American History Lecture Eight

Lecture - Questions - Student Answers

Next week will be our midterm exam, which will consist of about 30 questions (the total will be different for the boys and girls tests). Because several students plan to take the first CLEP American History exam, which also covers the period through Reconstruction, we will follow the subject matter breakdown of the CLEP format:

35% on politics, such as the president, Congress and government policy

25% on social developments, such as slavery, utopian communities, religious and reform movements

15% on intellectual and cultural developments, such as books and inventions

15% on foreign policy, such as foreign wars, treaties and diplomacy

10% on economics, such as inflation, taxes, and protective tariffs

Only 30% of the first CLEP exam (through Reconstruction) is devoted to the beginning of time to 1789. So do not start with that period and burn out before you reach 1790 to 1877, where 70% of the questions will come from. Do not waste too much time studying exploration, settlement and colonial America! Perhaps only 10% of the CLEP exam (and our exam) will cover that period. Students often make a big mistake in preparation of not allocating their time properly in studying.

"Time is money" is a famous, and true, saying. The time you spend not making money could have been better spent making money. Wasted time is lost opportunity to make money, or do something else useful, such as charity or prayer.

A similar concept applies to studying for exams. You will spend a certain amount of time preparing for the midterm exam. Call that amount of time "x". How you allocate that time to different areas of the overall time period (1500-1877) will make a difference on how well you do on the exam. If you spend 90% of x on the period between 1500 and 1700, then you will do poorly on 90% of the questions, because they will be from the period 1700 to 1877. You would have done far better to spend the 90% of x on the time period that will have 90% of the questions.

It greatly helps to identify the time period of a history question before trying to answer it. In doing this, it helps to know which presidents served when. You can memorize a list of presidents if you prefer. Or maybe you can figure it out from what you learned in the lectures. For example, who was president in 1842? Who was the president in 1826?

There will be several cartoons on the exam. Realize that cartoons are a way for someone to describe facts with a point of view, in order to make a political statement. The cartoonist uses caricatures and draws situations in order to express a point of view. The key to deciphering cartoons is to have attention to detail, to pick up all the clues.

Many students make the mistake of answering a cartoon question too quickly. A cartoon is a mystery, like an unsolved crime. As soon as a cop arrives on a crime scene, he does not jump to a conclusion about who committed the crime. He gathers all the evidence. He considers possibilities. He wants an explanation that fits all the facts. He looks for a motive. Approach cartoons the same way.

More generally, look for a purpose to a question, particularly the cartoons. Develop a sense of historical purpose in these exams. Prefer an answer choice that adds meaning and purpose to a question.

Here is a tip on reading maps on exams: before Civil War there was no West Virginia. If you see West Virginia on a map, then it was after the Civil War started.

There are three ingredients to success on any exam:

• time spent studying
• how effective your method of studying is
• how clever you are in taking the exam

On a 30-question exam, each of the above categories is worth a few more correct answers. Add them up and you can boost your score by 6 points or more on a 30-question exam, or 100 points or more on the SAT II. Mastering all three ingredients to success above can be the difference between passing and failing the CLEP exam.

Above all, understand a question before trying to answer it!

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We have covered a great deal of material spanning hundreds of years. We need to try to organize all these facts in our mind somehow. Develop a frame of reference to do this. You can choose whatever frame of reference you like. For me, my frame of reference in remembering each president is to think about how conservative he was. Every few decades we have a conservative president:

1788 – George Washington
1816 – James Monroe
1884 – Grover Cleveland (a conservative Democrat who was pro-gold, anti-union, and anti-government-spending)
1920 – Warren Harding
1980 – Ronald Reagan

Then I fill in the other presidents in between, with reasons why they were not so conservative.

For example, Thomas Jefferson was not particularly conservative because he was personally opposed to religion in government, unsuccessfully fought the Tripoli War, continued some of Alexander Hamilton's big government programs (like a national bank) and imposed the Embargo Act against trade with Europe. You may find this approach helpful in remembering all of American History since George Washington. Or perhaps you have your own approaches for keeping the presidents straight, and organizing historical events.

Key Terms Through Reconstruction

Listed below are the key terms for the first half of American history (through Reconstruction). The highlighted terms are the most important, and the ones for students to focus on first. The non-highlighted terms are more for the students in the "honors" portion of this course. Any of these terms may appear on the exams in this course. Several of our students are already planning to take the CLEP exam, and anyone doing that should know as many of these terms as possible.

