Unit 5 2011

Unit 4 – Exam

Directions: You will choose one essay from each section and complete an outline/planning guide. You will be turning these in, so make sure they are complete, detailed, thoughtful answers. Make sure that your clearly label which question you are answering. If I have to guess, I will grade you on the first question in that section.

In class, I will be choosing ONE time period, and you will have about 25 minutes to write out the full essay for the question you have chosen in that section. You MAY use your own planning sheet to assist you. However, you may not use anything else, or a sheet provided by anyone else. If you do not turn in the planning sheet, I will not score your essay.

You will have about 25 minutes to write your essay. You are welcome (and encouraged) to use this paper to brainstorm and plan your essay. BE SURE THAT YOU CITE RELEVENT & DETAILED HISTORICAL EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT YOUR ANSWER AND TO PRESENT YOUR ANSWERS IN A CLEAR AND LOGICAL MANNER. You should underline your thesis statement. If you read these directions, you should put your name and a smiley face on the upper right hand corner of this page. You will be turning this sheet in as well.

Antebellum America (30 points)

1. In 1858, William Seward spoke of an "irrepressible conflict" between slavery and freedom, and Abraham Lincoln announced that the nation could not be "permanently half-slave and half-free." Both were suggesting that conflict and disunion over the slavery issue were inevitable. Were they right? Was a peaceful, nonpartisan solution impossible? Was a policy of moderation doomed to fail? Would it have made much difference whether the nation was led by moderates or fanatics?

2. Repeated sectional compromises, in 1820, 1833, and 1850, held the Union together and averted civil war. Why did compromise fail in 1860(1861?

Civil War (30 points)

3. How did the Civil War affect each of the following: northern factory workers, southern plantation workers, northern industrialists, southern planters, and northern and southern women?

4. Why did the South lose the Civil War, and why did the North win? Why did the war last four years? Discuss the following for both the North and the South: war goals, economic strengths and weaknesses, public finance, military and naval strengths and weaknesses, relations with the rest of the world, and political systems.

5. Radical Republicans viewed the Civil War as a second American Revolution. What did they mean? Were they correct?

Reconstruction (30 points)

6. Explain how and why the debate over reconstruction was, in part, a debate between Congress and the president over which branch had the authority to shape and direct reconstruction.

7. To what extent should Reconstruction be considered a success, or a failure? Explain.