Deck 12: Antebellum Culture and Reform Key

Question 1

In redefining gender roles,the experimental 1840s Oneida Community

A) put fathers in charge of child-rearing and taking care of the home.
B) demanded celibacy from all its participants.
C) put women in charge of all major aspects of the community.
D) carefully monitored sexual behavior in order to protect women.
E) was a controversial experiment in "free love."

Answer 1

carefully monitored sexual behavior in order to protect women.

Question 2

In the mid-nineteenth century,the general European attitude toward American art and literature

A) was that American artists had little to offer Europe.
B) was one of growing respect and admiration.
C) included praise for American artists for defining a new set of national virtues.
D) included criticism of American artists for ignoring romanticism.
E) was that it had been hopelessly corrupted by the ideology of unfettered capitalism.

Answer 2

was that American artists had little to offer Europe.

Question 3

Herman Melville's most important literary work was

A) Moby Dick.
B) Leaves of Grass.
C) The Deerslayer.
D) "The Raven."
E) Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Answer 3

Moby Dick.

Question 4

The goal of the 1840s community experiment known as Brook Farm was partly to

A) allow individuals to live without any social limits on their behavior.
B) eliminate social sexual discrimination through the practice of celibacy.
C) show that communal living was more efficient and productive than family life.
D) create a society where individuals did not have to work.
E) permit every individual to have full opportunity for self-realization.

Question 5

The most important and popular American paintings of the first half of the nineteenth century set out to

A) show scenes of American aristocracy at play.
B) evoke the wonder of the nation's landscape.
C) depict the Founding Fathers hard at work.
D) make realistic depictions of rural white American life.
E) celebrate the achievements of the American military.

Question 6

Who among the following was NOT a participant in American communal living?

A) Nathaniel Hawthorne
B) Walt Whitman
C) George Ripley
D) Robert Owen
E) John Humphrey Noyes

Question 7

Southern writers such as Augustus B.Longstreet,Joseph G.Baldwin,and Johnson J.Hooper

A)focused on the lives of aristocrats.
B)felt there was no place for humor in American literature.
C)developed a realist tradition that focused on the lives of ordinary people.
D)None of these answers is correct.
E)romanticized the institution of slavery.

Question 8

All of the following painters were associated with the Hudson River school EXCEPT

A) James Whistler.
B) Asher Durand.
C) Thomas Cole.
D) Frederic Church.
E) Albert Bierstadt.

Question 9

Transcendentalists

A) believed every person's goal should be the cultivation of "reason."
B) rejected European intellectuals.
C) believed all individuals should develop their intellectualism.
D) argued that emotional responses inhibited the internal development of individuals.
E) argued for the liberating potential of "understanding."

Question 10

Reform movements emerged in America in the mid-nineteenth century in part because of a

A) declining importance placed on religious piety.
B) desire for social stability and discipline in the face of change.
C) pessimistic assumption of the natural weakness of individuals.
D) fear that civil war was going to engulf the nation.
E) belief that society needed to break free from its old traditions.

Question 11

One of the most enduring of the pre-Civil War utopian colonies was

A) Oneida.
B) Brook Farm.
C) New Harmony.
D) Nauvoo.
E) Walden.

Question 12

The transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson

A) asserted that through nature, individuals could find personal fulfillment.
B) remained a deeply religious clergyman throughout his life.
C) was a leading critic of the American political system.
D) asserted that organized religion served no useful purpose in society.
E) believed American thinkers should be allied with European intellectuals.

Question 13

The writings of Edgar Allan Poe were

A) mostly ignored during his lifetime.
B) largely focused on southern society.
C) primarily sad and macabre.
D) completely ignored in Europe after his death.
E) acclaimed by many American writers in his time.

Question 14

All of the following writers helped create a distinct American literature EXCEPT

A) Herman Melville.
B) James Fenimore Cooper.
C) Walt Whitman.
D) Edgar Allan Poe.
E) Sydney Smith.

Question 15

Walt Whitman

A) rejected much of romanticism.
B) was a strong critic of American democracy.
C) became a strong defender of southern institutions, especially slavery.
D) intensely disagreed with the American transcendentalists.
E) celebrated the liberation of the individual spirit.

