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US History and Government - New York Regents June 2018 Exam

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1.
                                                  Part I
                                    Answer all questions in this part.
   Directions (1 - 50): For each statement or question, record on your separate answer sheet the number of the
word or expression that, of those given, best completes the statement or answers the question.
1 What was a main reason large plantations
  developed in the South during the colonial
  period?
  (1) British laws promoted the growth of slavery
      in the South.
  (2) Cotton could only be grown in wetlands.
  (3) Southern mountains led to the development
      of isolated, self-sufficient farms.
  (4) The climate in the South provided longer
      growing seasons.
Answer:

2.
2 In the 1780s, the national government under the
  Articles of Confederation established its authority
  in the Northwest Territory by
  (1) providing a system for the formation of new
      states
  (2) settling the border dispute with Mexico
  (3) extending the nation’s border to the Rocky
      Mountains
  (4) rejecting Native American Indian claims of
      sovereignty
Answer:

3.
3 A fundamental principle of a republican form of
  government is that
  (1) hereditary rulers are the legitimate possessors
      of political power
  (2) legislation must be passed by the elected
      representatives of the people
  (3) laws should be created directly by the
      citizens
  (4) governments are not responsible for
      protecting individual rights
Answer:


4.
4 What was a major argument used by the
  Antifederalists to oppose ratifying the
  Constitution?
  (1) Congress was given the power to tax exports.
  (2) The executive branch lacked the power to
      maintain order.
  (3) The proposed Constitution contained no bill
      of rights.
  (4) Only the national government could coin money.
Answer:

5.
5 The judicial branch of government can check the
  legislative branch of government by
  (1) vetoing bills passed by Congress
  (2) declaring laws unconstitutional
  (3) calling special sessions of Congress
  (4) reducing congressional budgets
Answer:

6.
6 “. . . Because finally, ‘the equal right of every citizen
  to the free exercise of his Religion according to
  the dictates of conscience’ is held by the same
  tenure with all our other rights. If we recur to [go
  to] its origin, it is equally the gift of nature; . . .”
                                         -  James Madison
  The belief expressed in this statement was put
  into law by the
  (1) signing of the Mayflower Compact
  (2) creation of the Articles of Confederation
  (3) establishment of a federal system of
      government
  (4) addition of the first amendment to the
      United States Constitution
Answer:

7.
7 “. . . To make all Laws which shall be necessary and
  proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing
  Powers, and all other Powers vested by this
  Constitution in the Government of the United
  States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
           -  Article I, Section 8, United States Constitution
  This clause was used by Secretary of the Treasury
  Alexander Hamilton to justify
  (1) establishing the Bank of the United States
  (2) creating a federal postal system
  (3) sending troops to end the Whiskey Rebellion
  (4) imposing an embargo on trade with Great
      Britain
Answer:

8.
Base your answers to questions 8 and 9 on the map below and on your knowledge of social studies.
8 Which two areas of the map made up the United States in 1803 as a result of
  the Louisiana Purchase?
  (1) A and B                        (3) B and D
  (2) A and D                        (4) E and G
Answer:

9.
9 Which of these areas was acquired as a result of the Mexican-American War?
  (1) A                                 (3) F
  (2) B                                 (4) G
Answer:

10.
    Base your answer to question 10 on the quotation
below and on your knowledge of social studies.
    “. . . As a bond of union between the Atlantic
    and the western states, it may prevent the
    dismemberment of the American empire. As an
    organ of communication between the Hudson,
    the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, the great lakes
    of the north and west, and their tributary rivers,
    it will create the greatest inland trade ever
    witnessed. . . .”
         -  New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, April 26, 1824
 10 Which development in transportation                 is
    Governor Clinton describing?
    (1) National Road       (3) steamboats
    (2) Erie Canal          (4) railroads
Answer:

11.
11 An example of the use of the unwritten
   constitution is the
   (1) president’s cabinet
   (2) amendment process
   (3) bicameral legislature
   (4) electoral college
Answer:

12.
Base your answer to question 12 on the chart below and on your knowledge of social studies.
12 Which generalization is supported by the information in the chart?
   (1) The South exported more manufactured goods than the North.
   (2) The North would have more difficulty supplying an army than the South.
   (3) The North had greater economic strength than the South.
   (4) The South would be better able to transport an army than the North.
Answer:

13.
    Base your answer to question 13 on the poster
below and on your knowledge of social studies.
13 Which government action most directly prompted
   the publication of this poster?
   (1) issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation
   (2) passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
   (3) rejection of the Wilmot Proviso
   (4) adoption of the Missouri Compromise
Answer:

