Week of November 16 Chapters 14 and 15 Warm Ups

The Antebellum Periodante = beforebellum = war

MONDAY’S VOCABULARY

Preservationists: activists like George Catlin and John Muir who fought to protect the natural environment from exploitation and extinction. Led to the creation of national park system, beginning with Yellowstone Park in Wyoming in 1872.

cane: long hollow stems of plants left after tobacco has been harvested. Kentucky bluegrass took its place once is was burned off.

NINA: No Irish Need Apply who then resented the African Americans

Nativists: antiforeigner sentiment

QUESTION OF THE DAY

    The once incredibly profitable beaver fur-trapping trade in the

American West virtually disappeared in the 1850s because      (A)  the beaver population declined significantly due to Lyme disease    (B)  intense competition between French, British, and American trappers drove the price down    (C)  Indian tribes and trappers could not cooperate in the beaver trade    (D)  beaver hats went out of fashion in Europe    (E)  19th century animal protection groups protested the wanton destruction of beavers

A Beaver Felt Hat Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

ANSWER: (D)  beaver hats went out of fashion in Europe

The beaver fur trade between Indians and Europeans began as early as the voyage of Samuel de Champlain in 1608. Beaver fur was used for both hats and coats and became hugely popular in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. A growing fur trade brought French, British, and American trappers to the Rocky Mountain west, where the beaver population was massive. While over trapping did reduce the supply of beavers in the 1840s, most historians point to the desire for silk rather than beaver hats for the decline in the fur trade.

TUESDAY’S VOCABULARY

caste: an exclusive or rigid social distinction based on birth, wealth, occupation. European immigrants escaped this system when they immigrated to the land of opportunity—no matter who you were—they heard about in the “America letters”.

rendezvous: a meeting at an appointed place and time. Fur trappers rendezvous in the Rocky Mountains each year allowed organized free trade of beaver pelts to flourish.

Molly Maguires: Secret organization of U.S. coal miners in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. To protest poor working conditions and employment discrimination in the 1860s, the Irish-American miners formed a group named for an Irish widow who had led anti-landlord agitators in Ireland. Acts of sabotage and terrorist murders in the coalfields were blamed on the group.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

   

During the first half of the nineteenth century, which of the following was true of cotton's impact?

    (A)   the internal slave trade declined in importance    (B)   the importation of slaves from other countries increased dramatically    (C)   the price of slaves decreased    (D)  Southern agriculture became more diversified    (E)   the demand for slaves increased

Preparing cotton to be ginned Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

(E)   the demand for slaves increased

The cotton culture of the South proved to be immensely profitable in the first half of the 1800s. Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793 enabled farmers to greatly increase their acreage. At the same time, demand for cotton around the world grew tremendously. In 1800, the U.S. exported 37 million pounds of cotton. In 1850, it exported 1 billion pounds of cotton.

WEDNESDAY’S VOCABULARY

patent: legal certification of an original invention, product or process which guarantees its holder sole right to profits from its use or reproduction for a specific amount of time.

trademark: a distinguishing symbol or word used by a manufacturer on its goods, usually registered by law to protects against imitators

liability: legal responsibility for loss or damage

QUESTION OF THE DAY

   

Eli Whitney is credited with what significant invention?

    (A) standardizing railroad gauge    (B) the telegraph    (C) the steamboat engine    (D) the cotton gin    (E) canal locks

Eli Whitney Image Source: Wikipedia Commons (public domain)

ANSWER:     (D) the cotton gin

While Eli Whitney did not invent the first cotton gin, which is a machine that separates cotton lint and seeds, his 1793 model (known as the saw gin) became the most economically practical. The saw gin drew cotton fibers through a wire grating which was too fine for the seeds to pass through. It allowed one worker to clean as many as 50 pounds of lint a day and greatly enhanced cotton as a profitable crop.

THURSDAY’S VOCABULARY

polygamy: marriage to more than one person

zealot: an overly zealous person; fanatic

utopia: perfect society rid of inequality,

discrimination and the evils of society. Seen as unattainable

QUESTION OF THE DAY

    J. Maze Burbank "Camp Meeting" 1839Image Source: Wikipedia Commons (public domain)

Which of the following was NOT characteristic of the Second Great Awakening?

    (A) religious enthusiasm, including dancing, shouting, and singing, was a common manifestation of religious expression    (B) frontier meetings often took place for days at a time    (C) both Protestant and Roman Catholic ministers took part in the preaching    (D) as in the First Great Awakening of the 1730s, personal salvation was a central part of the experience of participants    (E) social activism and interest in a variety of reform movements resulted

ANSWER: (C) both Protestant and Roman Catholic ministers took part in the preaching

The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival movement that arose among Protestant denominations, mainly in rural areas, in the first half of the 19th century. It featured large, emotional camp meetings in areas that did not have established churches. Participants often were confronted with their sins and then invited to repent and accept personal salvation. One of the outcomes of the Second Great Awakening was an increase in interest in reform movements, including abolitionism, temperance, and improved care of the mentally ill.

FRIDAY’S VOCABULARY

cult of domesticity: idea that home was the woman's special sphere and a woman’s job was to create a productive good citizen. Women were seen as superior in teaching morale beliefs in the home

Transcendentalism: belief that truth comes from meditation and intuition, not observation and the senses. A reaction against scientific reasoning.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

   

North Dakota children assembling in front of their one-room schoolhouse, 1890(Source: American Memory, Library of Congress)

Which of the following 19th century social reformers advocated  a secular curriculum for public schools, more and better-equipped schoolhouses, higher pay for teachers, and universal compulsory education?

(A)  Dorothea Dix(B)  Elijah P. Lovejoy(C)  Angelina Grimke(D)  Horace Mann(E)  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

ANSWER: (D)  Horace Mann

Known as the "father of American public education," Mann used his position as secretary of the Massachusetts board of education to effect change in schools first in Massachusetts and then throughout the U.S. He advocated better training for teachers, sought to remove religious influence from the curriculum, and urged increased public spending on education.