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Quiz for Reading the American Past, Chapter 12

Quiz for Reading the American Past, Chapter 12

Document Links

Document 12-1: Abraham Lincoln Explains the Free-Labor System

Document 12-2: The Anxiety of Gain: Henry W. Bellows on Commerce and Morality

Document 12-3: Gold Fever

Document 12-4: That Woman Is Man's Equal: The Seneca Falls Declaration

Document 12-5: A Farmer's View of His Wife

Question

1. What did Abraham Lincoln believe to be the unique characteristic of the free-labor system? (See Document 12-1: Abraham Lincoln Explains the Free-Labor System)

Free labor acknowledged the primacy of capital in a market economy.

Free labor rejected the notion that individuals could be owners of capital.

Free labor rested on the assumption that free labor required universal education.

Free labor was borne specifically out of the qualities of white Americans.

Correct.

Incorrect. The answer is The answer is c. Abraham Lincoln believed that free labor went hand in hand with universal education.

Question

2. How did Henry W. Bellows characterize the nation and its people? (See Document 12-2: The Anxiety of Gain: Henry W. Bellows on Commerce and Morality)

He found Americans lazy at heart but compelled to work.

He thought Americans lacked drive and were lost in romanticism.

He noted that the nations' virtues were those of merchants, not men.

He believed that slavery destroyed whatever good might be in the nation's character.

Correct.

Incorrect. The answer is The answer is c. Henry Bellows observed that "[our] virtues are the virtues of merchants, and not of men."

Question

3. What did Walter Colton find so admirable about the gold miners in California? (See Document 12-3: Gold Fever)

California gold miners had a refined sense of class and civilization even under the most challenging circumstances.

California gold miners had left behind the burdens of racial prejudice and treated Europeans, Africans, and Asians with equal respect.

California gold miners had discovered a surefire path to prosperity and equality.

California gold miners were free of class distinctions, and their chances at success were refreshingly equal and "democratic."

Correct.

Incorrect. The answer is The answer is d. Colton spoke in praise of a successful gold digger, demanding that those preoccupied with class "[clear] out of the way with your crests, and crowns, and pedigree trees, and let this democrat pass."

Question

4. Why did the writers of the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments consider married women civilly dead? (See Document 12-4: That Woman Is Man's Equal: The Seneca Falls Declaration)

The drudgery of housework prevented married women from political engagement.

Marriage forced women to surrender their careers and stay in the home.

Marriage annulled the right to vote that unmarried but propertied women enjoyed.

The covenant of marriage made the husband a virtual master.

Correct.

Incorrect. The answer is The answer is d. The authors explained that marriage made a woman civilly dead because the covenant of marriage effectively turned her husband into a master and deprived her of all legal rights before a court.

Question

5. According to the prairie farmer Eliza Farnham interviewed in the early nineteenth century, what was the sole purpose for which he got married? (See Document 12-5: A Farmer's View of His Wife)

He wanted someone to do domestic labor for him.

He wanted to raise his social standing in the community.

He wanted to have a son to take over his farm when he was old.

He was looking for a reliable source of sexual satisfaction.

Correct.

Incorrect. The answer is The answer is a. The sole purpose for which the western prairie farmer got married was to have someone to do domestic labor for him.

Question

6. What did the authors of the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and the western prairie farmer interviewed by Eliza Farnham seem to believe in common? (See Document 12-4: That Woman Is Man's Equal: The Seneca Falls Declaration and Document 12-5: A Farmer's View of His Wife )

Under the existing rules of marriage, women were servants and husbands were the masters.

Life in marriage had reduced women to primitive and demeaning living conditions.

Women ought to enjoy full civic equality in order to civilize the frontier more quickly.

At the heart of a good marriage was good companionship and equal partnership.

Correct.

Incorrect. The answer is The answer is a. The authors of the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and the western prairie farmer interviewed by Eliza Farnham agreed on the fact that under the existing rules of marriage, women were servants and husbands were the masters. But whereas the women's rights advocates lamented this condition, the farmer was perfectly content with it.

Question

7. What opinion did Henry W. Bellows and Walter Colton share? (See Document 12-2: The Anxiety of Gain: Henry W. Bellows on Commerce and Morality and Document 12-3: Gold Fever)

Americans did not know how to be happy.

Americans were driven above all by the pursuit of profit.

Americans were obsessed with duty and hard work.

Americans lacked any sense of religious piety.

Correct.

Incorrect. The answer is The answer is b. Henry W. Bellows and Walter Colton agreed that Americans were driven above all by the pursuit of profit.