Question 16

The transcendentalists

A) understood the interconnectedness of species.
B) understood the interconnectedness of species and made the first scientific studies on behalf of preserving the natural environment.
C) anticipated the environmental movement of the twentieth century.
D) made the first scientific studies on behalf of preserving the natural environment.
E) None of these answers is correct.

Question 17

Which of the following features was NOT a characteristic of the Hudson River school?

A) canvases that tended to be very large in size
B) portraits of some of the nation's most spectacular and undeveloped areas
C) a belief that democracy was the best source of wisdom and spiritual fulfillment
D) a sense of nostalgia for a kind of nature that might be disappearing
E) an assumption that America was a land of greater promise than Europe

Question 18

The transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau

A) felt every individual should balance society's expectations with one's own instincts.
B) was more conventional in his thinking than Ralph Waldo Emerson.
C) argued Americans had a moral right to disobey laws considered unjust.
D) argued that being part of society helped individuals to transcend their egotism.
E) established a college for transcendentalism at Walden Pond.

Question 19

Through novels such as The Last of the Mohicans,James Fenimore Cooper examined the significance of

A) the disorder of America's westward expansion.
B) religious spiritualism in America.
C) the American free-enterprise system.
D) racism in America.
E) slavery in the democratic mind.

Question 20

The Hudson River school of painters emphasized in their work the importance of

A) the yeoman farmer.
B) democratic ideals.
C) the founding fathers.
D) realism.
E) natural beauty.

Question 21

Nineteenth-century Protestant revivalists such as the New Light revivalists

A) took the lead in the cause to end slavery.
B) believed temperance was detracting from other, loftier reform movements.
C) sought to revive the ideals of Calvinism.
D) argued that personal salvation could be achieved by individual effort.
E) believed that no individual could control his or her personal salvation.

Question 22

Shaker societies

A) asserted that God was female.
B) established most of their communities in the South.
C) first began in the United States in the 1840s.
D) were eventually forced to move to Utah.
E) saw women exercise more power than men.

Question 23

In the 1840s in the United States,an initial understanding of germ theory was developed by

A) Ignaz Semmelweis.
B) James Warren.
C) William Morton.
D) Oliver Wendell Holmes.
E) Edward Jenner.

Question 24

The nineteenth-century practice of placing American Indians on reservations was partially designed to

A) integrate Indians with white society.
B) create sovereign nations within U.S. territory so that Indians could negotiate with other nations.
C) allow them to develop to a point where they could assimilate into white society.
D) None of these answers is correct.
E) allow Indians to develop to a point where they would not need to assimilate into white society.

Question 25

In the 1840s,the organized movement against drunkenness in the United States

A) grew largely out of immigrant communities.
B) linked alcohol to crime and poverty.
C) remained a minor social movement.
D) was actively opposed by a large majority of Americans.
E) spent much of its time and resources battling evangelical Protestants.

Question 26

According to the nineteenth-century "science" of phrenology,what could be discerned from the shape of an individual's skull?

A) character and intelligence
B) chances of having children
C) likelihood of succumbing to infectious diseases
D) life expectancy
E) future earning potential

Question 27

The nineteenth-century reformer Horace Mann believed that education should promote

A) capitalism.
B) democracy.
C) Christianity.
D) economic equality.
E) racial equality.

Question 28

Mormonism

A) always rejected polygamy.
B) began in the Midwest.
C) emphasized individual liberty.
D) believed in human perfectibility.
E) was founded by Brigham Young.

Question 29

Prior to 1860,public education in the United States

A) emphasized independence and creativity.
B) gave the nation one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
C) did not exist.
D) was funded by the federal government.
E) was legally denied for all non-whites.

Question 30

The Massachusetts reformer who built a national movement for new methods of treating the mentally ill was

A)Lucretia Mott.
B)Susan B.Anthony.
C)Dorothea Dix.
D)Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
E)Angelina Grimke.

