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Exam Two
Exam Three

STUDY GUIDE:  FINAL EXAM 


Old South:  

Now we enter a whole new world.  This lecture dealt with the Old South -- the South as it was before the Civil War.  You thought you understood the United States?  Think again.  The Old South was a unique entity that disregarded a lot of what we think was American behavior before the Civil War.  Equality among all citizens?  Not in the South.  High technology?  Not much.  Education and transportation revolution?  Again, not so much.  This lecture deconstructed the South, meaning that it dismantled the South into its component parts.  This lecture compared the Upper South to the Lower South.  It also examined the various classes of southern: the Planter, the Farmer, the Cracker, the Free Black, and the Slave.  And it went over the concept of Southern Honor and the extent to which southerners would go to defend their honor.  Don’t ignore honor.  It’s going to play a huge role just before the Civil War.  What looks quaint or even funny in this lecture will soon seem far more ominous.

So you need to know the following: 
 

  • The role of climate and slavery in shaping the South.

  • Industry, education, population density, literacy, infrastructure, city development in the Old South

  • The Upper South and the Lower South

  • Crops grown in the upper and lower Souths

  • The Planter, Gentry, Farmer, Poor White, Free Black, and Slave

  • Slave prices and slave ownership in the Old South. 

  • The nature of southern honor

 

The 1830s:  

North and South are going to have a Civil War.  Before this, however, they would need to know that they were different and to learn to dislike each other.  This lecture dealt with what was termed "the decade of discovery."  Here, lectures argued that the Nullification Crisis and the Texas Revolution both taught northerners and southerners much about themselves and their regions.  The 1830s, according to the lectures, was a decade in which North and South first learned that they had different interests, different needs, and that they did not necessarily get along.  This decade also indicated to both sides that they would have particular difficulties resolving conflicts over new territory.

So at minimum, you need to know this: 
 

  • The arguments over the tariff – increased rates, southern complaints

  • The "Tariff of abominations" (Tariff of 1828)

  • John C. Calhoun and coming up with the idea of nullification

  • South Carolina Exposition and Protest

  • The Webster-Hayne Debate

  • The Nullification Crisis – when South Carolina nullified the 1828 and 1832 tariffs.

  • Andrew Jackson and Nullification

  • The Alamo, Fannin Massacre, and Battle of San Jacinto

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The Oregon Trail:  May be written in on-campus classes.

 

Ok, so at this point, northern and southern politicians know that land acquisition is going to be difficult to compromise.  So don’t add land to the United States until this issue is figured out, right?  Wrong.  The Oregon Trail happened to open in the 1830s, providing a direct route to the far west.  Which meant people could go west.  Which meant they did.  Which meant they wanted to add new states.  You get the idea.  This lecture dealt with the history and evolution of the Oregon Trail.  Largely a study in social history, the lecture also covered information about the cost of a trip on the Oregon Trail, the route, the occasional disaster.

You need to know the following:  

  • The basic history of the Oregon Trail

  • The equipment, animals, and wagons required on the trail

  • The cost of a trip on the Oregon Trail

  • Jump off points

  • South Pass

  • Traveling on the trail - what was it like, when did travelers leave, what were the jump-off points?

  • The Donner experience

 

James Polk and Expansion in the 1840s:   

James Polk.  Mr. Expansion.  Having established with the Texas experience that North and South had difficulties bringing new territory into the United States, this lecture studied how the nation acquired millions of new acres of territory in the 1840s.  It studied the pride that accompanied the acquisition of territory, the actions of James K. Polk, the Mexican-American War, and the aftermath of expansion.  Oh, it’s worth mentioning that James Polk remains one of the most effective presidents ever to serve.  His accomplishments are covered fully in this lecture.  He is worth knowing about. 

So you need to know this:  (Don't forget to put ALL your information in the proper dates.  That's true for all of these lectures.) 
 

  • Manifest Destiny

  • John O'Sullivan

  • James K. Polk

  • Polk's goals as president

  • Polk's management of Oregon, Texas, and California

  • Polk's domestic achievements

  • Polk's term as president

  • John Tyler and the Joint Resolution of 1845

  • The Mexican-American War

  • The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

  • The Wilmot Proviso


Road to the Civil War:  

Lectures now turned to the decade from 1850 to 1860, the time period when the United States fell apart.  The road to the Civil War started with Congress in gridlock, a controversy over California, and a compromise.  Lectures then recounted the explosive issues of the 1850s that drove North and South apart.  This section concluded with the election of 1860 and the secession of the lower South.  Things got particularly bad between 1854-1860.  You might want to examine why compromise was no longer possible in 1860.  What had happened in those last years?

So you need to know the following:

  • The four positions in Congress (late 1840s) about how to handle newly acquired territory

  • Zachary Taylor

  • Popular Sovereignty (This is a fancy term that means "let the people decide."  Those who wanted the people of a territory to themselves choose whether or not it would have slavery used to use this term.)

