. Describe the general immigration trends of the 1790s-1860s.

Tindall, George Brown, and David E. Shi. America:
A narrative history. WW Norton & Company, 2016.

1. Describe the general immigration trends of the
1790s-1860s. What forms did the nativist?
response to this immigration take?
2. Discuss the transportation revolution that followed
the opening of the Erie Canal.
3. What factors account for the tremendous growth in
cotton cultivation from 1790 to 1860?
4. Compare and contrast the expressions of nationalism
and sectionalism in the period from
1790-1860, and explain which forces were dominant in
each period.
5. Describe the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and
discuss its ongoing significance.
6. Following the War of 1812, political positions
shifted with Republicans supporting many
former Federalist ideas, like the banks, and
Federalists supporting former Republican
programs. Discuss this phenomenon.
7. Discuss the Jacksonian idea of the “common man” and
its role in politics during the
1820s-1840s. How do elements of this idea continue to
shape politics today?
8. Why was the banking controversy so important in the
1830s? What actions did Jackson
take toward the Bank of the United States?
9. Discuss President Jackson’s Indian policy. How did Indian’s
fare under his?
administration? Be sure to include in your response a
description of what happened to the
Indians living east of the Mississippi River by 1840
and the 1830s Indian Removal Act.
10. Describe the economic, social, and cultural
diversity of the Old South.
11. Trace the development of black society in the Old
South. What were the different groups?
that comprised black society? What distinguished them
from each other and what tied
them together?
12. What made ideas about race so powerful that poor
whites in the Old South seemingly
ignored their own economic interests to support
slavery and the disproportionate benefits
it provided the relatively small number of planter
elite?
13. What was the most significant development or trend
in the United States during the first
half of the nineteenth century, and what makes your
answer more compelling than any of
the other possibilities?
14. Explain the phrase “manifest destiny.” What
factors were most important in drawing?
Americans to the West, both mentally and physically?
15. Discuss the causes and consequences of the
Mexican-American War.
16. How did U.S. domestic politics influence American
foreign relations with Mexico and
Britain in the 1840s?
17. List and describe the issues and events in the
period 1848-1860 that demonstrate the
increasingly divided nation during this period.
18. What are the various ways in which the federal
government attempted to resolve the issue
of slavery in the territories in the decade prior to
the Civil War? Why did each of those
tactics ultimately fail?
19. How important were individuals and individual
decisions to causing the Civil War, and to
what extent were systemic forces beyond the control of
any single individual to blame?
What was more important, individual choices or
systemic forces?
20. Describe domestic politics during the American
Civil War, both northern and southern.
What problems did Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis
face? How did they deal with?
these problems?
21. Account for the issuance of the Emancipation
Proclamation, showing how it was both
shrewd military and diplomatic strategy and an effort
for humanitarian reform. Describe
how most enslaved people became free in the United States?
22. Discuss how the Civil War was “the most traumatic
event in American history.”
23. Describe the plans for Reconstruction offered by
Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson,
and Congress. What was the goal of each plan? How did
each plan propose to accomplish?
its goal?
24. What makes the Reconstruction era significant in
United States history? What is its
legacy? How did it impact the nation in the future?
25. Why did Reconstruction come to an end in 1877?

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