In Case You Were Wondering . . . AP US History Test May 8, 2015 . . . Get Ready!


























Tuesday, November 29, 2011

How About Some More Extra Credit?

Click here to choose the most important USA invention of the 1800s in terms of impact on your life today . . . by Friday 12/2 at 11:59pm . . . for 2 bonus points!  Can it get any easier????

Monday, November 28, 2011

It's Test Time . . . Again! Ch. 13-17

The Multiple Choice portion (Wednesday 11/30) is 66 questions, plus bonus:




The Essay (Thursday 12/1) will relate to one of the following two possibilities (yes, you do get to write an essay finally!):
A. Reform movements of the time period 1825-1850 (motivations and effects)
B. Slavery's growth and demise in the time period 1775-1830 (causes and impacts)

Use the documents below to guide your study:

1) Who was Charles G. Finney?  To what reform movement of the 1800s is he referring?  What is the purpose of that reform movement, according to Finney?
When the churches are . . . awakened and reformed, the reformation and salvation of sinners will follow, going through the same stages of conviction, repentance, and reformation.  Their hearts will be broken down and changed.  Very often the most abandoned profligates are among the subjects.  Harlots, and drunkards, and infidels, and all sorts of abandoned characters, are awakened and converted.Source:  Charles G. Finney, 1834

2) Based on the document, what do you think the members of the Brook Farm Association felt about changes going on in society in the early-to-mid 1800s?  What would their vision of a perfect world most likely be?
In order to more effectually promote the great purposes of human culture; . . . to apply the principles of justice and love to our social organization in accordance with the laws of Divine Providence; to substitute a system of brotherly cooperation for one of selfish competition; to secure to our children  . . . the benefits of the highest physical, intellectual and moral education . . . ; to institute an attractive, efficient, and productive system of industry; . . . to diminish the desire of excessive accumulation, by making the acquisition of individual property subservient to upright and disinterested uses; to guarantee to each other forever the means of physical support, and of spiritual progress; -- we the undersigned do unite in a voluntary Association . . .
Source :  The Constitution of the Brook Farm Association, 1841.

3) Examine the picture below.  What reform is it advocating, and for what purpose?

4) Assume that the "Mr. Jefferson" being discussed in this document is Thomas Jefferson . . . what remarks had Jefferson most likely made, about what group of people, that David Walker is addressing?
What is Mr. Walker's intended audience?  What point(s) is he making?

For my own part, I am glad Mr. Jefferson has advanced his positions for your sake; for you will either have to contradict or confirm him by your own actions, and not by what our friends have said or done for us; for those things are other men’s labors, and do not satisfy the Americans, who are waiting for us to prove to them ourselves that we are MEN, before they will be willing to admit the fact; for I pledge you my sacred word of honor, that Mr. Jefferson’s remarks respecting us, have sunk deep into the hearts of millions of the whites, and never will be removed this side of eternity. – For how can they, when we are confirming him every day, by our groveling submissions and treachery?


Remember Americans, that we must and shall be free and enlightened as your are, will you wait until we shall, under God, obtain our liberty by the crushing arm of power? Will it not be dreadful for you? I speak, Americans, for your good. We must and shall be free I say, in spite of you. You may do your best to keep us in wretchedness and misery, to enrich you and your children; but God will deliver us from you. And woe, woe, will be to you if we have to obtain our freedom by fighting.
Source: David Walker, Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, 1829

5) What was the purpose of the Vermont Colonization Society?  What is the author trying to get the reader(s) to do?  Why?  How does the author most likely feel about blacks and whites living together in USA society?

The Managers of the Vermont Colonization Society . . . proposed to the Inhabitants of this State, a general contribution [of] . . . one cent only, from each inhabitant of the State . . . . By promoting this contribution, you will give efficient aid to a Society, whose benevolent object is, by establishing colonies on the coast of Africa, to open a door for the gradual emancipation of the slaves in our own country, to impose an effectual barrier against the continuance of the slave trade, and ultimately to extend the blessings of civilization, and of the christian religion, throughout the vast and hitherto benighted regions of Africa.
Source: Letter to ministers from the Vermont Colonization Society, 1820.

6) Examine the maps below . . . what is the topic?  How did the distribution of slavery in the USA in 1790 compare to the distribution of slavery in the USA in 1830?  Why the changes?

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Greatest USA Invention of the 1800s!

Many awesome things were invented (or credited with invention) in the USA in the 1800s. . . according to you, what was the greatest invention of the 1800s in the USA?  Put it in the comments of this post:
  1. What was it?
  2. When was it invented?
  3. Who invented it (or got credit)?
  4. What made it so great?
Post with your first name, last initial, and class period . . . make sure your choice is unique . . . if someone else already chose it, choose something else!
This is due by 11/28 (Monday) at 11:59pm!

P.S.  The above item is a representation of a cotton (en)gin(e) . . . it was NOT invented in the 1800s...do not choose it.

Andrew Jackson Extra Credit Survey . . . can it get any easier?

Complete the Andrew Jackson extra credit survey by clicking here.  You will receive 2 bonus points for completing the survey (there are only 2 questions...if it takes you more than 2 minutes, you did something incorrectly!).  You have until 11:59pm on Tuesday November 22, 2011 to complete the survey...Good Luck!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

I Wouldn't Mess With Andrew Jackson If I Were You . . . Unless I Was Supposed To Do This Assignment!

If you are bold enough, now is your chance to discuss politics or anything else related to Andrew Jackson!  Share your favorite weird, funny, cool, bizarre, shocking, or disgusting story related to Andrew Jackson in the comments section.  
Tell us:
1) the story
2) the source (cite it so that any reader could easily find it and see what you saw . . . url is okay)
3) why you found it weird, funny, etc.
Also:
a. Post your response to the comments of this blog (first name, last initial, class period)
b. Make sure your story is unique (different from all who post before you . . . any duplicate story will be rejected for being the inferior copy that it is!)
c. Worth 10 points
d. Due by Wednesday 11/16/11 @11:59pm

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Hints and Tips for Your Ch. 11-12 Test (11/8) and Non-Essay DBQ (11/9)

Multiple Choice Portion is ~50+ Points and some Bonus . . . Ponder the following for the MC and Non-MC Assessments:
1) Examine the two documents that follow . . . what are Jefferson's key points regarding the Constitution in these letters?
Letter A
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the arc of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times.

Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 12 July, 1816

Letter B
... I consider the government of the U S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment, or free exercise, of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the U.S. Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general government. It must then rest with the states, as far as it can be in any human authority.
I am aware that the practice of my predecessors [prescribing a day of fasting and prayer] may be quoted…. Be this as it may, everyone must act according to the dictates of his own reason, & mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the U S. and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents.
(Thomas Jefferson, letter to letter to Rev. Samuel Miller, from Washington, January 23, 1808)

2) Who is the angry snapping turtle below?  Why did he exist?  What impacts did he have?  What region of the country hated him the most?  Was he an effective snapping turtle?  Chronologically, what events came before and after him?


3) What regions do the various numbers on the map represent?  From what timeframe is this map?  What event(s) happened that led to this map?