Quiz for Thinking Like a Historian: Dance and Social Identity in Antebellum America

Question

1. The evidence available in sources 1 and 2 suggests that the sexual manners among rural folk and genteel urbanites in America in the 1830s and 1840s were characterized by

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is a. The images of men and women in sources 1 and 2 suggest that the sexual manners of rural folk and genteel urbanites in America in the 1830s and 1840s were characterized by modesty and restraint. In source 1, most of the men and women occupy different parts of the room; in source 2, the men and women dance together, but there is little physical contact between them.
Incorrect. The answer is a. The images of men and women in sources 1 and 2 suggest that the sexual manners of rural folk and genteel urbanites in America in the 1830s and 1840s were characterized by modesty and restraint. In source 1, most of the men and women occupy different parts of the room; in source 2, the men and women dance together, but there is little physical contact between them.

Question

2. What do sources 3 and 4 suggest about why the cultural practices of the elite were beginning to change in the mid-nineteenth century?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is c. Sources 3 and 4 suggest that some American elites gained new exposure to the activities of other ethnic and social groups—such as the polka and the juba dance—and began to incorporate elements of those groups’ cultural practices into their own.
Incorrect. The answer is c. Sources 3 and 4 suggest that some American elites gained new exposure to the activities of other ethnic and social groups—such as the polka and the juba dance—and began to incorporate elements of those groups’ cultural practices into their own.

Question

3. Which of the following factors was most likely responsible for the changes in American dancing styles in the mid-nineteenth century?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is a. Immigrants coming to the United States from Europe in the mid-nineteenth century brought new forms of dance with them. These new forms gradually spread into American culture.
Incorrect. The answer is a. Immigrants coming to the United States from Europe in the mid-nineteenth century brought new forms of dance with them. These new forms gradually spread into American culture.

Question

4. Historians would attribute the emerging popularity of juba dancing in mid-nineteenth century America to which of the following phenomena?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is c. Historians would argue that the popularity of new dance forms, such as juba dancing, was a part of the new urban culture—which included various types of popular entertainment, including minstrelsy—that was developing in the larger cities of the United States in the nineteenth century.
Incorrect. The answer is c. Historians would argue that the popularity of new dance forms, such as juba dancing, was a part of the new urban culture—which included various types of popular entertainment, including minstrelsy—that was developing in the larger cities of the United States in the nineteenth century.

Question

5. Which of the following groups would have been most likely to object to the new forms of dancing that emerged in the United States in the 1840s?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is d. A preacher during the Second Great Awakening would likely have objected to the more frenetic and explicitly sexual forms of dance that had begun to emerge in the United States in the 1840s.
Incorrect. The answer is d. A preacher during the Second Great Awakening would likely have objected to the more frenetic and explicitly sexual forms of dance that had begun to emerge in the United States in the 1840s.