American History Before 1877
There are four sections with four questions each. You are required to answer only one question in each section.
Be sure to include as much information as possible to support your answer. Each answer should be 3-5 full
paragraphs in length – at least 2 pages each. Be sure to cite your sources – at least 3 sources per section.
SECTION 1
1. Explain why there were no major witchcraft scares in the Chesapeake colonies and no uprising like Bacon’s
Rebellion in New England. Consider the possible social, economic, and religious causes of both phenomena.
2. What factors made Native American peoples in the Americas vulnerable to conquest by European
adventurers? Give at least three examples of how different Europeans interacted with Indians during the Colonial
Era.
3. What was the role of the colonies in the British mercantilist system? Define the Navigation Acts and their long-
term impact on the Atlantic Triangle Trade.
4. How did the Great War for Empire begin? How did its outcome change the relationship between England and its
American colonies?
SECTION 2
1. The narrative suggests that the war for American independence was not inevitable, that the British empire could
have been saved. Do you agree? At what point during the imperial crisis was a peaceful compromise possible?
2. Who was more to blame for Great Britain’s failure to win a quick victory over the American rebels by 1777:
General Howe, General Burgoyne, or the ministers in London? Explain your answer.
3. Why did Great Britain switch to a Southern military strategy? Why did Lord Cornwallis end up at Yorktown,
Virginia despite winning many battles in the Carolinas? What role did Gen. Nathanael Greene play during the
Southern Campaign?
4. Why was the Constitution a controversial document even as it was being written? Examine the root causes for
holding the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and describe the different sectional and political interests who were
involved.
SECTION 3
1. What were the causes of the War of 1812? How did the global conflict with Napoleon affect the war situation in
North America? Looking at three chief turning points, did the war end with an American victory or was it a draw?
2. Weigh the relative importance of the Industrial and Market revolutions in changing the American economy. In
what ways was the economy different in 1860 from what it had been in 1800? How would you explain those
differences?
3. Why did Protestant Christianity and Protestant women emerge as forces for social change? Why did women’s
issues suddenly become so prominent in American culture?
4. Explain how Jacksonian Democracy shaped antebellum America in terms of politics and society. What were its
best and worst aspects?
SECTION 4
1. How did plantation crops and the slavery system change between 1790 and 1860? Looking at economic, political,
and environmental factors, why did these changes occur?
2. Looking at the causation and motives, did America’s 1846-47 War with Mexico better the existing situation at
home, or did it worsen matters? Explain your answers, taking into account the Compromise of 1850 which followed.
3. What were three important military turning points in the Civil War? Could the Confederacy really have achieved
its independence, and if so, at what chronological point in the war might this have been possible?
4. In 1860, the institution of slavery was firmly entrenched in the United States; by 1865, it was dead. How did this
happen? How did Union policy toward slavery change over the course of the Civil War? Why did it change?
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