The list is not as daunting as it appears. Homeschoolers who win the spelling bees memorize the entire dictionary, which is tens of thousands of words. This list is only about 321 terms. A homeschooler like Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Edison would quickly memorize and know the meaning of all the terms on this list, not because they are smarter, but because they believed in trying their best. You can try your best also, and use time for this purpose that is otherwise wasted.

This chart can be used effectively to quiz yourself. Pick out any term, and try to identify its time period and who was president. Does the term refer to foreign policy (e.g., dealings with a foreign country) or domestic policy (e.g., an issue internal to the United States)? Even if you don't recall immediately the meaning of the term, try to figure it out based on what you do know.

Quizzing yourself in this manner will both improve your test-taking skills, and identify for yourself what you need to study more. Use the short descriptions for these terms that will be handed out in class (and which is available by email), or refer back to the lectures and the model answers.

American Indians	Thomas Paine/Common Sense	Utopian communities
Meso-America	Valley Forge	Examples of Utopian groups
Europe: Crusades	Franco-American Alliance	Women's Rights/Seneca Falls
Christopher Columbus	Declaration of Independence	Shakers
Treaty of Tordesillas	Articles of Confederation	William Lloyd Garrison
John Cabot	Treaty of Paris	American Antislavery Society
Ponce de Leon	Newburgh Addresses (or Conspiracy)	Horace Mann/Public Education
Hernando Cortes	Land Ordinance of 1785	Liberty Party
St. Augustine, Florida	Northwest Ordinance of 1787	Mormon Church
Santa Fe, New Mexico	Annapolis Convention	Emerson and Thoreau
League of Iroquois	Shay's Rebellion	Commonwealth v. Hunt
Sir Humphrey Gilbert	Constitutional Convention of 1787	Seventh Day Adventist Church
Roanoke Island (""Lost Colony")	Virginia Plan	Elizabeth Blackwell
Spanish Florida	New Jersey Plan	Oregon Trail
Spanish Armada	Connecticut Plan	Texas secedes from Mexico
Samuel de Champlain	bill of attainder	Gag rule
Virginia Company	Federalist Papers	John Tyler
Jamestown (Virginia)	bicameral legislature	Elijah Lovejoy
economic system of Jamestown	George Washington	Webster-Ashburton Treaty
"Starving time"	Judiciary Act of 1789	James Polk
Henry Hudson	full ratification of Constitution	Manifest Destiny
House of Burgesses	Hamilton's report on the public credit	Texas enters Union
Jamestown's "cash crop"	Hamilton's report on manufacturers	Slidell Mission
First slaves	First Bank of the United States	Oregon Treaty
Plymouth Bay Colony	Bill of Rights	Wilmot Proviso
Mayflower Compact	cotton gin	Iowa enters Union
economic system of Plymouth, Mass.	federal assumption of state debts	Mexican War
difference between English & Spanish	Washington's Neutrality Proclamation	Spot Resolutions
Powhatan Confederacy	Citizen Genet	Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Mercantilism	Jay's Treaty	Barnburners
Royal Colony	Executive Privilege of President	Zachary Taylor
Charter Colony	Chisholm v. Georgia	Gold in California
Joint-Stock Colony	Whiskey Rebellion	Millard Fillmore
Proprietary Colony	Pinckney's Treaty	Compromise of 1850
Massachusetts Bay Company	Washington's Farewell Address	Fugitive Slave Act
Puritans	Quids	Minnesota and Oregon join US
Puritans compared to Pilgrims	John Adams	Economy of South in 1850s
Great Migration	XYZ Affair	Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
Virginia as Royal Colony	Alien and Sedition Acts	Clipper ships
Maryland	Virginia and Kentucky Resolves	German and Irish immigration
Connecticut	Undeclared naval war with France	Perry/Japan
Rhode Island	Adam's "midnight judges"	Ostend Manifesto
Pequot War	"Revolution of 1800"	Transatlantic cable/telegraph