14.
14 At the start of the Civil War, President Abraham
   Lincoln stated that the major reason for fighting
   the war was to
   (1) break the South’s economic ties to Great
       Britain
   (2) uphold the Constitution by preserving the
       Union
   (3) enforce the terms of the Compromise of
       1850
   (4) punish the Confederate states for leaving the
       Union
Answer:

15.
15 Passage of the Homestead Act in 1862 encour-
   aged settlement of the Great Plains by
   (1) providing free land to farmers
   (2) removing barriers to Asian immigration
   (3) supplying land to build transcontinental
       railroads
   (4) placing Native American Indians on
       reservations
Answer:

16.
16 Which heading best completes the partial outline
   below?
    I. _______
         A. Freedmen’s Bureau
         B. Passage of the 14th amendment
         C. Military occupation of the South
   (1)   Development of States Rights
   (2)   Results of Manifest Destiny
   (3)   Elements of Reconstruction
   (4)   Limits on Civil Rights
Answer:

17.
17 Between 1865 and 1900, how did the growth of
   industry affect American society?
   (1) Trade with other nations declined.
   (2) Business leaders called for lower tariffs.
   (3) The urban population increased.
   (4) Corporations supported the growth of labor
       unions.
Answer:

18.
18 The federal government reacted to the Supreme
   Court’s ruling in Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific
   Railway Co. v. Illinois (1886) by
   (1) passing the Interstate Commerce Act
   (2) weakening the influence of banks over big
       business
   (3) abandoning the government’s attempts to
       break up monopolies
   (4) encouraging railroad employees to form
       unions
Answer:

19.
19 In the late 1800s, the corporation became an
   important form of business organization primarily
   because it
   (1) had closer ties with its employees
   (2) could raise large amounts of investment
       capital
   (3) made better quality products
   (4) called for conservation of natural resources
Answer:

20.
    Base your answer to question 20 on the passage
below and on your knowledge of social studies.
    . . . The object of the amendment was undoubtedly
    to enforce the absolute equality of the two races
    before the law, but, in the nature of things, it could
    not have been intended to abolish distinctions
    based upon color, or to enforce social, as
    distinguished from political, equality, or a
    commingling of the two races upon terms
    unsatisfactory to either. Laws permitting, and
    even requiring, their separation in places where
    they are liable to be brought into contact do not
    necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to
    the other, and have been generally, if not
    universally, recognized as within the competency
    of the state legislatures in the exercise of their
    police power. The most common instance of this
    is connected with the establishment of separate
    schools for white and colored [African American]
    children, which has been held to be a valid exercise
    of the legislative power even by courts of States
    where the political rights of the colored race have
    been longest and most earnestly enforced. . . .
                       -  United States Supreme Court, 1896
 20 In this 1896 decision, the Supreme Court upheld
    the constitutionality of
    (1) the Three-fifths Compromise
    (2) Jim Crow laws
    (3) affirmative action programs
    (4) racial integration
Answer:


21.
Base your answer to question 21 on the cartoon below and on your knowledge of social studies.
21 The foreign policy illustrated in this cartoon was used by the United States to
   (1) punish Mexico for siding with Germany in World War I
   (2) enforce the Monroe Doctrine against Great Britain
   (3) secure control of land for the Panama Canal Zone
   (4) announce the Open Door policy
Answer:

22.
    Base your answer to question 22 on the poster
below and on your knowledge of social studies.
22 This 1917 poster indicates that one important
   educational goal for new immigrants during this
   time period was
   (1) teaching them to read and write in their
       native language
   (2) promoting religious tolerance
   (3) ensuring the preservation of their native
       cultures
   (4) promoting the English language as a method
       of assimilation
Answer:

23.
23 The United States became directly involved in
   World War I as a result of Germany’s
   (1) negotiation of an alliance with Russia
   (2) threat to spread the war to the Middle East
   (3) resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare
   (4) acquisition of new African colonies
Answer:

24.
24 Progressivism was an early 20th-century move-
   ment that promoted
   (1) limited war to spread social justice to other
       countries
   (2) increased immigration to diversify the
       nation’s population
   (3) colonialism to increase United States power
       throughout the world
   (4) government actions to correct political,
       economic, and social problems
Answer:

25.
25 Which government action is directly related to the
   “clear and present danger” doctrine established
   in Schenck v. United States (1919)?
   (1) limiting the first amendment rights of
       antiwar protesters
   (2) rejecting membership in the League of
       Nations
   (3) banning immigration from western Europe
   (4) passage of the Prohibition amendment
Answer:

