Q&A Hero

Q: How did working-class urban whites generally feel about the abolitionist movement? A) They supported abolitionism because they thought the institution of slavery was morally wrong. B) They supported abolitionism because they thought it would lead to more economic opportunities. C) They resisted abolitionism because they sincerely believed that African Americans were happier in slavery than they would be as free people. D) They resisted abolitionism because they worried about the collapse of the cotton industry. E) They resisted abolitionism because they did not want to compete socially and economically with African Americans.

Q: Which of the following movements of the nineteenth century had the greatest influence on the development of the abolitionist movement? A) Cult of Domesticity B) extension of public education C) women's rights movement D) temperance movement E) Second Great Awakening

Q: Which statement below is true of the American Colonization Society? A) African countries refused to participate in the program. B) It advocated immediate emancipation of slaves. C) It was opposed by African Americans in the North. D) Government intervention hampered its efforts. E) It was responsible for most of the emancipations prior to the Civil War.

Q: In practice, working-class families viewed the new public schools ________. A) as depriving them of needed wage earners B) as essential to the improvement of their economic situation C) with indifference D) as an indication of upper class paternalism E) as a welcome learning opportunity for themselves and their children

Q: Why did educational reformers want local schools to serve sometimes as a substitute for the family? A) They were worried that poor and immigrant families would not properly nurture their children. B) They were worried that parents in poor and immigrant families often ended up getting divorced. C) They were afraid that many families would resist the new child-centered model of family life they endorsed for religious reasons. D) They were worried that parents in wealthy families often ended up getting divorced. E) They were worried that parents in poor and immigrant families often ended up abandoning their children.

Q: Which of the following identifies a key reason why society began focusing on childhood in the nineteenth century? A) Children were becoming a larger part of the national economy. B) Urban couples saw large families as an economic asset. C) Religious revivalism made birth control and abortions impossible. D) Families were getting larger and individual children became more highly valued. E) Families got smaller.

Q: What was one of the results from changes in the middle-class family in the nineteenth-century? A) Children left home sooner. B) Children became more available for labor. C) Children received more physical punishment than in earlier generations. D) Children increasingly became viewed as individuals. E) Children were often offered up for adoption.

Q: Which of the following was NOT a major change in middle-class family life during the nineteenth century? A) Relationships between parents and children became more intimate. B) The "Cult of Domesticity" gained ground. C) Families became more child-centered. D) More and more women worked outside the home. E) The use of corporal punishment declined.

Q: Why did Catharine Beecher argue that women should be schoolteachers? A) Teaching was a form of parenting, at which women naturally excelled. B) Women had a stronger moral sense than men. C) Women were more intelligent than men. D) Teaching was the only paid occupation for which women were qualified. E) Women had better language and explication skills than men.

Q: Which of these describe the effect of the Cult of Domesticity? A) It spread the message that women had no value in the society. B) It saw women as guardians of virtue within the family. C) It idealized women who left their families for religious missions. D) It taught that women should help the economic stability of their families. E) It focused on the domestic role of men.

Q: The reality behind the Cult of Domesticity was ________. A) the growing urban population of the nation B) the accepted use of child labor C) a growing division between the workplace and the home D) the increasing acceptance of careers for women E) the staggering number of women dying during childbirth

Q: Each of the following was a result of the temperance campaign of the 1830s EXCEPT ________. A) thousands of local temperance organizations were set up B) large numbers of confirmed drunkards were cured C) temperance became a mark of respectability among middle-class men D) per capita consumption of hard liquor declined by over 50 percent E) the drinking habits of middle-class American males were significantly altered

Q: The temperance movement was like the abolition movement in ________. A) spawning Washingtonian societies B) being popular in both the North and the South C) being part of an international movement D) involving women and black activists in important roles E) being restricted largely to the North

Q: What was true about the temperance movement of the nineteenth century? A) It was created to help unmarried women survive in the workforce. B) It led to a rise in organized crime due to criminalization of alcohol consumption. C) It was the least successful reform movement of the era. D) It was created to address alcohol consumption rates much lower than modern rates. E) It addressed a very real social problem of the time.