Question 31

Which of the following nineteenth-century leaders is primarily known for her pioneering work in the American feminist movement?

A) Harriet Tubman
B) Elizabeth Cady Stanton
C) Sojourner Truth
D) "Mother" Ann Lee
E) Rachel Eaton

Question 32

In the 1830s and 1840s,cholera epidemics in the United States

A) None of these answers is correct.
B) were diminished, as physicians gained a basic understanding of bacteria.
C) typically killed more than half of those who contracted the disease.
D) were transmitted to humans by fleas living on rats.
E) led many cities to build water treatment facilities.

Question 33

In the early nineteenth century,the American Colonization Society

A) was strongly supported by American blacks.
B) was founded by white Virginians opposed to slavery.
C) called for an immediate end to slavery.
D) opposed the idea of compensation for owners who freed their slaves.
E) carried out a large-scale resettlement of freed slaves.

Question 34

The 1848 Seneca Falls,New York,convention on women's rights

A) shied away from demanding female suffrage, as this was too radical at the time.
B) issued a manifesto patterned after the Declaration of Independence.
C) asserted that women should have a place in society distinctly different from that of men.
D) refused to allow men to attend.
E) called on the government to treat both genders and all races with equality.

Question 35

During the nineteenth century,the largest obstacle to improved medical care in America was the

A) absence of basic knowledge about disease.
B) difficulty of medical experimentation.
C) low social status of medical professionals.
D) absence of regulations in the medical profession.
E) apathy of the general population towards preventive health.

Question 36

In 1840,one catalyst for an American feminist movement was a London convention that dealt with

A) temperance.
B) the abolition of slavery.
C) woman suffrage.
D) prostitution.
E) prison reform.

Question 37

Which statement about Mormonism is FALSE?

A) Early Mormons met with much persecution from their neighbors.
B) Early Mormons practiced polygamy.
C) Its founder was murdered.
D) It developed a very fluid, loose social structure.
E) The first Mormons were generally marginally poor.

Question 38

Prior to the Civil War,the religious denomination most active in feminism was the

A) Methodists.
B) Quakers.
C) Baptists.
D) Presbyterians.
E) Unitarians.

Question 39

Which of the following was arguably the most distinctive feature of Shakerism?

A) free love
B) complete celibacy
C) polygamy
D) the admittance of women only
E) communal raising of children

Question 40

Prior to 1860,prison reform in the United States

A) focused on punishment, not on rehabilitation.
B) included the practice of solitary confinement.
C) led to widespread calls to end capital punishment.
D) began largely in the West and spread to the East.
E) decried the racial bias of the judicial system.

Question 41

Frederick Douglass

A) was born free but was sold into slavery as a youth.
B) argued that blacks wanted only an end to slavery, and not full social equality.
C) wrote for William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist newspaper.
D) spent two years lecturing in England against slavery.
E) was an ordained minister.

Question 42

The American Colonization Society helped to transport blacks from the United States to

A) Angola.
B) Canada.
C) the Caribbean.
D) Liberia.
E) England.

Question 43

William Lloyd Garrison believed the abolitionist movement should

A) organize slave rebellions throughout the American South.
B) demand freedom for slaves, but deny them citizenship.
C) seek the gradual elimination of slavery.
D) join forces with the more established American Colonization Society.
E) stress the damage that slavery did to blacks rather than to whites.

Question 44

The Oneida Community sought to redefine gender roles and engage in "free love."

Question 45

Herman Melville was less exuberant in his celebration of the human spirit than was Walt Whitman.

Question 46

Ralph Waldo Emerson started as a minister and became a transcendentalist philosopher.

Question 47

Henry David Thoreau favored the solitary life,but he was publicly against civil disobedience.

Question 48

In the 1830s and 1840s,abolitionists were divided

A) over whether or not to use violence.
B) over the question of free-soil, colonization, or full emancipation.
C) by radicals and moderates within their ranks.
D) All these answers are correct.
E) by calls for northern and southern separation.

Question 49

Prior to the Civil War,the Liberty Party

A) supported the rights of slave owners.
B) opposed the admission of California into the Union in 1850.
C) focused on strengthening the fugitive slave laws.
D) promoted "Free Soil."
E) campaigned for outright abolition.

