Early American History

Explorations & Encounters

100

How did Handsome Lake describe the founding of the United States in his narrative?

European settlers were guided to the American continent by devilish reasons: riches, gold, wealth, position and power. More specifically, Europeans brought with them cards, money, fiddles, whiskey and blood corruption, which negatively impacted the Native Americans who had been living on that land for centuries.

200

Define the African Slave Trade. In what ways did it devastate African life and culture?

Different European nations were involved in the trade. It led to the forced migration of millions of enslaved Africans to the Americas over a span of four centuries, sixteenth to the nineteenth. economy contracted depopulation happened. economic stagnation technological arrest and trade warfare and political fragmentation. old African kingdoms die out

300

Why did slavery replace indentured servitude in Virginia? How did slavery create order?

Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 caused confusion and chaos, and it showed that white freemen could and would rebel against the landed gentry Slavery, as a new system, which would be life-long and inherited through the mother, would bring order and stability to Virginia. Slave codes, a comprehensive series of laws regulating the governance of enslaved people, created order by defining race and using race to justify slavery.

Potpourri

100

How might George Hewes’ story be a story of transformation?

It’s a transformation of a common man, a shoemaker, into a hero of the American Revolution, a patriot. It was during the Revolution, the events not really the ideas, that he awakened to citizenship and gained recognition. Emphasis was on events: Boston Massacre (1770), Tea Party (1773), and the tarring and feathering of the royal customs officer John Malcolm (1774).

200

What are two of the theories to explain the fall of Cahokia?

Political troubles, military troubles, severe drought, and/or change in climate

300

Define paradox. What is the central paradox of New World history?

Paradox is a “tenet contrary to received opinion.” It is a statement that is contradictory or with contradictory qualities. The paradox of New World history is that settlers worshipped America for its purity and promise yet could not resist the opportunity to take advantage of its innocence.

Jacksonian America

100

What was Andrew Jackson’s policy toward Native Americans? How did Native American resist?

His was a policy of removal. He believed that Native American should be resettled west of the Mississippi River. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 uprooted certain tribes like the Cherokee and Jackson repudiated Jefferson’s idea of civilizing and/or assimilating Native Americans.

200

What was the Trail of Tears?

The Trail of Tears was the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation from their homes in 1838-1839 to present-day Oklahoma. Trail originated in Tennessee and followed overland route through Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. One in four died.

300

Define manifest destiny. How did this concept impact the expansion of the United States in the early national/antebellum periods?

Manifest Destiny (Westward Expansion): NY journalist coined term in 1845, but idea existed earlier: it meant the U.S. had divine mission to occupy all of North America. And this principle led directly to the expansion (to the West) of the United States.

Moral Mother

100

Barbara Welter describes 4 cardinal virtues associated with True Womanhood. What are those four virtues? Briefly describe them. What groups were outside of this conception of True Womanhood?

piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity Black slave women, for instance, didn't fit into tenets of True Womanhood given their experiences as female slaves.

200

How do historians characterize the economy in early American republic? Discuss the shift from the previous system to the new one. How did this impact some women?

Beginning in the 1800s up through 1840s, an economic transformation that swept over the United States. It shifted from a barter system, in which goods and labor are exchanged directly and which are therefore governed in part by personal relations and social reciprocity to a market-based, price driven system.

300

What kind of archetype best describes Mary Rogers? Explain.

New Urban Woman/New Generation Woman - sense of independence, sexual freedom, working in the marketplace, and so on

Slavery & Abolition

100

In 1793, Eli Whitney invented the _________, which increased the production of cotton in the U.S. Why is this invention important?

What is the cotton gin? The cotton gin led to expansion of slavery, and cotton became the single largest item of export from the United States throughout the early national/antebellum period and its value outweighed the value of all other items of export from the United States.

200

Define radical abolitionism in antebellum America.

Radical abolitionism, a movement beginning in late 1820s/early 1830s, stressed: 1) immediate abolition of slavery, 2) slaveholders would not be compensated, and 3) fight for racial equality and black citizenship.

300

What were some proslavery arguments? How did Douglass' Narrative push back against these arguments?

Proslavery arguments include but are not limited to religious justification, form of labor, African inferiority, and slavery as a benevolent institution. Douglass' Narrative revealed the realities of slavey life (physical abuse, psychological abuse, violence, rape, murder, separation of families, forced labor, and so on.)