Deck 11: Reform and Conflict, 1820-1848

Question 1

What practice of Shakers afforded women freedom from the dangers of childbirth?

Answer 1

Celibacy.

Question 2

What distinguished members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from the Shakers?

Answer 2

Whereas Mormons believed in the building of a New Jerusalem in America, the radical Quaker sect of the Shakers believed in a simple celibate life away from modern society.

Question 3

What group did Seth Luther think was the most productive in society?

Answer 3

The working class.

Question 4

Who did the middle class regard most highly in society?

Question 5

Why did nativists object to Irish immigrants above all?

Question 6

What novel romanticized urban poverty and advocated seeking "true wealth" through hard work?

Question 7

What political party that advocated labor reform originated in Philadelphia in 1827?

Question 8

What movements dominated reform in America after 1830?

Question 9

Who edited The Liberator, a newspaper that advocated abolitionism?

Question 10

Who did the Liberty Party, an abolitionist group, nominate for president?

Question 11

What did free black leaders think were the true motives of the American Colonization Society's effort to repatriate blacks in Africa?

A) That it was a genuine effort to make amends for importing their ancestors as slaves.
B) To applaud the separatist concept.
C) That they were mostly interested in getting rid of free blacks.
D) That they were enthusiastic about the effort and helped raise funds for more colonies.

Question 12

How did Charles G. Finney's teachings differ from traditional Calvinist beliefs?

A) Finney advocated Good Works as an alternative route to salvation.
B) Finney emphasized human agency.
C) Finney thought baptism was recognition that grace had been received already.
D) Finney felt worship in the great cathedral of nature was as acceptable to God as spending time in church on one's knees.

Question 13

Why did some Americans withdraw into covenanted communities?

A) To celebrate America's success with excess and abandon.
B) To mourn the passing of the good old colonial days.
C) To prepare themselves for civil service.
D) To prepare for the end of days.

Question 14

Why did separatist communities withdraw from daily contact with the outside world?

A) To avoid contamination from the profane world.
B) To create a more perfect society here on earth.
C) To keep their revelations from God secret until the millennium.
D) To seek divine guidance through solitude.

Question 15

Written in 1829, "An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World," by David Walker called for

A) A global uprising of slaves to overthrow slavery.
B) Free and slave blacks using violence if necessary to abolish slavery.
C) A global uprising of abolitionists to overthrow slavery.
D) The creation of a black transnational identity.

Question 16

Women were particularly drawn to Shakerism because

A) Of a belief in the spiritual equality of women and men.
B) Of the expectation that the Second Coming of God would be incarnated in a female.
C) Male members of the faith did all the household cooking and cleaning.
D) Male members protected them from outside dangers.

Question 17

George Rapp, who also thought the Second Coming of Christ was imminent, believed

A) In the existence of witches.
B) That members should amass material wealth to place at Christ's disposal.
C) That poverty was ennobling.
D) In shunning earthly titles and distinctions to seek commonality in Christ.

Question 18

George Rapp's community of Harmony was taken over by

A) John Noyes for experimentation in human improvement through scientific breeding.
B) Neal Dow as a rehabilitation facility for the chemically dependent.
C) Robert Owen for a socialist experiment.
D) Stephen Foster for use as a musical academy.

Question 19

William Lloyd Garrison was

A) A black abolitionist.
B) Editor of The New York Times.
C) The advocate of "immediatism."
D) In favor of a violent slave uprising.

Question 20

What about Joseph Smith's teachings most offended others?

A) The concept of "once saved, always saved."
B) The doctrine of plural marriage.
C) Foot washing in emulation of Christ's concept of servanthood.
D) The use of alcohol in the celebration of Eucharist, or communion.

Question 21

After the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, most Latter-Day Saints

A) Abandoned the faith to escape social disapproval.
B) Followed Brigham Young to Utah.
C) Joined William and Alexander Campbell's Church of Christ.
D) Moved back to New York.

Question 22

For what purpose did the Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely establish the Society for Supporting the Gospel?

A) To distribute Bibles to Indians on the Trail of Tears.
B) For missionary work in Africa.
C) To provide financial support for retired clergy.
D) To work with indigents in urban shelters.

Question 23

What is meant by the term "Benevolent Empire"?

A) Businessmen were doing God's work when they prospered.
B) Helping people would pay dividends in the long run.
C) People, as God's agents, should care for other people.
D) The United States should bring the message of God's love to all the world.