26.
26 Hosting the Washington Naval Disarmament
   Conference (1921) and signing the Kellogg-
   Briand Pact (1928) were efforts by the United
   States to
   (1) form new military alliances
   (2) increase its military preparedness
   (3) avoid future wars
   (4) collect payment for war debts
Answer:

27.
27 The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s is best
   known for
   (1) ending racial segregation in public facilities
   (2) promoting the cultural creativity of African
       Americans
   (3) encouraging passage of new voting rights
       legislation
   (4) supporting legislation to eliminate the Ku
       Klux Klan
Answer:

28.
28 Which factor best accounts for the affordability
   of Ford Model T automobiles in the 1920s?
   (1) the efficiencies created by the assembly line
   (2) the expertise of individual craftsmanship
   (3) strong support from labor unions
   (4) low taxes and government subsidies
Answer:

29.
Base your answers to questions 29 and 30 on the statements below and on your knowledge of social studies.
           . . . The ever-growing complexity of modern life, with its train of evermore
           perplexing and difficult problems, is a challenge to our individual characters and
           to our devotion to our ideals. The resourcefulness of America when challenged
           has never failed. Success is not gained by leaning upon government to solve all the
           problems before us. That way leads to enervation [lessening] of will and destruction
           of character. Victory over this depression and over our other difficulties will be won
           by the resolution of our people to fight their own battles in their own communities,
           by stimulating their ingenuity to solve their own problems, by taking new courage
           to be masters of their own destiny in the struggle of life. . . .
                                                      -  President Herbert Hoover, February 12, 1931
           . . . I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that
           a stricken Nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or
           such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom,
           I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption. . . .
                                                    -  President Franklin D. Roosevelt, March 4, 1933
           29 Which idea would best be supported by President Hoover’s statement?
              (1) rugged individualism            (3) deficit spending
              (2) unemployment insurance          (4) collective bargaining
Answer:

30.
30 These statements illustrate a difference in opinion between the two presidents
   over
   (1) granting subsidies to big business
   (2) promoting free-trade policies in the Western Hemisphere
   (3) regulating supply and demand
   (4) expanding the federal government’s role in the economy
Answer:

31.
31 Which problem did Franklin D. Roosevelt address
   first in his presidency?
   (1) ending the Red Scare
   (2) standing up to dictators in Europe
   (3) bringing stability to the banking system
   (4) approving bonus payments to World War I
        veterans
Answer:

32.
32 “National Defense at Any Expense, but
   Keep Our Boys at Home.”
  This 1941 slogan of the America First Committee
  promoted
  (1) globalism
  (2) protective tariffs
  (3) isolationism
  (4) reduced military spending
Answer:

33.
Base your answers to questions 33 and 34 on the cartoon below and on your knowledge of social studies.
33 What is the main idea of the cartoon?
   (1) United States factories will not be able to manufacture military supplies in
       sufficient quantities.
   (2) The federal government will most likely need to seize ownership of
       manufacturing plants.
   (3) President Franklin D. Roosevelt expects other nations to supply the same
       amount of armaments as the United States.
   (4) President Franklin D. Roosevelt is determined to supply the United States
       military and its allies with whatever it takes to defeat the Axis powers.
Answer:

34.
34 One major result of the production efforts described in the cartoon was that
   (1) the high unemployment of the Great Depression was greatly reduced
   (2) most companies that produced military supplies went out of business after
       the war
   (3) critics claimed that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was abusing his treaty-
       making power
   (4) the military had difficulty enlisting soldiers because the men were working
       in the munitions factories
Answer:

35.
Base your answer to question 35 on the newspaper headlines below and on your knowledge of social studies.
35 Which conclusion can be drawn from an examination of these 1947 newspaper
   headlines concerning Jackie Robinson?
   (1) Robinson’s integration of major league baseball was an important event in
       the history of civil rights.
   (2) Robinson went on to organize the civil rights movement.
   (3) Sports fans overwhelmingly encouraged the desegregation of public
       accommodations.
   (4) Robinson’s major league debut had no impact on race relations in the
       United States.
Answer:


36.
36 “. . . From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the
   Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across
   the Continent. . . .”
                       -  Winston Churchill, March 5, 1946
   With this observation, Winston Churchill warned
   the United States that Europe was threatened by
   (1) an embargo of its Middle East oil supplies
   (2) the growth of fascism in Great Britain
   (3) the expansion of communism in Eastern
       Europe
   (4) a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union
Answer:

37.
37 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
   and the Warsaw Pact are examples of
   (1) dollar diplomacy     (3) mutual defense
   (2) Lend-Lease           (4) Manifest Destiny
Answer:

38.
38 Belief in the domino theory by presidents Dwight
   D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B.
   Johnson directly influenced their decisions to
   (1) reject the policy of collective security
   (2) support a return to neutrality
   (3) end the Berlin airlift
   (4) increase United States military involvement
       in Vietnam
Answer:

39.
39 The War on Poverty was an attempt by President
   Lyndon B. Johnson to
   (1) send medical aid to African nations
   (2) strengthen the Peace Corps
   (3) decrease the number of immigrants from
       Latin America
   (4) raise the standard of living for many
       Americans
Answer:

40.
    Base your answer to question 40 on the passage
below and on your knowledge of social studies.
   . . . You express a great deal of anxiety over our
   willingness to break laws. This is certainly a
   legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge
   people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of
   1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools,
   it is rather strange and paradoxical to find us
   consciously breaking laws. One may well ask,
   “how can you advocate breaking some laws and
   obeying others?” The answer is found in the fact
   that there are two types of laws: There are just
   and there are unjust laws. I would agree with Saint
   Augustine that “An unjust law is no law at all.” . . .
       -  Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,”
                                               April 16, 1963
 40 Which approach best represents the argument
    made in the passage?
    (1) civil disobedience (3) Black Power
    (2) armed resistance   (4) containment
Answer:

41.
41 A main goal of President Richard Nixon’s policy
   of détente was to
   (1) sponsor free elections in North Korea
   (2) negotiate an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict
   (3) end diplomatic relations with China
   (4) reduce tensions between the United States
       and the Soviet Union
Answer:

42.
42 Which charges led to President Bill Clinton’s
   impeachment?
   (1) excessive use of the pardon power
   (2) perjury and obstruction of justice
   (3) illegal use of campaign funds
   (4) misuse of war powers and deficit spending
Answer:

43.
43 One way in which Social Security, Medicare, and
   Medicaid are similar is that they are all
   (1) programs that provide aid to education
   (2) examples of social welfare programs
   (3) attempts to balance the federal budget
   (4) aspects of public works projects
Answer:

44.
Base your answer to question 44 on the cartoon below and on your knowledge of social studies.
44 This cartoonist is critical of the leadership of President George W. Bush and
   Vice President Richard B. Cheney for
   (1) supporting the clear-cutting of forests
   (2) overusing the presidential veto power
   (3) weakening the system of checks and balances
   (4) waging the war in Iraq
Answer:

45.
45 Which presidential action was most consistent
   with the ideas presented by President George
   Washington in his Farewell Address?
   (1) President James Monroe’s proclamation of
       the Monroe Doctrine in 1823
   (2) President James Polk’s policy toward Mexico
       in 1846
   (3) President William McKinley’s request for a
       declaration of war against Spain in 1898
   (4) President George H. W. Bush’s decision to
       engage in the Persian Gulf War in 1990
Answer:

46.
46 The Populist movement of the 1890s and the
   civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s are
   similar in that both movements were attempts to
   (1) restrict the power of the executive branch
   (2) solve the problems brought about by
        industrialization
   (3) improve the lives of groups who were
        oppressed
   (4) require state governments to promote racial
        equality
Answer:

47.
Base your answer to question 47 on the cartoon below and on your knowledge of social studies.
47 The tactics illustrated in the cartoon were most closely associated with
   (1) isolationists supporting neutrality policies during the 1930s
   (2) government leaders investigating communist activities after World War II
   (3) increased federal spending for education during the 1960s
   (4) Congress promoting increased security after the September 11, 2001 attacks
Answer:

48.
48 “Flappers” in the 1920s, “beatniks” in the 1950s,
   and “hippies” in the 1960s are all examples of
   (1) political groups who wanted to limit
       individual civil rights
   (2) citizens who wanted to return to simpler
       lifestyles
   (3) writers who supported United States foreign
       policy goals
   (4) individuals who disagreed with traditional
       societal values
Answer:

49.
49 The Great Depression and the economic crisis
   known as the Great Recession (December 2007 - 
   June 2009) were similar in that both led to
   (1) a surplus in the federal budget
   (2) a decrease in federal support for unemploy-
       ment insurance
   (3) a limit on the power of the Federal Reserve
       System
   (4) an expansion of the federal government’s role
       in stabilizing the economy
Answer:

50.
Base your answer to question 50 on the map below and on your knowledge of social studies.
50 What has been the principal cause of the population changes shown on the
   map?
   (1) employment opportunities in northeastern states
   (2) continued westward migration
   (3) enactment of immigration quotas
   (4) movement from farms to cities
Answer:


