United States History and Government Unit 4: Post-Civil War Era

Base your answers to questions 1 and 2 on the passage below and your knowledge of social studies. 

. . . I long to hear that you have declared an independency -- and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation. 

Source: Abigail Adams, Letter to John Adams, March 31, 1776 

1. Which document most directly addressed the concerns expressed by Abigail Adams in this passage?

• Federalist Papers

• Monroe Doctrine

• Declaration of Sentiments

• Emancipation Proclamation

Base your answers to questions 1 and 2 on the passage below and your knowledge of social studies. 

. . . I long to hear that you have declared an independency -- and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation. 

Source: Abigail Adams, Letter to John Adams, March 31, 1776 

2. Based on the letter, what problem is being discussed?

• Inequality between men and women

• British tyranny

• Slavery

• The Intolerable Acts

Base your answers to questions 3, 4, and 5 on the quotation and map below and on your knowledge of social studies. 

“. . . As a bond of union between the Atlantic and the western states, it may prevent the dismemberment of the American empire. As an organ of communication between the Hudson, the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, the great lakes of the north and west, and their tributary rivers, it will create the greatest inland trade ever witnessed. . . .”

New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, April 26, 1824 

3. Which development in transportation is Governor Clinton describing?

• National Road

• Erie Canal

• steamboats

• railroads

Base your answers to questions 3, 4, and 5 on the quotation and map below and on your knowledge of social studies. 

“. . . As a bond of union between the Atlantic and the western states, it may prevent the dismemberment of the American empire. As an organ of communication between the Hudson, the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, the great lakes of the north and west, and their tributary rivers, it will create the greatest inland trade ever witnessed. . . .”

New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, April 26, 1824 

4. Based on the map, the Erie Canal and Hudson River contributed directly to the 

• decisions to restrict immigration 

• rapid increase in population in upstate New York

• settlement of New England 

• acquisition of land from Canada

Base your answers to questions 3, 4, and 5 on the quotation and map below and on your knowledge of social studies. 

“. . . As a bond of union between the Atlantic and the western states, it may prevent the dismemberment of the American empire. As an organ of communication between the Hudson, the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, the great lakes of the north and west, and their tributary rivers, it will create the greatest inland trade ever witnessed. . . .”

New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, April 26, 1824 

5. Completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 encouraged the growth of the Midwest because it 

• linked the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Coast 

• helped force the removal of British forts in the Northwest Territory 

• stimulated development of cotton production in the Ohio River valley 

• increased trade with Asia

Base your answers to questions 6 and 7 on the image and excerpt below and on your knowledge of social studies. 

This poster was an advertisement for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 

. . . Stowe is often credited with influencing the country to think differently about slavery. But what do we know about how Stowe influenced Lincoln? 

A decade earlier, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) had been a publishing and propaganda phenomenon. Using stories to illustrate the human impact of slavery, Stowe’s blistering pen lit the world on fire. The statistics remain record-breaking: 10,000 copies sold in the first week; a million and a half British copies in a year. The book was so successful it was immediately dramatized for the stage, where it became a theatrical icon. Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, leader of the radical Republicans, said, “Had there been no Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there would have been no Lincoln in the White House.” . . . 

But pro-slavery critics charged that Stowe had made it all up and that slavery was a humane system. So Stowe wrote a nonfiction retort, The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1853), compiling the real-life evidence that had informed her fictional stories. . . . 

Source: The Authentic History Center 

Source: Katherine Kane, “Lincoln and The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Connecticut Explored, Winter 2012/2013 

6. Which claim is supported by both Documents 1 and 2? 

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin painted an inaccurate picture of slavery 

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin scared pro-slavery critics 

• Harriet Beecher Stowe influenced President Lincoln

• Harriet Beecher Stowe was an influential abolitionist

Base your answers to questions 6 and 7 on the image and excerpt below and on your knowledge of social studies. 

This poster was an advertisement for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 

. . . Stowe is often credited with influencing the country to think differently about slavery. But what do we know about how Stowe influenced Lincoln? 

A decade earlier, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) had been a publishing and propaganda phenomenon. Using stories to illustrate the human impact of slavery, Stowe’s blistering pen lit the world on fire. The statistics remain record-breaking: 10,000 copies sold in the first week; a million and a half British copies in a year. The book was so successful it was immediately dramatized for the stage, where it became a theatrical icon. Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, leader of the radical Republicans, said, “Had there been no Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there would have been no Lincoln in the White House.” . . . 

But pro-slavery critics charged that Stowe had made it all up and that slavery was a humane system. So Stowe wrote a nonfiction retort, The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1853), compiling the real-life evidence that had informed her fictional stories. . . . 

Source: The Authentic History Center 

Source: Katherine Kane, “Lincoln and The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Connecticut Explored, Winter 2012/2013 

7. According to Document 2, what was a major effect of the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin?  

• More Americans learned how to read in order to read the book 

• Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States 

• The Abolitionist movement began across the United States 

• Harriet Beecher Stowe became a figure in the women’s suffrage movement 

Base your answers to questions 8 and  9 on the image below and on your knowledge of social studies.

8. Which event most likely led to the situation shown in this image?

• The passage of the 14th Amendment

• The passage of the 15th Amendment

• Jim Crow laws

• Women’s suffrage

Base your answers to questions 8 and  9 on the image below and on your knowledge of social studies.

9. A historian would find this document most useful for

• Studying the impact of the Freedmen’s Bureau

• Studying African American political participation during Reconstruction

• Studying the impact of the Black Codes

• Studying the impact of President Andrew Johnson’s policies

Base your answers to questions 10 and 11 on the cartoon below and on your knowledge of social studies. 

10. Which statement best describes the illustrator’s perspective in this document?

• Americans should support statehood for Nevada and Montana

• African Americans should be allowed to vote

• Women should be allowed to vote

• The government should pass the Equal Rights Amendment