Possible Essay Questions for Unit 1: Creating a New America - How America Changed from the 1860s to 1900

General Tips

Possible Choices You Will Have for Question 1

Possible Choices You Will Have for Question 2

 

General Tips

When you read, you identify significant and representative events. When you write, you select from those significant and representative events. You are not writing every fact in the textbook. The objective is to be clear and teach your smart cousin the history. (See Good Habits for Evidence for more details.) The maximum length is 175 words.

You can identify information about significant and representative events that you need to read about carefully by:

§  Using the index at the back of the textbook with the general words in the question

§  Using the quiz questions for this Unit to find specific words to use in the index at the back of the textbook

If those two things are not enough, I will provide tips to resources or to specific locations in the textbook. For examples, look at the tips for the possible choices for question 2 at the bottom of this webpage.

 

Possible Choices You Will Have for Question 1

To know that to read, use the link visible after you do the History Changes Quiz – Check Your Knowledge. Tip: Use the chart

·         Not only to show you what to read for each period

·         But also to help you understand how history changed over time and space

 

You do not have to write about the two periods with the strike through (1865-1867 and 1867-1872) in the Unit essay test but you need to understand them enough to avoid factual error in what you do write. For an example of what I mean, scroll to the bottom of this webpage.

Using the required reading, you write on the significant events that occur with blacks in the South for each of the time periods listed.  For example, if your

You will have two of these time periods to choose from. You write on either one.

 

Significant Events That Occur with Blacks in the South During

 

Chapter

 

These Time Periods

15

16

17

18

19

What to Read

1865-1867

X)

X

 

 

 

Read the specific sections from the textbook American Passages. Also look at the table for self-testing and the completed table with my answers. These things are provided in the link that is visible after you that Check Your Knowledge quiz on History Changes —and it tells you exactly which pages to read in the chapters for the edition you have.

1867-1872

 

X

 

 

 

1872-1877

 

X

 

 

 

1877-1887

 

X

X@

 

 

1887-1893

 

 

 

X

 

1893-1901

 

 

 

 

X

@ Caution: Be careful when you read the heading “Segregation” in Chapter 17 covering how “racial segregation evolved slowly.” That section on “Segregation” starts out reminding you about legislation passed in 1875—but the section is about what the Supreme Court decides about that legislation in 1883. Those pages are not about the 1870s.

 

Example of what you will see on the test for this first question. You could do either one.

Using content from its required reading, explain what happened to blacks in the South for one of these time periods        EITHER a) 1872-1877        OR b) 1887-1893

 

 

Possible Choices You Will Have for Question 2

General Tip: All of these questions ask you to compare or examine two things, not just summarize one thing. For example, you must figure out what happened with silver--and to people. For a method to do this, click here.

 

You will have two of these to choose from. You write on either one.

 

Possible Questions

Chapter

 

16

17

18

19

Details or Tips

Crime of ’73 and silver purchase issues (what happens with currency policy and how does it have consequences on people)

X

 

 

 

Crime of ’73 - Tip:  establishes the gold standard. Notice inflation/deflation & debtors/creditors

 

 

X

X

Tip: Use the index for the words silver coinage. Notice inflation/deflation & debtors/creditors (Farmers are debtors in this era.)

Cuba and the Teller and Platt Amendments (what these amendments show about US foreign policy)

 

 

 

X

Teller Amendment - Tip: Notice what is being amended.

 

 

 

X

Platt Amendment -Tip: Notice what is being amended.

Granger laws and the Interstate Commerce Commission (what happens about railroads and regulation)

X

X

 

 

Granger laws - Tip: how to the farmers make this happen?

 

X

X

X

Interstate Commerce Commission - Tip: what’s a commission as a governmental form

Grant’s Peace Policy and the Dawes Severalty Act (what happens with Native Americans)

 

This question is no longer used for the exam.

X

 

 

 

Grant’s Peace Policy –In the index, look up Grant and then Native Americans and. Tip: notice the consequences

 

X

X

 

Dawes Severalty Act – 17 covers the law; 18 covers the consequences.

Tip: the word severalty means owning property as an individual, not a tribe

Standard Oil and Sherman Anti-Trust (what happens about  the rise of big corporations, monopoly, and the public response)

 

X

 

X

Standard Oil - Tip: how does Rockefeller make this happen?

 

 

X

X

Sherman Anti-Trust  -Tip: Location: the section within the heading “Big Business Arrives.” Notice public response to rise of big corporations, elections

Tompkins Square and Haymarket Square (two examples of what happens with labor)

X

 

 

 

Tompkins Square - Tip: Location: Main heading -“Panic of 1873…” and subheading “The Plight of the Unemployed”

Tip:unemployed, workers and government’s response.

 

X

 

 

Haymarket Square Tip: workers and government’s response

 

Example of what you will see on the test for this second question. You could do either one.

Using content from our textbook or links in the course, explain one of these:

EITHER a) Crime of ’73 and silver purchase issues (what happens with currency policy and how does it have consequences on people)

OR b) Standard Oil and Sherman Anti-Trust (what happens about  the rise of big corporations, monopoly, and the public response)

 

 

 

 

Caution about the strike through of 1865-1867 and 1867-1872

 

Although you do not have to write on these two periods, you do need to understand them enough that you avoid factual error when you write about one of the other four time periods.


Example of factual error you could do

If you wrote that1872-1877 was the first time blacks in the South voted, you would be incorrect.

 

Why? Because voting by blacks is covered in the textbook for the periods prior to 1872.

 

 

 

WCJC Department:

History – Dr. Bibus

 

Contact Information:

281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu

 

Last Updated:

2014

 

WCJC Home:

http://www.wcjc.edu/