Question 24

The French observer Alexis de Tocqueville observed that Americans

A) Could not grasp Judaism.
B) Loved to organize.
C) Rarely attended church except on Christmas and Easter.
D) Were less well mannered than Europeans.

Question 25

How did advocates of the Benevolent Empire attempt to perfect society?

A) Through laws that made immoral activities illegal.
B) By personal contact, testimony, and exhortation.
C) By ridiculing and embarrassing sinners.
D) By taking the profit out of sin.

Question 26

What group provided the "backbone" of the Benevolent Empire?

A) Clergymen.
B) Theologians.
C) Trained social workers.
D) Women volunteers.

Question 27

The message of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was

A) Based solely on theological topics with no mention of politics.
B) Focused solely on the establishment of missions in the United States.
C) Financed by the monetary contributions of young men's and women's Sunday school offerings.
D) A combination of Christianity and American political and social values.

Question 28

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

A) Sent missionaries to American slums to convert Irish immigrants.
B) Focused on opening parochial elementary schools.
C) Sent missionaries to China, Africa, and Asia.
D) Tried to prevent the exploitation of women and children around the world.

Question 29

What was the primary purpose of the American Bible Society?

A) To distribute Bibles in cities and frontier settlements.
B) To keep Bibles out of the hands of non-Christians.
C) To place a Bible in every hotel room in America.
D) To provide a new interpretation of the Bible from the language of King James to the vernacular of contemporary America.

Question 30

The Female Moral Reform Society

A) Led an effort to eliminate alcohol drinking.
B) Taught women workers to read and write.
C) Tried to reclaim women from prostitution.
D) Worked to improve the lives of domestic servants.

Question 31

What was a notable trend among master craftsmen in America by the 1830s?

A) Distribution of production to outworkers.
B) Higher prices and shoddy work.
C) Less emphasis on quality and more effort on increasing production.
D) Loss of the work ethic characteristic of an earlier America.

Question 32

What changes occurred in urban development by the 1830s?

A) Better training of city managers.
B) Improvement in waste disposal.
C) Municipal permits for protest demonstrations.
D) Neighborhoods stratified by class.

Question 33

By 1830, American workers had seen

A) Their wages increase.
B) Workplaces improved.
C) The results of wage dependency.
D) Each statement is correct.

Question 34

What was the most successful association of workers in the 1830s?

A) American Federation of Labor.
B) Knights of Labor.
C) National Labor Union.
D) National Trades' Union.

Question 35

Labor organizer Seth Luther characterized society as a struggle between

A) Producers and nonproducers.
B) Rich and poor.
C) The producers and the rich.
D) Workers and scabs.

Question 36

The New England Artisan was

A) A newspaper published by Seth Luther.
B) Advertised homemaking tips to American homemakers.
C) A radical antilabor newspaper.
D) No statement is accurate.

Question 37

What did Seth Luther mean by the term "middle class"?

A) An average between high- and low-income groups.
B) Anyone who was not rich and not poor.
C) Persons whose jobs required mental rather than physical labor.
D) Someone whose income was above $10,000 annually.

Question 38

When nonviolent means did not work, American abolitionists

A) Gave up the publication and distribution of antislavery documents.
B) Encountered violent opposition to their activities.
C) Began losing membership.
D) Increasingly resorted to terrorist violence.

Question 39

What type of individual typified the "New Middle Class"?

A) The common man.
B) Everyman.
C) Good men and good women.
D) The self-made man.

Question 40

How did the New Middle Class regard gender assignments in society?

A) Men and women should receive equal pay for equal work.
B) Men should work to earn their support and women should control their resources.
C) Suffrage should be available to men and women equally.
D) Women were gentler and therefore best suited to remain at home.

Question 41

Who were the primary targets of the American nativist movement?

A) African Americans.
B) Irish Catholics.
C) Italians.
D) Jews.

Question 42

The American Anti-Slavery Society increased membership because

A) They traveled across the northern states speaking out about abolishing slavery.
B) They employed young women to advertise their position.
C) They had President Jackson speaking on their behalf.
D) They kept slavery out of national politics.

Question 43

What most distinguished Irish immigrants from general American society?

A) Their language difficulty.
B) Their tendency to seek government work, especially as policemen.
C) Their Catholic religion.
D) Their willingness to abandon Old Country customs and embrace new traditions.