51.
            Answers to the essay questions are to be written in the separate essay booklet.
        In developing your answer to Part II, be sure to keep these general definitions in mind:
        (a) describe means “to illustrate something in words or tell about it”
        (b) discuss means “to make observations about something using facts, reasoning, and
            argument; to present in some detail”
                                                   PART II
                                      THEMATIC ESSAY QUESTION
Directions: Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several paragraphs addressing the task
            below, and a conclusion.
        Theme: Geography - Territorial Acquisition
                  Throughout the nation’s history, the United States has expanded through the
                  acquisition of new territories. These acquisitions have had both positive and
                  negative effects on the United States.
        Task:
                  Select two territories acquired by the United States and for each
                  • Describe the historical circumstances that led the United States to acquire the
                    territory
                  • Discuss positive and/or negative effects of the acquisition of the territory on
                    the United States
            You may use any territory acquired by the United States since 1776 from your study of
        United States history. Some suggestions you might wish to consider include the Ohio River
        valley (1783), the Louisiana Territory (1803), Florida (1819), Texas (1845), the Oregon
        Territory (1846), California (1848), Alaska (1867), Hawaii (1898), Puerto Rico (1899), and
        the Philippines (1899).
                                 You are not limited to these suggestions.
        Guidelines:
                In your essay, be sure to:
                • Develop all aspects of the task
                • Support the theme with relevant facts, examples, and details
                • Use a logical and clear plan of organization, including an introduction and a conclusion that
                  are beyond a restatement of the theme
Answer:

52.
NAME _______ SCHOOL _______
                                                 Part III
                                  DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION
    This question is based on the accompanying documents. The question is designed to test your
ability to work with historical documents. Some of these documents have been edited for the
purposes of this question. As you analyze the documents, take into account the source of each
document and any point of view that may be presented in the document. Keep in mind that the
language used in a document may reflect the historical context of the time in which it was written.
        Historical Context:
               Throughout United States history, individuals have used written works as a way to
               focus attention on issues facing American society. These written works have had
               a significant influence on the United States and American society. These written
               works include Common Sense by Thomas Paine, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet
               Beecher Stowe, and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
        Task: Using the information from the documents and your knowledge of United States
              history, answer the questions that follow each document in Part A. Your answers to
              the questions will help you write the Part B essay in which you will be asked to
                Choose two written works mentioned in the historical context and for each
                • Describe the historical circumstances surrounding the issue addressed by the
                  author
                • Discuss the influence of the written work on the United States and/or on
                  American society
In developing your answers to Part III, be sure to keep these general definitions in mind:
        (a) describe means “to illustrate something in words or tell about it”
        (b) discuss means “to make observations about something using facts, reasoning, and argu-
            ment; to present in some detail”
Part A
Short-Answer Questions
Directions: Analyze the documents and answer the short-answer questions that follow each document in the
            space provided.
Document 1
In 1768 John Dickinson of Pennsylvania argued for a new colonial theory which limited the power of Parliament
over the colonies.
       . . . Then events in due course pushed the colonial theory [of limited Parliamentary power] to
       a final stage. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, appearing in January 1776, tore every shred of
       authority from both King and Parliament. The two years or so preceding had piled crisis upon
       crisis. The Bostonians had sunk the tea; Parliament had retorted with the Intolerable Acts;
       the First Continental Congress had instituted a program of intercolonial economic resistance;
       war had erupted on Lexington Green; and an American army under the Second Congress had
       shut up [surrounded] General Gage and his regulars in Boston. In stirring and violent rhetoric the
       English-born Paine, who had recently settled in Philadelphia with a heart full of rancor for his native
       land, addressed the emotions as well as the minds of his readers. The “period of debate is closed,”
       he concluded, “’TIS TIME TO PART.” Although a half year was to elapse before Congress
       complied, Paine’s trumpet call was a mighty factor in influencing the public as well as the delegates
       themselves to adopt the fateful step. No other work written in America, save perhaps Uncle Tom’s
       Cabin, has ever had such crucial repercussions. . . .
                                         Source: Arthur M. Schlesinger, The Birth of the Nation, Houghton Mifflin, 1968
  1 According to Arthur M. Schlesinger, what were two events that motivated Thomas Paine to write
    Common Sense? [2]
Answer:

53.
Document 2
      . . . Paine published Common Sense in Philadelphia, and his Forester essays* first appeared in
      that city’s newspapers. His friends also chose Philadelphia newspapers, and so did his political
      enemies. But since the controversy involved the “continent,” Common Sense was reprinted in all
      the major American cities and the minor ones as well. Of course the debate spread, drawing in big
      men, John Adams, for example, and small ones as well. Within a few months over 100,000 copies
      of Common Sense had appeared, and the debates between independence and reconciliation
      dominated the newspapers.
          A part of the common sense offered by Thomas Paine was the observation that Britain’s old
      enemies in Europe would be more likely to provide support to the colonies if they declared
      their independence. No European power wanted to meddle in an internal dispute which might
      be settled by Britain and her colonies joining forces, as they had in the past, against an external
      enemy. Declaring independence would reassure Europe, reassure in particular France, the nation
      that some in Congress looked to for money and arms. . . .
                                Source: Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763 - 1789,
                                                                             Oxford University Press, 2005 (adapted)
   * Paine’s letters that expanded his arguments made in Common Sense
 2 According to Robert Middlekauff, what is one way Thomas Paine’s Common Sense promoted support for
   independence? [1]
Answer:

54.
Document 3
     . . . There is an exaltation, an excitement, about Common Sense that conveys the very uncommon
     sense of adventure Americans felt as they moved toward independence. With it would come new
     perils, but also new opportunities, new freedoms. They knew they were on the threshold of a great
     experience not only for themselves but perhaps for the whole world. “The cause of America,”
     Paine told them, “is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.” And they believed him.
         On May 15, 1776, the Virginia House of Burgesses voted to instruct its delegates in Congress
     to propose independence, and on the same day the Congress adopted a resolution sponsored
     by John Adams, advising the various colonies to assume complete powers of government within
     themselves. On June 7 Richard Henry Lee, following the instructions of his Virginia constituents,
     moved a resolution formally declaring the colonies independent. On July 2 this resolution was
     adopted and two days later the famous declaration to the world, drafted by Thomas Jefferson. . . .
                                    Source: Edmund S. Morgan, The Birth of the Republic, 1763 - 89, Fourth Edition,
                                                                           The University of Chicago Press, 2013
 3 According to Edmund S. Morgan, what was one effect of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense? [1]
Answer:

55.
Document 4
     . . . Among the provisions of the Compromise of 1850 were the end of the slave trade, but not
     slavery, in Washington D.C., and the creation of a new, stricter, Fugitive Slave Law. Helping
     runaways had been illegal since 1793, but the 1850 law required that everyone, law enforcers
     and ordinary citizens, help catch fugitives. Those who refused to assist slave-catchers, or aided
     fugitives, could be fined up to $1,000 and jailed for six months.
         It also eliminated what little legal protection fugitives once had. Before 1850, some northern
     states had required slave-catchers to appear before an elected judge and be tried by a jury which
     would determine the validity of a claim. After the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, anyone could be taken
     from the street, accused of being a fugitive from slavery, and taken before a federally appointed
     commissioner who received $5 for every fugitive released and $10 for every one sent south. Free
     blacks and anti-slavery groups argued the system bribed commissioners to send kidnapped people
     into slavery, and obliged citizens to participate in the slavery system.
         [Harriet Beecher] Stowe was furious. She believed the country was requiring her complicity
     in a system she thought was unjust and immoral. Living in Brunswick, ME [Maine] while Calvin
     Stowe taught at Bowdoin College, Stowe disobeyed the law by hiding runaways. When she
     shared her frustrations and feelings of powerlessness with her family, her sister-in-law Isabella
     Porter Beecher suggested she do more: “. . . if I could use a pen as you can, Hatty, I would write
     something that would make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is.”
         Moved by the letter, Stowe swore she would “if [she] lived.”. . .
                                                                  Source: Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 2011
 4 Based on this document, why was Harriet Beecher Stowe concerned about the new Fugitive Slave
   Law? [1]
Answer:

56.
Document 5a
This poster was an advertisement for
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Document 5b
 . . . Stowe is often credited with influencing the
 country to think differently about slavery. But
 what do we know about how Stowe influenced
 Lincoln?
     A decade earlier, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) had
 been a publishing and propaganda phenomenon.
 Using stories to illustrate the human impact
 of slavery, Stowe’s blistering pen lit the world
 on fire. The statistics remain record-breaking:
 10,000 copies sold in the first week; a million
 and a half British copies in a year. The book was
 so successful it was immediately dramatized for
 the stage, where it became a theatrical icon.
 Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, leader
 of the radical Republicans, said, “Had there been
 no Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there would have been no
 Lincoln in the White House.” . . .
     But pro-slavery critics charged that Stowe had
 made it all up and that slavery was a humane
 system. So Stowe wrote a nonfiction retort,
 The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1853), compiling
 the real-life evidence that had informed her
 fictional stories. . . .
                                 Source: Katherine Kane,
              “Lincoln and The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin,”
                  Connecticut Explored, Winter 2012/2013
5 Based on these documents, what is one reason Southern slave owners were concerned about the publication
  of Uncle Tom’s Cabin? [1]
Answer:

57.
Document 6
     . . . It is not possible to measure precisely the political influence of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. One
     can quantify its sales but cannot point to votes that it changed or laws that it inspired. Yet few
     contemporaries doubted its power. “Never was there such a literary coup-de-main [sudden
     attack] as this,” said Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In England, Lord Palmerston, who as prime
     minister a decade later would face a decision whether to intervene on behalf of the South in the
     Civil War, read Uncle Tom’s Cabin three times and admired it not so much for the story as “for
     the statesmanship of it.” As Abraham Lincoln was grappling with the problem of slavery in the
     summer of 1862, he borrowed from the Library of Congress A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a
     subsequent volume by Stowe containing documentation on which she had based the novel. When
     Lincoln met the author later that year, he reportedly greeted her with the words: “So you’re the
     little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.”
         Uncle Tom’s Cabin struck a raw nerve in the South. Despite efforts to ban it, copies sold so fast
     in Charleston and elsewhere that booksellers could not keep up with the demand. The vehemence
     of southern denunciations of Mrs. Stowe’s “falsehoods” and “distortions” was perhaps the best
     gauge of how close they hit home. “There never before was anything so detestable or so monstrous
     among women as this,” declared the New Orleans Crescent. The editor of the Southern Literary
     Messenger instructed his book reviewer: “I would have the review as hot as hellfire, blasting and
     searing the reputation of the vile wretch in petticoats who could write such a volume.” Within
     two years proslavery writers had answered Uncle Tom’s Cabin with at least fifteen novels whose
     thesis that slaves were better off than free workers in the North was capsulized by the title of one
     of them: Uncle Robin in His Cabin in Virginia and Tom Without One in Boston. A decade later
     during the Civil War a South Carolina diarist with doubts of her own about slavery reflected the
     obsession of southerners with Uncle Tom’s Cabin by using it as a constant benchmark to measure
     the realities of life in the South. . . .
        Source: James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, Oxford University Press, 1988 (adapted)
 6 According to James M. McPherson, what were two effects of the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin? [2]
Answer:

58.
Document 7
      . . . The freedom of big business seemed limitless. Drug companies sold patent medicines
      containing heroin, morphine, and cocaine that promised to cure all sorts of diseases, but actually
      cured none of them. Food companies sold children’s candy colored with toxic heavy metals.
      Cheap margarine was routinely marketed as butter. Crude mixtures of apple scraps, glucose,
      timothy seeds, and food coloring made from coal tar were sold as strawberry jam. In the age of
      the great trusts, the gulf between the wealthy and the poor became enormous. Robber barons
      built their homes in imitation of European palaces, while millions of American workers lived in
      urban slums.
         Upton Sinclair was moved by these injustices. During the fall of 1904 he left his home in
      New Jersey and traveled to Chicago, intending to write a novel about the plight of the city’s
      meatpacking workers. The beef trust controlled the industry with an iron fist. It had recently
      crushed a strike by union members who were seeking a pay raise of less than three cents an
      hour. The meatpacking industry seemed to embody everything that was wrong with American
      society, operating largely in secret, wielding unchecked power, threatening the health of workers
      and consumers. As Sinclair later argued in The Jungle, the beef trust was “the incarnation
      [representation] of blind and insensate [insensitive] greed. . . the Great Butcher. . . . the spirit of
      capitalism made flesh.”. . .
                                Source: Eric Schlosser, Foreword to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Penguin Books, 2006
 7 According to Eric Schlosser, what were two issues that concerned Upton Sinclair? [2]
Answer:

59.
Document 8a
      . . . Upton Sinclair wrote “The Jungle” as a labor exposé. He hoped that the book, which was billed
      as “the ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ of wage slavery,” would lead to improvements for the people to whom
      he dedicated it, “the workingmen of America.” But readers of “The Jungle” were less appalled by
      Sinclair’s accounts of horrific working conditions than by what they learned about their food. “I
      aimed at the public’s heart,” he famously declared, “and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”. . .
           When “The Jungle” was published, the public reaction was instantaneous. Outraged readers
      deluged President Theodore Roosevelt with letters. Roosevelt was ambivalent, but he invited
      Sinclair to the White House for lunch, and promised to send his labor commissioner and assistant
      Treasury secretary to Chicago to investigate. . . .
         Source: Adam Cohen, “100 Years Later, the Food Industry Is Still ‘The Jungle’,” New York Times, January 2, 2007
Document 8b
      . . . By the spring of 1906, both meat inspection and pure food and drugs legislation had many
      supporters. This was not a simple, black-and-white fight between the public on one side and big
      business on the other. But the pure food and drugs issue encouraged a broad range of Americans to
      think of their identities as consumers, as people who were imperiled by rotten meat or adulterated
      drugs. Physicians, federal experts, and women’s groups supported legislation. State officials,
      assiduously [persistently] courted by Harvey Wiley [a pioneer consumer activist], agreed that
      federal supervision was necessary. So did Westerners, angry at the “foreign” corporations from the
      East and Midwest. So, too, did more than a few of those corporations. Pabst, H. J. Heinz, and other
      producers, setting individualism aside, recognized the benefits of federal regulation: Washington’s
      supervision could bring order and stability to the business; it could protect the big companies
      from state supervision; it could make the business too expensive for potential competitors. At the
      least, regulation could rescue the corporations from their public predicament in 1906. Roosevelt’s
      investigators had largely confirmed the essentials of The Jungle; the meatpackers were unable to
      discredit Sinclair’s account. Under the circumstances, a crucial group of food and drug producers
      accepted the inevitability of regulation and tried to shape the legislation to protect their interests
      as much as possible. . . .
    Source: Michael McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870 - 1920,
                                                                                          Oxford University Press, 2005
 8 Based on these documents, what were two effects of the publication of The Jungle? [2]
Answer:

60.
Document 9
Upton Sinclair was present when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation amending the Meat
Inspection Act.
       . . . “A man was wrapping pork shoulders. He dropped one in the sawdust, picked it up and
       wiped it off with a dirty, sour rag. . . Beef was being broken on an open dock, by a dirt road, in
       95-degree weather. There were flies in the meat. Drums of bones and meat scraps were covered
       with maggots.”
          What I just read to you was not from “The Jungle.” It did not happen 60 years ago when Upton
       Sinclair was writing his book. It happened in July 1967. It was written by a United States Federal
       Government inspector after a visit to one of our great, modern packing plants. . . .
          This is an intolerable condition in the 20th century in a modern nation that prides itself on
       reputed leadership of the world. I have been urging and I have been asking for a strong meat
       inspection bill since 1964.
          The Wholesome Meat Act of 1967 - which has been brought to me by the good work of the
       Congress - will give something priceless, I think, to American housewives. It will give them
       assurance that the meat that they put on the dinner table for their husbands and their children is
       pure; that it has been packed and it has been processed in a sanitary plant. . . .
          This Wholesome Meat Act is a landmark, we think, in consumer protection. It helps every
       American - by assuring him that the meat his family consumes has been inspected with their
       health and their safety in mind. . . .
          Mr. Sinclair, we are so glad to have you here in the East Room with many of the distinguished
       Members of the Congress and people who are interested in this wholesome meat legislation.
          This bill really crowns the crusade that you, yourself, began some 60 years ago.
          We salute you, sir, and we thank you. . . .
                   Source: President Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks Upon Signing Bill Amending the Meat Inspection Act,
                                                                                               December 15, 1967
  9 According to President Lyndon B. Johnson, what is the continuing influence of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle?
    [1]
Answer:

61.
Part B
Essay
Directions: Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several paragraphs, and a conclusion.
            Use evidence from at least four documents in your essay. Support your response with relevant
            facts, examples, and details. Include additional outside information.
         Historical Context:
                Throughout United States history, individuals have used written works as a way to
                focus attention on issues facing American society. These written works have had
                a significant influence on the United States and American society. These written
                works include Common Sense by Thomas Paine, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet
                Beecher Stowe, and The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
         Task: Using the information from the documents and your knowledge of United States
               history, write an essay in which you
                  Choose two written works mentioned in the historical context and for each
                  • Describe the historical circumstances surrounding the issue addressed by the
                    author
                  • Discuss the influence of the written work on the United States and/or on
                    American society
         Guidelines:
                In your essay, be sure to
                • Develop all aspects of the task
                • Incorporate information from at least four documents
                • Incorporate relevant outside information
                • Support the theme with relevant facts, examples, and details
                • Use a logical and clear plan of organization, including an introduction and a conclusion that
                  are beyond a restatement of the theme
Answer:

  Try the Quiz :     US History and Government - New York Regents June 2018 Exam


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