HIST 2300 Final Exam - Richard Driver
(TTU) And All Correct Answers.
Manifest Destiny - Answer The belief that the United States was destined to expand across
the continent.
Homestead Act of 1862 - Answer Encouraged 600,000 families to settle the West giving them
land (usually 160 acres) almost free. They had to live on and improve the land for five years.
Before the Civil War, Southern leaders opposed the Homestead Acts because they feared it
would lead to more free states and free territories. After the mass resignation of Southern
senators and representatives at the beginning of the war, Congress was subsequently able to
pass the Homestead Act.
Continentalism - Answer The 19th-century belief that the United States would eventually
encompass all of North America. An early proponent of this idea was John Quincy Adams, a
leading figure in U.S. expansion between the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Polk
administration in the 1840s
James K. Polk - Answer Was the 11th President of the United States (1845-1849). A
Democrat, served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives (1835-1839). Was the
"dark horse" candidate for presidential election in 1844, he defeated Henry Clay by promising to
annex Texas. Known for his foreign policy successes. When Mexico rejected American
annexation of Texas, he led the nation to a victory in the Mexican-American War, which gave the
U.S. most of its present Southwest.
Mexican-American War - Answer First U.S. armed conflict (1846-1848) on foreign soil. A
border skirmish along the Rio Grande started off the fighting, which led to a U.S. victory. Mexico
lost 1/3 of its territory, including nearly all of present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and
New Mexico.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - Answer Signed on February 2, 1848, in attempt to secure
territorial gains by the end of the war. The terms of this treaty confirmed the American title to
Texas and yielded the enormous area stretching westward to Oregon and the Pacific Ocean (this
area was called the Mexican Cession, a territory that included the coveted California). This
treaty had Mexico to cede about half of its land to the United States, but America agreed to pay
$15 million for the territory and to assume the claims of its citizens against Mexico for $3.25
million.
Mexican Cession - Answer A historical name in the United States for the region of the
modern day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S. in the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, but had not been part of the areas east of the Rio Grande which
had been claimed by the Republic, though the Texas annexation resolution two years earlier had
not specified Texas's southern and western boundary. (529,000 sq. miles) was the third largest
, acquisition of territory in US history. The largest was the Louisiana Purchase, with some 820,000
sq. miles followed by the acquisition of Alaska (about 586,000 sq. miles).
Wilmot Proviso - Answer (1846) Amendment that sought to prohibit slavery from territories
acquired from Mexico. Introduced by Pennsylvania congressman, the failed amendment
ratcheted up tensions between North and South over the issue of slavery; never became federal
law, but it was eventually endorsed by the legislatures of all but one of the free states, and it
came to symbolize the burning issue of slavery in the territories.
Frederick Douglass - Answer American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and
became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published the autobiography, The
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North
Star (December 3, 1847).
Underground Railroad - Answer A system that helped enslaved African Americans follow a
network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North. Harriet Tubman was the key
person to its success.
Harriet Tubman - Answer United States abolitionist born a slave on a plantation in Maryland
and became a famous conductor on the Underground Railroad leading other slaves to freedom
in the North (1820-1913).
William Lloyd Garrison - Answer (1805-1879) Prominent American abolitionist, journalist and
social reformer. Editor of radical abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator", and one of the
founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
The Liberator - Answer An anti-slavery newspaper written by William Lloyd Garrison. It drew
attention to abolition, both positive and negative, causing a war of words between supporters
of slavery and those opposed.
American Anti-Slavery Society - Answer Abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd
Garrison, who advocated the immediate abolition of slavery. By 1838, the organization had
more than 250,000 members across 1,350 chapters.
Women's Suffrage Movement - Answer Refers to the freedoms inherently possessed by
women and girls of all ages, which may be institutionalized, ignored or suppressed by law,
custom, and behavior in a particular society.
Seneca Falls Convention - Answer July 1848 - Site of the first modern women's right
convention. At the gathering, Elizabeth Cady Stanton read a Declaration of Sentiment listing the
many discriminations against women, and adopted eleven resolutions, one of which called for
women's suffrage.
(TTU) And All Correct Answers.
