Early United States History - History 172

California State University at Long Beach

 

Sample Exams

 

Entry ungraded essay exercise

Between the years 1861-1865 the United States was involved in an internal war that had roots reaching far back into the early days of continental settlement. Write an essay in which you explain to the best of your ability the social, economic, political, racial, and religious chain of events that link the settlement of the "new world" with the crisis that led to the Civil War.

 

Exam #1

Write an essay in which you address one of the following questions/statements. Keep in mind the grading rubric that was provided in class.

• Contrast the views of Europeans of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with those of Native Americans and Africans they encountered on such topics as the environment, social relations, religious beliefs, and slavery. Which group do you consider "savage," "heathen," or "barbarian"? Explain your position.

• Compare the development of agriculture in the New England, mid-Atlantic, and southern colonies. How did different types of farming contribute to the formation of different types of societies in the three regions? Although far more European colonists came to the Chesapeake and Carolina colonies than to New England or Pennsylvania during the seventeenth century, life proved to be much more secure in the Puritan and Quaker colonies. Analyze how and why this was so.

 

Exam #2

Write an essay in which you address one of the following questions/statements. Keep in mind the grading rubric that was provided in class.

• Discuss the proposed program of George Grenville in 1764-1765 to raise revenue to reduce EnglandŐs debt. How and why did the Stamp Act politicize American colonists as never before?

• Although the Revolution resulted in independence for the American nation, it produced varied consequences for those who lived through it. Analyze the impact of the Revolution on the lives of Native Americans, Blacks, and Women.

• Analyze the success and failures of the Confederation government in struggling with the following peacetime agenda: demobilizing the army; opening new lands for western settlement; wrestling with a large national debt; and surviving in a hostile world.

 

Exam #3 (Final Exam)

Write an essay in which you address one of the following questions/statements. Keep in mind the grading rubric that was provided in class.

• Identify and discuss the components that contributed to American economic growth from 1820 to 1860: The North, The South.

• Identify and discuss the reform era in antebellum America, the types of reform pursued, and the motivations of the reformers. What impact did these reform movements have on the coming split in the Union?

• Analyze the major developments between 1848 and 1861 that contributed to the Civil War.