American History I

1. American History I Potential Writing Prompts that could be used in testing

2. Unit 1 • Impact of European Exploration on Native Americans • Issues related to religious freedom • Plymouth Settlement • Maryland/Pennsylvania • Massachusetts Bay Colony • Early governing principles developed in the American Colonies • Mayflower Compact – government by the will of the people • Virginia House of Burgesses – Representative Government • Toleration Act of 1649 – Religious Freedom

3. Unit 2 • Effects of the French and Indian War on Colonial Life. • Define Mercantilism and how it affected the relationship between England and the American Colonies. • Events that led to the Declaration of Independence

4. Unit 3 • American Revolution • Key Battles/People/Events that led to American victory and independence • Contributions of various minority groups (women, African Americans, Native Americans, and Foreign Allies) to American victory in the Revolution and the impact of independence on their rights and freedoms • Articles of Confederation • How the document’s weaknesses led to the drafting of a new constitution. • Constitution • Key components of the Federal System (separation of powers, Social Contract, Checks and Balances, Bill of Rights) and how they represented a change from the Articles of Confederation.

5. Unit 4 • Political Parties (differences between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans) • Supreme Court Cases that expanded the powers of the Federal Government and how. • Important treaties and how the impacted the United States’ diplomatic relations with other nations or peoples. • The merits of and political challenges posed by the Louisiana Purchase • Role played by the Alien and Sedition Acts, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, Revolution (Election) of 1800, and Hartford Convention in the death of the Federalist Party. • Causes of the War of 1812

6. Unit 5 • Motives for Manifest Destiny: what did the nation stand to gain? • Raw Materials and Markets to ease overproduction • Opportunity to spread Christianity to the Native Americans • Opportunity to expand the “Empire of Liberty” (democracy) • Land is power, improve our status in the world • Role of James K. Polk in Manifest Destiny • Annexation of Texas • Settles the border dispute over Oregon with Great Britain • Starts a war with Mexico to acquire western lands • The different regions that were acquired by the United States and how they were acquired. • Louisiana – by Purchase – from France • Florida – ceded by Adams-Onis Treaty – from Spain • Oregon – by Treaty – From Great Britain • Mexican Cession – The American Southwest – By War with Mexico – officially by Treaty – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo • Reasons for opposition to the Mexican War and Manifest Destiny in General. • Slavery and Abolition • Westward expansion would expand the territory of slavery and prevent any solution to the “Slavery Question” • Events that stimulated movement • Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad • Discovery of Gold in California • Free land grants from the Homestead Act of 1862 • Key Social Reforms and associated people • William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, David Walker – Abolition • Dorothea Dix, William Channing – Treatment of the mentally ill and Prison Reform • Horace Mann, Noah Webster – Public Education • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott – Women’s Rights (suffrage = right to vote

7. Unit 6 • Events that demonstrated the growing division between the North and the South • Events that caused the growth of the Abolition Movement • Advantages and Disadvantages of both the North and the South going into the Civil War • Important Battles and their effect on the Civil War • Difference between Congressional and Presidential Reconstruction Plans • Be able to define the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and describe how they both succeeded and failed

8. Unit 7 • Effects of the French and Indian War – New Taxes and Restrictions • Forming a New Government – How Enlightenment principles shaped the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights • How inventions change the world – Cotton Gin: describe the nature of the Slavery debate in the 1850s and why efforts to reach compromises failed. • Be able to use the concepts of Social Contract, Natural Rights, and Representative Government to analyze the outcome of the Election of 1860 and why it led to the secession of the Southern States. • Be able to describe the pros and cons of the Emancipation Proclamation and package it with the Gettysburg Address and 13th Amendment to assess the true nature of why the Civil War was being fought. • Be able to describe how the “Reconstruction Amendments” (13th, 14th, and 15th) were both successes and failures in achieving increased democratization for African Americans.