Q: As a result of revivalism, northern evangelicals were involved with each of the following EXCEPT ________. A) abolitionism B) missionary and benevolent associations C) the temperance movement D) Indian removal E) publication of religious tracts

Q: What did radical revivalist Charles G. Finney do that was considered a violation of tradition? A) He allowed women to join his church. B) He allowed women to pray aloud in church. C) He relied on rational, scientific arguments to win converts. D) His sermons were lengthy, sometimes lasting two hours. E) He did not believe in a mysterious, all-powerful God.

Q: The reform movement in New England began as a(n) ________. A) effort to defend Calvinism against Enlightenment ideas B) attempt to maintain the status quo in religion C) result of the actions of social radicals in religion D) outgrowth of deism E) rejection of Catholicism

Q: In contrast to the North, revivalism in southern states did not ________. A) seek to improve the morals of society B) push for social reform C) encourage temperance D) discourage dueling E) have an impact on religious life

Q: What significant event occurred in 1848, at Seneca Falls, New York? A) the largest religious revival in American history B) the first national gathering of feminists C) an anti-Mormon riot in which several were killed D) the beginning of the radical antislavery movement E) the cession of the Ohio Valley to the United States

Q: Which of the following women became one of the most significant leaders of the women's rights movement? A) Elizabeth Cady Stanton B) Mother Ann Lee C) Dorothea Dix D) Harriet Beecher Stowe E) Louisa May Alcott

Q: Who were the main conductors on the Underground Railroad? A) sympathetic plantation owners in the South B) freed slaves in the Southwest C) free blacks in the North D) affluent whites in the North E) working-class whites

Q: Frederick Douglass was all of the following EXCEPT ________. A) a former slave B) the founder of the black newspaper North Star C) a prominent black abolitionist D) a fiery orator, who described slavery to northern audiences E) a presidential candidate in 1868

Q: William Lloyd Garrison's stand on _________ led to an open break at the national convention of the American Anti-slavery Society in 1840. A) interracial marriage B) African-American rights C) religion D) temperance E) women's rights

Q: Where did antislavery orators and organizers tend to have their greatest success? A) border states B) the upper North C) large cities D) frontier territories E) northern state legislatures

Q: Whose career demonstrated the tie between revivalism and abolitionism? A) Lewis Tappan B) Theodore Dwight Weld C) Charles G. Finney D) Elizabeth Cady Stanton E) Harriet Tubman

Q: The radical abolitionist and cofounder of the American Anti-slavery Society was ________. A) William Lloyd Garrison B) Theodore Weld C) Sojourner Truth D) Harriet Beecher Stowe E) Harriet Tubman

Q: Which American president had little formal education as a child, but sharpened his intellect through participation in debating societies and lyceums? A) James K. Polk B) John Quincy Adams C) Abraham Lincoln D) James Garfield E) Franklin Pierce

Q: In addition to reading, writing, and arithmetic, mid-nineteenth-century public schools taught ________. A) abolitionist ideals B) the Protestant ethic C) Catholicism D) the evils of industrialization E) the merits of science over religion

Q: Which of the following men was the most influential spokesman for the common school movement? A) John Harward B) Lyman Beecher C) Henry James D) Horace Mann E) Terrance Knox

Q: What was considered to be the most important function of the school in the mid-nineteenth century? A) intellectual training B) vocational training C) moral indoctrination D) child care E) physical conditioning

Q: Nineteenth century parents began using ________ instead of corporal punishment to enforce good behavior among their children. A) fear B) praise C) bribery D) shame E) humor

Q: What was considered the main function of the family unit in the nineteenth century? A) to establish a good name for the family B) to maintain the family's reputation C) to contribute to the economy D) to defend family members against outsiders E) to raise children

Q: What was the focus of the feminine subculture for many middle-class women during the nineteenth century? A) establishing that women are morally superior to men B) establishing a sense of solidarity with other women C) gaining political equality with men D) gaining economic equality with men E) competition with other women to be most virtuous

Q: Who were primarily affected by the Cult of Domesticity? A) relatively affluent women B) middle-class men C) working-class women D) African-American women E) recent immigrants

Q: What was considered the "proper" sphere for middle-class white women in the nineteenth century? A) helping with her husband's small business B) being involved in the arts and literature C) keeping house and raising a family D) working on tasks that did not need physical strength E) wage-earning outside the home

Q: What did the term "benevolent empire" refer to? A) a United States without slavery B) the English-speaking Christian colonies C) a group of Christian churches that focused on helping the poor D) a group of missionary and reform societies that worked together E) the Kingdom of Heaven

Q: What was the Washingtonian Society? A) an evangelical group that focused on converting the working classes to Christianity B) a group of Christian women who traveled the country preaching the evils of alcoholism C) a political faction that used the Constitution as a basis for their antislavery movement D) a temperance group whose members discussed their struggles with alcoholism E) a secret society that prompted many of the social and religious reforms during the 1800s

Q: Lyman Beecher was especially influential in which one of the following reform movements? A) abolition B) mental asylum reform C) prison reform D) public school reform E) temperance

Q: The idea that people could conduct their lives completely free of sin is called ________. A) perfectionism B) abolitionism C) temperance D) acceptance E) purification

Q: Who was the first great practitioner of evangelical Calvinism? A) Samuel John Mills B) Lyman Beecher C) Nathaniel Taylor D) Horace Mann E) Charles G. Finney

Q: Which religiously liberal group of the early nineteenth century denied the doctrine of the Trinity? A) Presbyterians B) Congregationalists C) Unitarians D) Methodists E) Mormons

Q: What was the Second Great Awakening? A) a wave of religious revivals B) a political movement to abolish slavery C) an early women's rights movement D) a reform movement to educate more American children E) a creative movement that revolutionized American art

Q: Which of these was used successfully in the early 1800s to increase church membership? A) overseas missionary activity B) ecumenicalism C) revivalism D) spiritualism E) marketing tactics

Q: At the time of the Civil War, ________. A) almost all Southerners owned at least one slave B) most white Southerners owned three or more slaves C) most white households had a house slave D) one-quarter of white Southerners owned slaves E) one-half of white Southerners owned slaves

Q: If a former slave could not prove he or she had been legally freed, then he or she was likely to be ________. A) reenslaved B) deported C) arrested D) fined E) executed

Q: The typical way for most slaves to express discontent was ________. A) political protest B) open, armed rebellion C) passive resistance D) participation in conspiracies E) organizing boycotts

Q: What was the Underground Railroad? A) a train line that many white Southerners used when hunting for escaped slaves B) a formal network that helped return fugitive slaves to their masters C) an organization that helped fugitive slaves escape to Mexico D) an informal network of people that helped return fugitive slaves to their masters E) an informal network that helped fugitive slaves make their way to the North

Q: Slave religion was typically ________. A) the same as indigenous African religion B) a version of Christianity shaped by African traditions C) overseen by the established white churches D) shaped by white evangelization E) underdeveloped because of slaves' work schedule

Q: Why were slave families in the upper South so often headed by women? A) They were following African traditions. B) Husbands often worked elsewhere. C) Mortality rates were unusually high there. D) Women tended to work inside the house. E) Industry was more common in that region.

Q: Slave marriages tended to last longer on ________. A) plantations in the upper South B) small farms C) smaller plantations D) large plantations E) urban estates

Q: What did the young children of plantation slaves do while their parents worked? A) They often accompanied their parents and were cared for by older children. B) They often went to segregated schools before they were old enough to work. C) They were often cared for at home by their mothers. D) They were often sent to nurseries where other slaves cared for them. E) They often played with the young children of the plantation owners.

