Period 5: 1844–1877
189 questions
"The Negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy liberty, because they are oppressed neither by care nor labor. The free laborer must work or starve. He is more of a slave than the Negro, because he works longer and harder for less allowance than the slave, and has no holiday, because the cares of life with him begin when his labor ends."
— George Fitzhugh, Cannibals All!, 1857
Which of the following historical developments in the 1850s most directly contributed to the creation of the argument described in the excerpt?
“The draft is but the spark that ignited the dry tinder of accumulated grievances. The primary fury of the mob was directed not against the conscription officers alone, but against the colored population, whose homes were ransacked and whose lives were taken with brutal relish. Side by side with this racial animosity was a deep-seated class resentment, voiced in the cry of ‘a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight,’ brought on by the clause allowing a three-hundred-dollar commutation. The authority of the federal government, asserted in a manner hitherto unknown in our history, has clashed violently with local traditions of personal liberty and local autonomy.”
—Adapted from a letter by a New York City resident describing the Draft Riots, July 1863
Based on the passage, the tensions described on the Northern home front most directly challenge which of the following historical interpretations of the Civil War era?
"In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. That is, a class requiring but a low order of intellect and but little skill. Its requisites are vigor, docility, fidelity. Such a class you must have, or you would not have that other class which leads progress, civilization, and refinement. It constitutes the very mud-sill of society and of political government... Fortunately for the South, she found a race adapted to that purpose to her hand... We use them for our purpose, and call them slaves."
—Senator James Henry Hammond, speech to the U.S. Senate, March 4, 1858
Based on the excerpt, which of the following arguments most directly reflects the perspective of pro-slavery advocates in the 1850s?
“But they say, ‘Sir, we must have territory.’ ... Why must we have territory? ... You have a territory now, in which you may place thirty millions of men... is it not enough? ... Look at the lesson of history. What has ruined all the republics that have gone before us? The very same lust of empire... We want room! ... Sir, look at the map of Europe. There is Germany... and there is the British Empire. Does either of these complain of want of room? ... What is the consequence of this thirst for land? It leads to war, to conquest, and to the destruction of the very institutions we cherish.”
— Senator Thomas Corwin, Speech on the Mexican-American War, 1847
Which of the following debates in the 1840s is most directly reflected in the arguments presented in the excerpt?
"We have never dreamt of incorporating into our Union any but the Caucasian race—the free white race. To incorporate Mexico, would be the very first instance of the kind, of incorporating an Indian race; for more than half of the Mexicans are Indians, and the other is composed chiefly of mixed tribes. I protest against such a union as that! Ours, sir, is the Government of a white race. ... The greatest misfortunes of Spanish America are to be traced to the fatal error of placing these colored races on an equality with the white race."
— Senator John C. Calhoun, speech in the Senate, 1848
The ideas expressed in the excerpt most directly reflect which of the following debates surrounding Manifest Destiny in the 1840s?
"We arraign this bill as a gross violation of a sacred pledge; as a criminal betrayal of precious rights; as part and parcel of an atrocious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied region immigrants from the Old World and free laborers from our own States, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves. . . . We implore the Christian people of the United States, by the grave responsibilities of that heritage of liberty which has been bequeathed to them, to rise in their strength and save our country from this great ruin."
— Salmon P. Chase et al., "Appeal of the Independent Democrats," 1854
Which of the following developments in the sectional debates of the 1850s is most directly illustrated by the rhetoric in the excerpt?
"The late riotous outbreak in our city, though ostensibly directed against the draft, was in reality a revolt against the federal government's efforts to prosecute the war. The workingmen, inflamed by appeals to their class prejudices and racial fears, saw the conscription law as an unjust imposition that forced them to fight for a cause they did not support, while allowing the wealthy to buy exemption. The resulting violence directed against African Americans and government property reveals the deep social fractures exposed by the administration's mobilization policies."
— Editorial, *The New York Times*, July 1863
Which of the following historical developments during the Civil War best explains the response described in the excerpt?
Below is a comparison of resources between the Union and the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War:
| Resource | Union (1861) | Confederacy (1861) |
|---|---|---|
| Total Population | 22 million | 9 million (including 3.5 million enslaved) |
| Railroad Mileage | 22,000 miles | 9,000 miles |
| Manufacturing Establishments | 110,000 | 18,000 |
| Value of Manufactured Goods | $1.5 billion | $155 million |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau Reports, 1860.
Which of the following best explains how the resource disparities shown in the table shaped the military strategies of the Union and the Confederacy?
Read the excerpt below:
'Resolved, That the territories of the United States belong to the several States of this Union as their common property; that the citizens of the several States have equal rights to migrate with their property into these territories, and are equally entitled to the protection of the Federal Government in the enjoyment of that property so long as the territories remain in a territorial state.'
