References are to The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society, but questions address issues addressed in lecture as well as the main textbook.

You will be responsible for material in Chapters 6-7 of the Nash textbook, as well as material presented in lecture. You will find these questions helpful:

Chapter 6.  A PEOPLE IN REVOLUTION

1. Who were the Loyalists? What happened to many thousands of them after the American Revolution?

2. What were the main provisions of the Peace of Paris, signed in 1783?

3. What was the impact of the American Revolution on Native Americans? African Americans? White women? White male laborers with little property?

Chapter 7. CONSOLIDATING THE REVOLUTION

4. What is meant by the term "republicanism"?

5. What was the impact of republican ideals on social and political reform? On slavery? On women?

6. Why did American states adopt written constitutions?

7. What provisions did the states make for the preservation of individual liberties?

8. Historically, what had been the fate of most previous republics? How did Americans hope to avoid that fate?

9. What were the Articles of Confederation?

10. Although the Confederation arrangement failed after a few years, it did boast one major achievement:  the Ordinance of 1787, also known as the Northwest Ordinance.. What was it?

11. What were the main weaknesses of the Confederation arrangement?

12. How did Shays's rebellion illuminate one weakness of the Confederation arrangement?

13. What new powers did the Constitution grant the central government?

14. What was the Virginia Plan? The New Jersey Plan?

15. What was the Great Compromise? What was the Three-fifths Compromise?

16. Who were the Federalists? The Anti-Federalists?

17. Why was the Bill of Rights deemed necessary? What were their main provisions? (Chapter 8, p. 222)

Chapter 8. CREATING A NATION .

18. What important precedents did George Washington establish as first President?

19. What were the main differences between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson in terms of their political philosophies?

20. In what ways did Hamilton believe a national bank would help the new government? Why did Jeffersonians oppose this plan?

21. What was the fate of Hamilton's Report on Manufacturing ?

22. Why were Jeffersonians so uncomfortable with Hamilton's economic policies?

23. How did the French Revolution divide Americans and contribute to the development of party politics?

24. What were the provisions of Jay's Treaty (1795) and why was it so divisive?

25. How did Federalists and Jeffersonians view the Whiskey Rebellion?

26. What is revealed by the contrast between Shays's Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion?

27. What were the two main things that Washington warned against in his Farewell Address?

28. What was the XYZ Affair?

29. What were the main arguments in favor of the Sedition Act? How did Jeffersonians respond to them?

30. What was the most remarkable feature of Jefferson's election in 1800?

Chapter 9. SOCIETY AND POLITICS IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC

31. What important measures were taken by President Thomas Jefferson to undo Federalist policies which he considered unwise or a threat to liberty?

32. Why did Jefferson believe agricultural life was essential to political liberty?

33. What were the goals of federal policy toward Native Americans? In what ways did these goals conflict?

34. What was the significance of Marbury v. Madison ?

35. Why were relations between Great Britain and the United States so tense during the period 1792-1812?

36. Was the Embargo Act of 1807 a success? Why or why not?

37. Who were the "War Hawks"? What did they hope to accomplish by declaring war upon Great Britain?

38. How did the Hartford Convention affect the Federalist Party?

39. What were the main outcomes of the War of 1812?

Chapter 10: “Currents of Change in the Northeast and the Old Northwest”

1) What three basic phases has the American economy gone through? What were the main features of each phase?

2) What was the "Market Revolution"? What were the five main developments that gave rise to it?

3) How did the Market Revolution undermine the subsistence farmer?

4) In what ways did the government support the transportation revolution?

5)  For success of a subset of an economy a region often specifies a domain of expertise. What reasons caused New England to specify in manufacturing?

6) In what sense did the invention of the cotton gin perpetuate slavery?

7) In what ways are the concepts of slavery and republicanism inconsistent from one another?

8) What was the “Lowell System?”

Chapter 12: “Shaping America in the Antebellum Age”

9) What effect did the Second Great Awakening have on the American political system? In what ways did it affect the republican experiment? What groups still remained excluded from political participation?

10) Why is Andrew Jackson considered such an exemplar of the rise of democracy during this period? How was he viewed by the common man?

11) What is the Second Party System? What are the main differences between the two opposing parties? What factors influenced their creation?

12) What was the Nullification Crisis and how did it come about? What did the Nullifiers hope to accomplish?

13) What significance did “the trail of tears” hold for the Indian nations?

14) How did the Market Economy lead to increased racial tension?

15) Why did public education become important during the early 19th century?

Creating a Republic, 1783-1789

republicanism
 civic virtue
“republican motherhood”
 manumission laws
 Articles of Confederation
Shays's Rebellion, 1786
 Ordinance of 1785
 Ordinance of 1787 (Northwest Ordinance)
 Philadelphia Convention, 1787
New Jersey Plan
Virginia Plan
Great Compromise
 [know the details of the Constitution]
 Federalists
 Anti-Federalists

The New Republic, 1790-1796

Alexander Hamilton*
Federalists (Hamiltonians)*
Democratic Republicans (Jeffersonians)
Report on Public Credit, 1790
Report on Manufacturing, 1791
Whiskey Rebellion, 1794
French Revolution
Jay's Treaty, 1795
Washington's Farewell Address

The New Republic, 1796-1815

John Adams
XYZ Affair
Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798
"Revolution of 1800"
Louisiana Purchase, 1803
Embargo Act, 1807
Tecumseh
War of 1812
Monroe Doctrine, 1823

“The Market Revolution”

Subsistence Agriculture
Staple-Exporting Economy
National Market Economy
Industrialized Economy
Short-Strand Cotton
Cotton Gin
Indian Removal/Trail of Tears
National Road
Erie Canal
“Lowell System"
Horace Mann

“The Rise of the White Man's Democracy”

Universal White Male Suffrage
Second Party System
Andrew Jackson
Spoils System
Alexis de Tocqueville
“Tyranny of the Majority”
Indian Removal Act, 1830

POSSIBLE 30-MINUTE ESSAY QUESTIONS:

SAMPLE ESSAY QUESTIONS

Think about the following essay questions. They may help you to focus on some of the larger conceptual issues involved in the course.

1. What, aside from producing American independence, was the significance of the American Revolution? Was it essentially a conservative rebellion designed to preserve American society as it had existed before Great Britain attempted to exert greater administrative control over the colonies? Or did it--as one historian has maintained--transform "a monarchical society into a democratic society unlike any that had ever existed"? In either case, which groups were included within the social and political order that resulted from the Revolution? Which groups were excluded? Why?

2. Assess the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, then explain how the framers of the Constitution sought to remedy these weaknesses. Using the concept of republicanism and the historical track record of previous republics as your guide, discuss the dangers inherent in a stronger central government. How did the framers attempt to address these dangers? What dangers did the new republic actually confront between 1790 and 1815?

3. Compare and contrast Alexander Hamilton's and Thomas Jefferson's visions and programs for the new republic's society and economy. In what direction did each want the nation to move? What specific steps did each propose to promote his goals? Which do you feel had the most significant impact on the future development of the nation? Why?

4. What was the Market Revolution? What different impacts did it have on white men, white women, African Americans, and Native Americans?

Criteria by which exam essays are graded.

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