Question 50

American transcendentalists borrowed heavily from European thinkers.

Question 51

Prior to the Civil War,free blacks in the North tended to be

A) indifferent to slavery in the South.
B) in favor of the "back to Africa" movement.
C) strongly opposed to southern slavery.
D) deeply antagonistic toward William Lloyd Garrison.
E) anxious to leave the United States.

Question 52

The black abolitionist who called for uncompromising opposition to and a violent overthrow of slavery in his 1829 pamphlet was

A) William Lloyd Garrison.
B) Elijah Lovejoy.
C) David Walker.
D) Benjamin Lundy.
E) Frederick Douglass.

Question 53

Artists of the Hudson River school felt America had more promise than Europe.

Question 54

The romantic movement was invented in American intellectual circles.

Question 55

One abolitionist who was murdered for his activism was

A) Benjamin Lundy.
B) Frederick Douglass.
C) Elijah Lovejoy.
D) William Lloyd Garrison.
E) Sojourner Truth.

Question 56

The Supreme Court ruling in Prigg v.Pennsylvania (1842)

A)led to the passage of "personal liberty laws."
B)prohibited the interstate slave trade.
C)abolished slavery in the District of Columbia.
D)angered abolitionists.
E)forced state officials to assist in the capture of runaways.

Question 57

In the 1830s,abolitionists in the United States constituted

A) approximately one-third of the national population.
B) the largest reform movement in the nation.
C) a small percentage of the national population.
D) the majority of the population in the North.
E) approximately one-quarter of the national population.

Question 58

Edgar Allan Poe's writings focused on the bleak nature of the human spirit and emotions.

Question 59

In the 1840s,William Lloyd Garrison spoke against

A) extreme pacifism.
B) ending the asylum system.
C) defensive wars.
D) northern disunion from the South.
E) equality for women.

Question 60

The effect of Uncle Tom's Cabin on the nation was to

A) ignite such anger in the South that several states soon seceded from the Union.
B) help humanize southern slaveholders in the minds of northern readers.
C) reveal the ugly extent of the vicious slave trade to America.
D) spread the message of abolitionism to an enormous new audience.
E) offer the first written history of American slavery.

Question 61

Describe the essential tenets of the transcendentalist philosophy.

Question 62

What elements of romanticism can be found in mid-nineteenth-century American art and literature?

Question 63

The events depicted in Uncle Tom's Cabin were taken from news accounts.

Question 64

Why were many utopian communities critical of the traditional role and status of women in American society? What alternatives did these communities offer?

Question 65

The Mormons were forced to abandon their settlement at Nauvoo due to persecution from neighbors.

Question 66

Like other mid-nineteenth-century experiments in social organization,Mormons believed in human perfectibility.

Question 67

What were the motives for the founding of the many communal living societies in the first half of the nineteenth century?

Question 68

William Lloyd Garrison was assassinated for his advocacy of abolitionism.

Question 69

Nearly a quarter of the population of New Orleans died in 1833 as a result of a cholera outbreak.

Question 70

The American Colonization Society called for the gradual freeing of slaves and monetary compensation to slaves' former owners.

Question 71

The Seneca Falls "Declaration of Sentiments" included a demand that women have the right to vote.

Question 72

What were the social factors that motivated the many reform movements in the North before the Civil War?

Question 73

Many reformers of the pre-Civil War period thought it was possible to rehabilitate criminals through solitary confinement.

Question 74

The antislavery Liberty Party never campaigned for outright abolitionism.

Question 75

Why did most communal living "experiments" quickly fail?

Question 76

By the beginning of the Civil War,the United States had one of the highest literacy rates of any nation of the world.

Question 77

By the 1850s,the principle of tax-supported elementary schools had been established in every state.

Question 78

How do the ideas of nineteenth-century transcendentalism link to twentieth-century ecology?

Question 79

Both the Oneida Community and the Shakers were committed to celibacy.

Question 80

Sylvester Graham encouraged people to eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat.