There will be two examinations, a mid term on Tuesday, March 21, 2000 at the regular class time and a final examination on Thursday May 4, 2000 at 8:30 a.m.
 

Sample Examinations

Mid Term Examination, Fall 1998

This examination tests your knowledge and understanding of the three themes of this course.  Dividing your time equally, answer two of the following three questions, making a case in each answer for the relevance of one or more of these themes.

1.  Describe the layout of a New England town in the seventeenth century.  What was significant about it?  What happened to this layout over time?

2.  What role did diversity play in the development of the American colonies?  To what extent did the colonies mirror English society and what factors made them different?  Consider this question in social, economic, and political terms.  Some of the variables you might discuss are race, religion, region, and work.

3.  Define the concept of sovereignty and explain how and why it played a role in the decision to declare independence in 1776 and establish new governments at the state and federal levels over the next twelve years.

4.  How did advances in technology, transportation, and economics affect personal freedom in America in the first half of the nineteenth century?

Final Examination, Fall 1998

Part I (60 minutes)

Answer two of the following four questions:

1. How and to what extent did the Great Awakening affect religious freedom in the thirteen colonies of British   North America?  Did it have any influence on the later decision to separate church and state?  Explain.

2. How did Americans define the concept of "virtue" in the eighteen century?  How and why did this concept change in the nineteenth century?  Be sure to consider the concept of virtue in both political and economic terms when you write your answer.

3. Did Andrew Jackson believe in a strong or weak federal government?  What did his presidency mean for such Americans as northern businessmen, southern slave owners, small farmers, and Native Americans?

4.  Compare the roles of white and black women in America in the first half of the nineteenth century.  How were their lives different?  How were they the same.  Be sure to include in your answer a discussion of work, marriage, and child rearing.
 

Answer one of the following two questions:

1.  In 1776 Thomas Jefferson said that all men were created equal and endowed with the unalienable right to live, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  How were these words important to the United States in the next 100 years?  What impact did they have on the coming of the Civil War and its aftermath, Reconstruction?

2.  Migration and freedom have been two of the three themes of this course.  Explain how the opening of the American west brought these two themes into conflict between 1820 and 1857.