Question 44

What was the most prevalent trend in internal migration in America in the 1830s and 1840s?

A) City dwellers moving to suburbia.
B) Moves from borough to borough seeking lower rent.
C) Rural people moving to cities.
D) Westerners reaching the Pacific Ocean and moving back eastward.

Question 45

Most internal migrants

A) Did significant planning and preparation.
B) Moved only short distances.
C) Traveled hundreds of miles to escape debtors or law enforcement.
D) Usually discovered that the grass was not greener in their new environments.

Question 46

How did most eastern middle-class Americans regard the western migration of many Americans?

A) With delight to be rid of those who no longer wanted to live in the East.
B) With emotions that differed in the North and South, depending on the development of slave or free states in the West.
C) With happiness for the development of new markets to exploit.
D) With alarm, fearing the departure of ambitious citizens.

Question 47

Reformers refocused their attention in the 1830s on what social needs?

A) Chemical dependency.
B) Family planning.
C) Personal grooming.
D) Self-control and external restraint.

Question 48

In the new culture of self-improvement that characterized the 1830s, what did reformers believe was the key to individual success?

A) Appropriate education at a school with a good reputation.
B) Entitlement of privileged birth.
C) Hard work, industriousness, and frugality.
D) The class to which one belonged.

Question 49

The Liberty Party

A) Was ambivalent on the issue of slavery.
B) Fielded its first candidate in 1840.
C) Supported the election of William Lloyd Garrison.
D) Was very popular, drawing membership from both parties.

Question 50

The philosophy of self-culture brought what social movement to prominence?

A) Astronomy.
B) Popularity of organized spectator sports.
C) The lyceum movement, which featured lectures on various subjects.
D) The museum, a showplace for unusual natural phenomena.

Question 51

Catharine Sedgwick's novel The Poor Rich Man and the Rich Poor Man

A) Called attention to the problem of homelessness.
B) Defended those who inherited great wealth.
C) Illustrated the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy.
D) Romanticized urban poverty and suggested that "true wealth" lay within the reach of everyone.

Question 52

What was the largest and longest tenured reform proposal aimed at improving individuals in society?

A) Birth control and family planning.
B) Hydropathy.
C) The temperance movement.
D) Transcendentalism.

Question 53

A series of sermons by the Reverend Lyman Beecher in 1825

A) Changed the debate on temperance from a health issue to a spiritual issue.
B) Focused the nation's attention on abolition.
C) Launched the lyceum movement, which drew its identity from his name.
D) Started a witch hunt to rid America of subversives.

Question 54

How were children of the wealthy usually educated prior to the Civil War?

A) In old field schools.
B) By private tutors.
C) In public schools.
D) In subscription schools.

Question 55

Advanced education at the college level in the antebellum period

A) Featured equal opportunities for males and females.
B) Focused on religious subjects.
C) Was available only for males.
D) Was available to everyone who could afford the tuition.

Question 56

The Liberty Party was replaced by the ___ in 1848.

A) Free Soil Party.
B) Republican Party.
C) Whig Party.
D) Democrat Party.

Question 57

Compared to the Pennsylvania model of prisoner rehabilitation, Sing Sing prison in New York

A) Allowed prisoners to work communally.
B) Did not expect prisoners to worship.
C) Aimed at early prevention rather than rehabilitation.
D) Relied on physical punishment.

Question 58

The Missouri Compromise was a devastating defeat for

A) James Monroe.
B) Slave owners.
C) Opponents of slavery.
D) Native Americans.

Question 59

The organization of new political groups such as the Working Men's Party provides evidence that

A) Democrats, National Republicans, and Whigs rejected worker's demands.
B) Only workers could understand their position.
C) Workers lacked confidence in existing parties.
D) Workers were separatists who wanted to control their own destinies.

Question 60

Where did women gather in 1848 to pass their Declaration of Sentiments, a kind of declaration of independence from male domination?

A) Baltimore, Maryland.
B) New Harmony, Indiana.
C) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
D) Seneca Falls, New York.

Question 61

Why did the 1820s witness so many reform movements?

Question 62

What were some of the separatist societies that developed in the first half of the nineteenth century, and what distinguished them?

Question 63

In what ways did such reformers as Sylvester Graham and Horace Mann seek to improve American society?

Question 64

Trace the efforts to end slavery in America in the 1830s and 1840s.