Q: The majority of slaves worked ________. A) in industry B) as skilled tradesmen C) as house servants D) as field workers E) in restaurants, hotels, and saloons

Q: The leader of the 1831 slave uprising in Southampton County, Virginia, was ________. A) Denmark Vesey B) Hinton R. Helper C) George Fitzhugh D) Daniel Webster E) Nat Turner

Q: Which statement best describes a major disadvantage of the southern economy? A) The South lacked the infrastructure to transport all the cotton it produced, so planters were frequently forced to burn their crops. B) Such a large percentage of arable land was devoted to cotton that there were frequent food shortages in the South. C) The focus on a single industry that was profitable only to a small minority prevented industrial and commercial growth. D) The excessive profits of the industry led to unchecked price inflation in southern urban centers. E) The profits of the industry were available to everyone, so the South underwent social upheaval and class conflict.

Q: According to the authors, inequalities based on race were exacerbated by inequalities based on ________. A) gender B) religion C) country of origin D) distribution of resources E) education

Q: White southerners in the 1830s began portraying free blacks as savages because they were trying to ________. A) justify harsher treatment of free blacks B) drum up support for a race war C) raise funds for militias to defend against slave uprisings D) put social pressure on free blacks to leave the South E) put social pressure on all blacks, both slave and free, to leave the South

Q: The cotton economy of the lower South ________. A) benefited the lower classes and the upper classes equally B) did not create uniform prosperity throughout the region C) was free from general market fluctuations D) led to greater southern self-sufficiency E) encouraged industry and innovation

Q: Which statement is true of cotton agriculture in the pre-Civil War era? A) Many planters sought to cultivate an alternative to cotton. B) Cotton was the most famous crop in the South, but it was not the most profitable. C) Cotton was a sure investment because cotton prices rarely fluctuated. D) Many planters worked their land until it was exhausted. E) Large plantation owners stopped growing cotton and turned to tobacco.

Q: When tobacco prices sagged after 1820, ________. A) farmers in the upper South switched over to cotton and rice production B) farmers in the upper South found effective ways to reverse soil depletion C) an internal slave trade emerged from the upper to the lower South D) planters in Virginia and Maryland turned openly to slave breeding as a business E) Virginia and Maryland began exporting slaves to the Caribbean Islands

Q: Southern apologists claimed the master-slave relationship was more humane than the employer-worker relationship because it offered ________. A) job training B) a more egalitarian relationship C) better working conditions D) greater long-term security E) gender equality

Q: Southern proslavery arguments did NOT include the belief that slavery was ________. A) the natural status for blacks B) sanctioned by the Bible C) supported by the United States Constitution D) consistent with the humanitarian spirit E) more humane than the employer-employee relationship

Q: Nonslaveholders in the South followed the leadership of slave owners because they ________. A) were dependent on the institution of slavery for their livelihoods B) thought slavery was best for the slaves themselves C) wanted to become slave owners themselves D) were not eligible to participate in the political process E) feared slave owners would requisition their land

Q: Hinton R. Helper tried to convince southern yeoman farmers that ________. A) they should end planter dominance and slavery with it B) slavery increased their standard of living C) they could someday be slave owners themselves D) they should fight to maintain the institution of slavery E) they should free their slaves

Q: Which correctly describes the attitudes of southern yeoman farmers? A) They were staunch supporters of abolitionism even though they owned slaves. B) They listened sympathetically to abolitionist ideas but remained neutral. C) They paid little attention to the slave system even though it supported them. D) They were staunch supporters of slavery even though they rarely owned slaves. E) They were staunch supporters of slavery even though they were Christians.

Q: The prosperity of the southern yeoman was limited by the lack of ________. A) cash crops B) land C) transportation facilities D) educational facilities E) entrepreneurial spirit

Q: Why would most slaves typically prefer living and working on a plantation rather than a small farm? A) Plantation owners often worked alongside their slaves. B) There were often better living conditions on plantations, and more possibilities for social interaction. C) Slaves often enjoyed a sense of camaraderie with plantation owners. D) Rich planters usually avoided breaking up families on their plantations. E) Working hours were always shorter on plantations than on small farms.

Q: Which practice provides some support for the idea that planters were benevolent parents to their slaves? A) The masters of large plantations had close relationships with most of their slaves. B) Planters generally treated their slaves like their own children. C) Slaves in the American South were treated better relative to slaves in Brazil and the West Indies. D) Planters, as Christians, acknowledged the validity of slave marriages. E) Planters made sure that slaves were given a rudimentary education.