  • The Compromise of 1850

  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act

  • Bleeding Kansas - that's the name given to the violence in Kansas that broke out in 1856.

  • The Republican Party

  • Free Labor Ideology

  • The Caning of Charles Sumner

  • The Dred Scott Case

  • John Brown's Raid on Virginia

  • The Election of 1860

  • Abraham Lincoln

  • Jefferson Davis – president of the Confederate States of American during the Civil War.

  • The Crittenden Compromise – what were the terms of the last compromise attempted before the Civil War?  It failed, of course. 

  • December 20, 1860 - IMPORTANT DATE. 

  • The order of secession - lower South, then upper.  Understand that not all southern states seceded at the same time.

 

The Civil War:  

What's to explain?  Lectures covered the Civil War in varying levels of detail, depending on the class. 

  • The dates of the Civil War, causalities of the war

  • The Confederate States of America

  • The major players in the War – Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses Grant, George McClellan

  • The events at Fort Sumter

  • The call for troops and the blockade

  • The Emancipation Proclamation

  • The war itself. 

  • The first major battle of the Civil War – First Manassas (or First Bull Run)

  • Know how the war was organized.  There were two theaters of operation in the Civil War.  The War in the West involved northern attempts to seize the Mississippi River.  It included battles at New Orleans, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. The War in the East (called Virginia Theater in the text) involved Northern attempts to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, VA.  It involved battles at Manassas, Antietam,  Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, The Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg.  The War in the East ended with the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

 

THE RECONSTRUCTION SECTION:  Yes, this class finishes with Reconstruction.  (Written Lecture.)

 

Reconstruction:  This concerns northern efforts to rebuild the South after the Civil War.  It was a long and rather complex process.   Reconstruction is HUGE, FLAWED, and incomplete.  Had it been handled better, many of the problems our citizens faced in the 1900s might not have existed.

 What you want to know is this:

  • The timeline of Reconstruction.

  • The Reconstruction Amendments

  • HOW Reconstruction finally ended in 1877.

  • The southern reaction to Congressional Reconstruction.Southern redeemers.

  • The Compromise of 1877.

  • The Freedman's Bureau.

  • The Reconstruction Amendments:  13, 14, 15.

  • Abraham Lincoln's Reconstruction Plans

  • Presidential Reconstruction

  • Andrew Johnson

  • Congressional or Radical Reconstruction

  • The Freedman's Bureau

  • The Reconstruction Amendments

  • Black Codes

  • The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

  • The Compromise of 1877

  • "Radical" governments in the Southe?


CUMULATIVE SECTION:

Here, the test will cover broad themes from class.  Be on the lookout in your notes for subjects, issues, themes that cut across all three of the sections covered in HIST 1301.  This class was divided into three periods:  Colonial, Early Republic/Age of Ambition/Road to Civil War.

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For the cumulative section, we're going more for significance and meaning than for individual dates.  I'm not going to burn a question on a tiny date from the second week of the class.  The test is specific, yes, but it's more about what specific people/cultures/events contributed to our understanding of US history.

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So at minimum you need to know the following: 
 

  • Main elements from each period.  That means for the very early lectures, you need to know the Black Death/Renaissance and their signficance. 

  • Moundbuilders, Mississippians and their significance to US history, what pre-Clovis sites tell us about the age of North America.

  • The major early colonies and their importance - MA and VA in particular.

  • Major events/themes - Jamestown, Lost Colony, colonial founders, religion, Seven Years' War.

  • Slavery's history in American history to 1877 – Stono Rebellion, Nat Turner Rebellion, Middle Passage, Quock Walker, gradual emancipation, etc.

  • Geographical events.  Can you place major events in their proper state or region?  Remember that a BIG theme in this class had to do with North/South differences.

  • The significant players in American history to 1877 – Columbus, John Winthrop, William Penn, James Oglethorpe, James Otis, Charles Sumner, George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, John C. Calhoun, Roger Sherman, Henry Clay.   (There are others as well.)

  • Significant documents in American history – The Articles of Confederation, the Nature of a Confederation, the South Carolina Exposition, The Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation, etc.

  • Significant turning points in American history to 1877.  The creation of the Constitution, the War of 1812, the arrival of Native Americans, the Civil War, the election of Jackson, the revolution of 1800, the Sedition Act, nullification, the creation of elected government in 1619 Virginia, Social Revolution, etc.. 

  • Significant elections – 1828, 1800, 1860, 1788, etc.

  • Significant government theories presented through the course of this class (states' rights, confederations, republic, supreme national government)

  • The significant wars of American history to 1877 – the 1622 Virginia attack, French and Indian War, King Philip’s War, American Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican-American, Civil War

  • The Compromises of American history to 1877 – Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, Great Compromise of 1787, the Crittenden Compromise of 1860, Compromise of 1877

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