— Resolutions of the Nashville Convention, June 1850
Which of the following best explains how the political argument in the excerpt clashed with the concept of popular sovereignty as championed by Northern Democrats like Stephen A. Douglas?
"Resolved, That the government of a Territory, organized by an Act of Congress, is provisional and temporary; and during its existence, all citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with their property in the Territory without their rights, either of person or property, being destroyed or impaired by congressional or territorial legislation.
Resolved, That it is the duty of the Federal government, in all its departments, to protect, when necessary, the rights of persons and property in the Territories, and wherever else its constitutional authority extends."
— Platform of the National Democratic Party (Southern Wing), 1860
Which of the following historical developments is most directly illustrated by the resolutions in the excerpt?
"The election of Mr. Lincoln would be a calamity, but the triumph of the Southern seceders who broke up the Democratic Party at Charleston and Baltimore is a greater danger. They seek to force a federal slave code upon the territories against the will of the people, thereby destroying the great principle of popular sovereignty upon which our party and the Union rest. If we yield to their demands, we consent to the doctrine that Congress must actively establish and protect slavery everywhere, even where the local population has voted to exclude it."
—Stephen A. Douglas, campaign speech, 1860
The debate described in the excerpt most directly contributed to which of the following outcomes in the presidential election of 1860?
“Whereas no legal State governments or adequate protection for life or property now exists in the rebel States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas; and whereas it is necessary that peace and good order should be enforced in said States until loyal and republican State governments can be legally established: Therefore, Be it enacted... That said rebel States shall be divided into military districts and made subject to the military authority of the United States...”
— Reconstruction Act of 1867
Which of the following historical developments most directly led to the enactment of the legislation excerpted above?
"And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us."
— John L. O'Sullivan, New York Morning News, 1845
Which of the following developments was most directly justified by the ideas expressed in the excerpt?
"No act of Congress can drag the citizen from his state without the consent of his state government, and place him under officers appointed by the President... I cannot write this letter without expressing my solemn conviction that the Conscription Act is a bold and dangerous usurpation of power, destructive of state sovereignty, and tending to military despotism. It is a decision that the states have no right to control their own militia, and that the federal government of the Confederacy is supreme over them. We entered this struggle to maintain the rights of the states, yet we are now asked to surrender them to a centralized military power in Richmond."
— Governor Joseph E. Brown of Georgia, letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, 1862
Based on the passage, the internal debates within the Confederacy over conscription most directly reflect which of the following tensions during the Civil War?
“No act of the Government of the United States prior to the secession of Georgia struck a blow at her constitutional liberty so fatal as the conscription act. . . . The conscription act not only disorganizes the State's military system, but it strips the State of her power of self-defense, and leaves her at the mercy of the centralized power. . . . I can find no power in the Confederate Constitution which authorizes the Congress of the Confederate States to drag the citizens of the States from their homes by force, and place them in the army.”
—Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown, letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, 1862
Which of the following central conflicts of the Civil War era is most directly reflected in Governor Brown’s letter?
"I think, therefore, we must decide whether slavery shall be extinguished by our enemies and the slaves be used against us, or use them ourselves at the risk of the effects which must be produced upon our social institutions. My own opinion is that we should employ them without delay. I believe that with proper regulations they can be made efficient soldiers... We should not expect slaves to fight for their servitude... [We should] give immediate freedom to all who enlist, and to their families..."
—General Robert E. Lee, Confederate States Army, letter to Andrew Hunter, January 11, 1865
Which of the following best explains why the Confederacy delayed implementing the strategy proposed in the excerpt until the final months of the war?
"They said to me, 'Colby, we have nothing against you as a man, but we are going to break up this Republican party... you are the leader of the party, and if you will promise to vote the Democratic ticket, we will let you go.' I told them I would not do it... and then they whipped me."
— Testimony of Colby, an African American legislator from Georgia, before a joint congressional committee, 1872
Which of the following was a primary political goal of Southern groups like the one described in the excerpt?
"I make no war upon the South nor upon slavery in the South. I have no squeamish sensitiveness upon the subject of slavery, nor morbid sympathy for the slave. I plead the cause of the rights of white freemen. I would preserve for free white labor a fair country, a rich inheritance, where the sons of toil, of my own race and color, can go and settle, to cultivate the earth with their own hands... I would preserve the free soil of the West for the free white man."
— Representative David Wilmot, speech in Congress, 1847
Which of the following best describes the primary political motive behind the position outlined in the excerpt?
“The rapid extension of our settlements over our territories as they have been acquired has been a subject of pride and congratulation... The expansion of our Union is the expansion of free principles and self-government, which are destined to spread over the entire continent.”
— President James K. Polk, Message to Congress, 1845
The ideas expressed in the excerpt were most directly used to justify which of the following developments?
“How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave’s government also. . . . [W]hen a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize.���
— Henry David Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government” (Civil Disobedience), 1849
Which of the following historical developments during the late 1840s best explains the sentiments expressed in the excerpt?