Colonies settled 1607-39	Thomas Jefferson	"Uncle Tom's Cabin"
Congregational Church	Tripoli War	Know-Nothing (American) Party
Anne Hutchinson	John Marshall	Franklin Pierce
Roger Williams	Marbury v. Madison	Kansas-Nebraska Act
United Colonies of New England	Lewis and Clark	Republican Party
Toleration Act of 1649	Burr-Hamilton Duel	early leaders of Republican Party
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut	British Orders in Council	"Bleeding Kansas"
Religious Persecution in Mass.	Chesapeake Affair (Leopard)	John Brown's attack
New Amsterdam	Embargo Act	Brooks-Sumner incident
New Jersey	Nonintercourse Act	Clara Barton
Carolina	Harrison at Tippecanoe Creek	James Buchanan
King Philip's War	James Madison	Panic of 1857
Bacon's Rebellion	British burn Washington, D.C.	Dred Scott v. Sanford
Pennsylvania	Star-Spangled Banner	Lecompton Constitution
Quaker beliefs	Treaty of Ghent	Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Colonies with most religious freedom	Hartford Convention	Freeport Doctrine (Freeport, IL)
Charter of Liberties	Battle of New Orleans	John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry
Dominion of New England	Bonus Bill	1860 Repub. Platform
Glorious Revolution in England	James Monroe	Abraham Lincoln
Delaware	Rush-Bagot Agreement	Copperheads
Georgia	Fulton's steamboat	The Confederate States of America
Middle Colonies	Fletcher v. Peck	Fort Sumter
Founding of colleges in colonies	Cumberland (National) Road	Trent Affair
Halfway Covenant	Protective Tariff	Confiscation Act
Triangular trade	Second Bank of the U.S.	Emancipation Proclamation
Salem Witchcraft Trials	John Jacob Astor	Radical Republicans
Scotch Irish	Erie Canal	Sherman's march through Georgia
Great Awakening	Tecumseh	Absentee Voting
Jonathan Edwards	Era of Good Feelings	Southern Disunion
George Whitefield	Florida	Homestead Act
John Peter Zenger Case	Dartmouth College v. Woodward	Pacific Railway Act
Stono Rebellion	McCullough v. Maryland	Morrill Land Grant Act
King William's War	Adams-Onis Treaty	Procl. of Amnesty and Reconstr.
Queen Anne's War	Tallmadge Amendment	Sioux Wars
Salutary Neglect	Missouri Compromise	Wade-Davis Bill
King George's War	Cohens v. Virginia	Freedmen's Bureau
Albany Congress	Denmark Vesey	Appomattox Court House
Albany Plan of Union	Monroe Doctrine	Andrew Johnson
French and Indian War	John Marshall	13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
Treaty of Paris	caucus	Black Codes
George III	John Quincy Adams	Civil Rights Act
Colonial economy in 1763	Andrew Jackson	carpetbaggers
Pontiac's Rebellion	Whigs	Ku Klux Klan
Louisiana territory	Tariff of Abominations	Burlingame Treaty
British Proclamation of 1763	South Carolina Exposition and Protest	Military Reconstruction Act
Sugar Act	Jackson's attitude towards Calhoun	Tenure of Office Act
Currency Act	Maysville Road Veto	Command of the Army Act
Stamp Act	Indian Removal	Impeachment of Johnson
Stamp Act Crisis	Tom Thumb	Ulysses S. Grant
Stamp Act Congress	Peggy Eaton Affair	Gilded Age
Quartering Act	Cherokee Nation v. Georgia	Fisk-Gould Scandal
Sons of Liberty	Antimasonic Party	"Boss" Tweed
Declaratory Act	S.C. Ordinance of Nullification	Force Act
Townshend Duties	Compromise Tariff	Amnesty Act
Boston Massacre	Force Bill	Credit Mobilier scandal
Gaspee incident	Whig Party	"Salary Grab" Act
Committees of Correspondence	Whig supporters	"Crime of '73"
Tea Act	Martin Van Buren	Greenback Party
Boston Tea Party	Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge	Women's Christian Temperance Union
Intolerable (Coercive) Acts	"Trail of Tears"	Wounded Knee massacre
First Continental Congress	William Henry Harrison	Whiskey Ring
Second Continental Congress	Nat Turner	Rutherford B. Hayes
Benjamin Franklin's achievements	Lowell System	Compromise of 1877
Colonial population	Reform Movements	Baseball