AP US History (APUSH) Unit 5: Period 5, 1844-1877 Practice Questions with Explanations
Questions
Which issue most drove the sectional conflict of Period 5 (1844–1877)?
- Whether Britain or France should control trade in the Caribbean
- Whether the United States should keep a national bank and protective tariffs
- Whether immigrants from Asia should be allowed to become citizens
- Whether slavery could expand into western territories
Period 5 ends in 1877 with
- the completion of the transcontinental railroad
- the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment
- the end of Reconstruction
- the surrender at Appomattox Court House
Which sequence best summarizes Period 5?
- Revolution, Confederation, Constitution, early republic
- Exploration, conquest, colonization, Atlantic trade
- Industrialization, urbanization, Progressivism, World War I
- Expansion, sectional crisis, Civil War, Reconstruction
Manifest Destiny was the belief that
- the United States should avoid acquiring new land beyond the Mississippi
- Native nations should keep permanent control of the Great Plains
- the U.S. was meant to expand across the continent
- Europe should be allowed to colonize the western half of North America
Supporters of Manifest Destiny often justified expansion by claiming
- Native peoples had invited Americans to settle their lands
- Mexico had asked the United States to govern its northern provinces
- expansion would end the debate over slavery forever
- Americans had a God-given mission to spread democracy
Texas was annexed by the United States in
- 1836
- 1850
- 1848
- 1845
Why did annexing Texas take nearly a decade after its independence?
- Britain owned Texas until 1845 and refused to sell it
- Texas voters repeatedly rejected joining the United States in elections
- Northerners feared adding a large slave state
- The Supreme Court ruled annexation unconstitutional in 1840
Polk's campaign slogan "Fifty-four forty or fight" referred to
- the Texas border with Mexico
- the Missouri Compromise line
- the Oregon border
- California's southern border
The Oregon Treaty of 1846 with Britain
- set the border at the 49th parallel
- led to war between the United States and Britain over Oregon
- gave the United States all territory up to 54°40' north
- gave Oregon to Mexico as part of a broader settlement
Thousands of settlers traveled to Oregon in the 1840s mainly to
- escape the Mexican-American War draft
- work in Oregon's textile factories
- claim fertile farmland
- search for gold in the Columbia River
The California Gold Rush began after gold was discovered in 1848 at
- Sutter's Fort in Oregon
- Pikes Peak
- the Comstock Lode
- Sutter's Mill
How did the Gold Rush affect California's Native peoples?
- They were largely unaffected because miners avoided their lands
- They became the main owners of the gold mines in the Sierra Nevada
- They gained citizenship and land grants from the new state government
- Violence, disease, and displacement sharply reduced their population
Chinese immigrants who came to California during the Gold Rush faced
- automatic U.S. citizenship upon arrival
- free land grants from the federal government
- discriminatory taxes and violence
- guaranteed jobs on southern plantations
After California became part of the United States, many Californios (Mexican Californians)
- were granted large new estates by Congress
- moved east to work in New England factories
- gained lasting control of the state legislature and its courts
- lost their land through legal challenges and squatters
The Gadsden Purchase (1853) bought land from Mexico mainly to
- build a southern railroad route
- create a new slave state in Arizona
- give the U.S. a port on the Gulf of California
- settle Mormon migrants in the Southwest
The Oregon Treaty of 1846 gave the United States all of Oregon up to 54°40'.
The Mexican-American War began in 1846 after fighting broke out
- in Florida over a Seminole uprising
- in land disputed between the Nueces and the Rio Grande
- along the Oregon border with British Canada
- in California when Mexico attacked American settlers in San Francisco
Polk asked Congress to declare war on Mexico by claiming that Mexico had
- refused to pay for the Louisiana Purchase
- formally invaded the state of Louisiana
- sold California to Britain behind America's back
- shed "American blood upon the American soil"
Abraham Lincoln's "spot resolutions" in Congress
- called for annexing all of Mexico
- supported the Wilmot Proviso
- challenged Polk to show where American blood was shed
- declared war on Mexico
The Wilmot Proviso (1846) proposed to
- extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean
- let settlers decide on slavery through popular sovereignty
- allow slavery in all land acquired from Mexico by treaty
- ban slavery in land acquired from Mexico
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)
- gave the U.S. the Mexican Cession and a Rio Grande border
- returned Texas to Mexico in exchange for California
- gave Mexico control of the Oregon Country
- ended the Mexican-American War without any change to the existing borders
Which present-day state was part of the Mexican Cession?
- California
- Oklahoma
- Florida
- Oregon
Many Whigs and abolitionists opposed the Mexican-American War because they
- saw it as a scheme to expand slavery
- supported Mexico's claim to Oregon
- believed it would hurt trade with Britain
- wanted Mexico to annex Texas back
Henry David Thoreau protested the Mexican-American War by
- joining the Mexican army
- leading a march to Washington
- organizing a strike in Lowell
- refusing to pay his poll tax
Which was a major effect of the Mexican-American War?