Q: Which description best identifies how Christian slaveholders justified the enslavement of other human beings? A) The prosperity of many was necessitated by the suffering of a few. B) Suffering in slavery helped African Americans earn a place in Heaven. C) People of African descent were demons and therefore should be enslaved. D) People of African descent needed to be taken care of. E) Being enslaved would help convert African Americans to Christianity.

Q: Most southern planters considered their slaves to be ________. A) hard working and industrious B) children who required constant supervision C) skilled and motivated D) dangerous malcontents E) mere property

Q: In which way did the richest plantation families resemble a traditional landed aristocracy? A) Planters were poor businessmen. B) Planters collected taxes from the peasants who worked their land. C) Planters' sons chose military or law careers rather than going into trade. D) Planters lived lives of leisure. E) Most planters were descended from titled families.

Q: The typical great planter of the pre-Civil War South was ________. A) most likely a self-made man B) looked down on by most southern whites C) well-educated D) born to wealth and position E) descended from the colonial elite

Q: Free blacks in the South faced each of the following limitations EXCEPT ________. A) being prohibited from transacting business B) being required to carry documentation of their free status at all times C) being forced to register or have a white guardian who was responsible for their actions D) having their meetings or organizations blocked by the authorities E) having to get official permission to move from one county to another

Q: The Brer Rabbit stories ________. A) showed how a fugitive slave could find safe haven in the underbrush B) were fantasies which enabled slaves to forget their harsh lot for a while C) were used to indoctrinate white children with the belief that slaves were no smarter than animals D) showed how a defenseless animal could overcome a stronger one through cunning and deceit, a metaphor for survival as a slave E) portrayed slaves as being happy and well-adjusted

Q: During the Second Seminole War of 1835"1842, ________. A) most slaves rebelled against their masters B) many escaped slaves fought with the Native Americans against the U.S. soldiers C) slaves slaughtered Seminole Indians in large numbers D) many whites killed their slaves in fear of an alliance between slaves and Native Americans E) many escaped slaves hiding in Florida were found and returned to their owners

Q: Which identifies an advantage to slaves living on large plantations with stable slave populations? A) Families stayed intact and the mother typically raised the children alone. B) Families stayed intact and the father typically raised the children alone. C) Families stayed intact and both parents typically shared in the child-rearing duties. D) Children were usually raised by distant family members, allowing a large social network to develop. E) Children usually began working as soon as they could walk, cutting down on behavioral problems.

Q: Which description best describes the "task" labor that many slaves performed on large plantations? A) A group of white overseers pushed a small group of slaves to work around the clock. B) Large groups of slaves worked side by side with their masters. C) Large groups of slaves worked from sunrise to sunset under a white overseer. D) Slaves worked at their own pace with little supervision during an eight-hour day. E) Large groups of slaves worked together to accomplish major projects.

Q: Which best describes the "gang" labor performed by many slaves on large plantations? A) A group of white overseers pushed a small group of slaves to work around the clock. B) Large groups of slaves worked side by side with their masters. C) Groups of slaves worked from sunrise to sunset under a white overseer. D) Slaves worked at their own pace with little supervision during an eight-hour day. E) Large groups of slaves worked together to accomplish major projects.

Q: Which identifies an important effect of the violent slave rebellion of 1831? A) White Southerners became more committed to quashing antislavery ideas. B) Many slaves were freed because their masters were afraid to remain part of the system. C) Organized, violent rebellions began happening with more frequency. D) White Southerners began to question the legitimacy of slavery. E) Many slaves were sold to the West Indies to decrease the population in the South.

Q: Who profited most from the union of slavery and cotton production? A) inventors and entrepreneurs B) small business owners C) non-slaveholders D) small slaveholders E) large plantation owners

Q: During the nineteenth century, the center of cotton production ________. A) moved westward B) moved eastward C) moved northward D) remained in the Southeast E) remained in the upper South