Manifest Destiny - Answer The belief that the United States was destined to expand across
the continent.
Homestead Act of 1862 - Answer Encouraged 600,000 families to settle the West giving them
land (usually 160 acres) almost free. They had to live on and improve the land for five years.
Before the Civil War, Southern leaders opposed the Homestead Acts because they feared it
would lead to more free states and free territories. After the mass resignation of Southern
senators and representatives at the beginning of the war, Congress was subsequently able to
pass the Homestead Act.
Continentalism - Answer The 19th-century belief that the United States would eventually
encompass all of North America. An early proponent of this idea was John Quincy Adams, a
leading figure in U.S. expansion between the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Polk
administration in the 1840s
James K. Polk - Answer Was the 11th President of the United States (1845-1849). A
Democrat, served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives (1835-1839). Was the
"dark horse" candidate for presidential election in 1844, he defeated Henry Clay by promising to
annex Texas. Known for his foreign policy successes. When Mexico rejected American
annexation of Texas, he led the nation to a victory in the Mexican-American War, which gave the
U.S. most of its present Southwest.
Mexican-American War - Answer First U.S. armed conflict (1846-1848) on foreign soil. A
border skirmish along the Rio Grande started off the fighting, which led to a U.S. victory. Mexico
lost 1/3 of its territory, including nearly all of present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and
New Mexico.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - Answer Signed on February 2, 1848, in attempt to secure
territorial gains by the end of the war. The terms of this treaty confirmed the American title to
Texas and yielded the enormous area stretching westward to Oregon and the Pacific Ocean (this
area was called the Mexican Cession, a territory that included the coveted California). This
treaty had Mexico to cede about half of its land to the United States, but America agreed to pay
$15 million for the territory and to assume the claims of its citizens against Mexico for $3.25
million.
Mexican Cession - Answer A historical name in the United States for the region of the
modern day southwestern United States that Mexico ceded to the U.S. in the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, but had not been part of the areas east of the Rio Grande which
had been claimed by the Republic, though the Texas annexation resolution two years earlier had
not specified Texas's southern and western boundary. (529,000 sq. miles) was the third largest
, acquisition of territory in US history. The largest was the Louisiana Purchase, with some 820,000
sq. miles followed by the acquisition of Alaska (about 586,000 sq. miles).
Wilmot Proviso - Answer (1846) Amendment that sought to prohibit slavery from territories
acquired from Mexico. Introduced by Pennsylvania congressman, the failed amendment
ratcheted up tensions between North and South over the issue of slavery; never became federal
law, but it was eventually endorsed by the legislatures of all but one of the free states, and it
came to symbolize the burning issue of slavery in the territories.
Frederick Douglass - Answer American abolitionist and writer, he escaped slavery and
became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He published the autobiography, The
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and founded the abolitionist newspaper, the North
Star (December 3, 1847).
Underground Railroad - Answer A system that helped enslaved African Americans follow a
network of escape routes out of the South to freedom in the North. Harriet Tubman was the key
person to its success.
Harriet Tubman - Answer United States abolitionist born a slave on a plantation in Maryland
and became a famous conductor on the Underground Railroad leading other slaves to freedom
in the North (1820-1913).
William Lloyd Garrison - Answer (1805-1879) Prominent American abolitionist, journalist and
social reformer. Editor of radical abolitionist newspaper "The Liberator", and one of the
founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
The Liberator - Answer An anti-slavery newspaper written by William Lloyd Garrison. It drew
attention to abolition, both positive and negative, causing a war of words between supporters
of slavery and those opposed.
American Anti-Slavery Society - Answer Abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd
Garrison, who advocated the immediate abolition of slavery. By 1838, the organization had
more than 250,000 members across 1,350 chapters.
Women's Suffrage Movement - Answer Refers to the freedoms inherently possessed by
women and girls of all ages, which may be institutionalized, ignored or suppressed by law,
custom, and behavior in a particular society.
Seneca Falls Convention - Answer July 1848 - Site of the first modern women's right
convention. At the gathering, Elizabeth Cady Stanton read a Declaration of Sentiment listing the
many discriminations against women, and adopted eleven resolutions, one of which called for
women's suffrage.