- It reduced the size of the United States
- It made Mexico a U.S. ally against Britain
- It reopened the debate over slavery's expansion
- It ended disagreement over slavery in the territories
Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott are best known as
- Radical Republicans in Congress
- American generals in the Mexican-American War
- leaders of the Confederate army
- authors of the Compromise of 1850
The Free-Soil Party, formed in 1848, opposed
- immigration from Ireland and Germany
- the construction of railroads
- the spread of slavery into the western territories
- the annexation of Oregon
Popular sovereignty, promoted by Lewis Cass and Stephen Douglas, meant that
- slavery would be legal in all territories forever
- the Supreme Court would ban slavery in the West
- Congress would decide slavery in every territory
- settlers in a territory would vote on slavery
The Wilmot Proviso became law in 1846.
How many million dollars did the U.S. pay Mexico under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo? (number only)
Under the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted as
- a slave state
- a state divided at the 36°30' line
- a free state
- a territory with popular sovereignty
The Compromise of 1850 handled slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories by
- giving the territories back to Mexico
- banning slavery there permanently by federal law
- letting popular sovereignty decide
- requiring slavery there until statehood was granted
Which part of the Compromise of 1850 was meant to satisfy the North?
- Ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C.
- A stricter Fugitive Slave Act enforced by federal officers
- Letting New Mexico and Utah decide slavery for themselves
- Federal payment of Texas's public debt
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 angered many northerners because it
- banned slavery in the Mexican Cession
- required them to help capture people who escaped slavery
- gave accused fugitives the right to a jury trial
- freed every enslaved person who managed to reach a free state's soil
Under the Fugitive Slave Act, federal commissioners received $10 for returning an accused fugitive but $5 for freeing one. Critics argued this
- encouraged rulings in favor of enslavers
- proved the law protected free Black people
- made it impossible to recapture anyone
- discouraged commissioners from hearing any cases
Many northern states responded to the Fugitive Slave Act by passing
- personal liberty laws
- Black codes
- slave codes
- literacy tests
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
- defended slavery as a positive good for the enslaved
- was written to support the Fugitive Slave Act
- turned many northerners against slavery
- argued for colonizing freed people in Africa
Which senator helped pass the Compromise of 1850 by splitting it into separate bills?
- John C. Calhoun
- Charles Sumner
- Stephen Douglas
- Jefferson Davis
John C. Calhoun opposed the Compromise of 1850 because he believed
- slavery should be abolished in the territories
- California should be a slave state
- the Union should be dissolved immediately and the South made independent
- the South needed guarantees for slavery's protection
Which president signed the Compromise of 1850 into law?
- Zachary Taylor
- Millard Fillmore
- James K. Polk
- Franklin Pierce
Which were parts of the Compromise of 1850?
- California admitted as a free state
- Popular sovereignty in New Mexico and Utah
- A stricter Fugitive Slave Act
- Repeal of the Missouri Compromise line
The Compromise of 1850 abolished slavery in Washington, D.C.
By the 1850s, the northern economy was based increasingly on
- cotton plantations worked by enslaved people
- industry, commerce, and free wage labor
- silver mining and cattle ranching
- subsistence farming with little trade
The "free labor" ideology held that
- workers should be bound to employers for life
- all workers should be paid the same wage by federal law, whatever their job
- slavery was the most efficient labor system
- workers could rise to own property through hard work
Senator James Henry Hammond's 1858 claim that "Cotton is king" meant that
- northern mills produced most cotton
- cotton prices were falling sharply
- the world depended on southern cotton
- the South should stop growing cotton
The Know-Nothing (American) Party of the 1850s mainly opposed
- the national bank
- the expansion of slavery
- immigrants and Catholics
- railroad construction
Hinton Rowan Helper's The Impending Crisis of the South (1857) argued that
- enslaved people should be freed and moved to Africa
- slavery benefited every white southerner
- the North should adopt slavery
- slavery hurt non-slaveholding southern whites
George Fitzhugh's Cannibals All! (1857) defended slavery by arguing that
- slavery was necessary only for growing cotton
- enslaved people were better off than northern wage workers
- the Constitution required every state, North and South, to allow slavery
- slavery would end naturally within one generation
Compared with the South in 1860, the North had
- more land planted in cotton
- more people, factories, and railroads
- fewer immigrants
- more enslaved workers
Most immigrants arriving in the 1850s settled in the North rather than the South because
- the North offered free passage across the Atlantic
- jobs and cheap land were more available there
- the South had no ports where ships could land
- southern states banned all immigrants by law