

The excerpt best reflects which of the following developments in the reform movements of the 1830s?

Sarah Grimké, *Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman*, 1837:

"I ask no favors for my sex. I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on the ground which God has designed us to occupy."

Which of the following reform efforts of the early 19th century was most directly influenced by the sentiments expressed in the excerpt?

"It is not the British influence on the Indians that I fear, but the British power which supports them. This war, if carried on successfully, will have its advantages. We shall drive the British from our continent—they will no longer have an opportunity of intriguing with our Indian neighbors... I therefore feel anxious not only to add the Floridas to the South, but the Canadas to the North of this empire."
— Representative Felix Grundy of Tennessee, Speech in Congress, December 1811

Which of the following developments in the early 1800s best explains the political sentiment expressed in the excerpt?

"The Constitution of the United States is, in fact, a compact, to which each State is a party... the General Government, as a creation of this compact, has no right to exercise any power not delegated to it by the Constitution. It is the right of the States, in their sovereign capacity, to judge of the infractions of their compact..."

— John C. Calhoun, South Carolina Exposition and Protest, 1828

Which of the following historical conflicts during the presidency of Andrew Jackson was most directly shaped by the constitutional arguments expressed in the excerpt?

In an 1832 letter to John Coffee regarding the Supreme Court's decision in Worcester v. Georgia, President Andrew Jackson wrote:

'The decision of the Supreme Court has fell still born, and they find that they cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate.'

Which of the following actions by the Jackson administration best reflects the attitude expressed in this excerpt?

"The farmer who, but a few years since, cultivated his land with no other view than to support his family from its produce, and who was satisfied if he could sell a few bushels of wheat to buy his salt and iron, now looks to a distant market for the sale of his surplus. The canal and the steamboat have brought him within reach of the Atlantic cities. He now stands in the same relation to the merchant of New York or Philadelphia that the farmer of Dutchess County or the Schuylkill did thirty years ago. His industry is stimulated, his comforts are multiplied, and his wealth is increased."
— Western Monthly Magazine, 1833

Which of the following historical developments was the most direct consequence of the transformation described in the excerpt?