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The Blog @ TomRichey.net

AP US History Free-Response Sample Responses (2022)

5/15/2022

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The 2022 AP US History Free-Response Questions have been released to the public! Click here to view the questions on the College Board's website.

2022 APUSH SAQ Sample Responses

Click here to view my sample responses to the 2022 APUSH SAQ items.

2022 APUSH DBQ Sample Response(s)

Click here to view my sample response(s) to the 2022 APUSH DBQ. This file will be updated to include several sample responses that would earn different point values.

2022 APUSH LEQ Sample Responses

This year's LEQ 2 asked students to assess the relative importance of causes for the settlement of the British colonies. Click here to see a set of sample responses I've put together for LEQ 2.

Take a look at my analysis of the 2022 APUSH Free-Response Questions on Marco Learning's YouTube channel:

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2021 AP US History DBQ (Sample Essay)

6/25/2021

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In a pandemic year in which most APUSH classes were running behind content-wise, nobody expected the DBQ to be from the post-WWII era! But then, that's exactly what the AP US History Test Development Committee did this year! The 2021 APUSH DBQ topic addressed the social consequences of the prosperity that followed World War II, with a timeframe between 1940 and 1970.

Click here to view the 2021 AP US History DBQ

A few days after the 2021 DBQ was released, I solved the DBQ within the recommended 60-minute time limit. My sample essay is available for students and teachers to read, and for those of you who want to watch me go through it, the broadcast is available on my YouTube channel.

Click here to view my sample essay for the 2021 APUSH DBQ.

You may find my APUSH DBQ rubric helpful while taking a look at this sample essay, as each of these points is specifically targeted in the sample essay.
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APUSH Immigration and Internal Migrations Review Notes (Thematic Review)

7/31/2020

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One of the major themes of the AP® US History course is migration and settlement. In order to help students prepare for the APUSH exam, I have created a two page review sheet with notes on immigration and internal migrations from the pre-colonial period to the present.
Click here to download my APUSH Immigration Review Notes.
(PDF Format)
Visit My APUSH Home page

​Native Migrations ("1491")

​Around 15,000 years ago, small human populations from Siberia migrated across the Bering Land Bridge. Over thousands of years, these groups spread across North America and developed into several distinct language and culture groups.

Exploration and Colonization (1492-1776)

European colonizers settled in different regions in North America, with the Spanish settling in the American Southwest and Florida, the French in the Great Lakes region and Louisiana, the Dutch in present-day New York, and the English on the Eastern Seaboard. Of these colonizers, only the English sent large numbers of settlers.

​During this period, over 300,000 African slaves were brought to North America via the infamous Middle Passage across the Atlantic.

Early National America (1776-1820)

​European settlers during the early national period came primarily from Northwestern Europe (England, Scotland, Germany, and Scandinavia). These settlers were overwhelmingly Protestant.
​
After American independence, 300,000 more African slaves were brought to the United States before Congress ended the African slave trade in 1808.

Antebellum Period (1820-1860)

In the 1820s, thousands of Anglo-American settlers, mostly from the South, began settling in Texas, which was part of Mexico. In the 1830s, conflicts between these settlers and the Mexican government resulted in Texas declaring its independence in 1836.
​
The 1830 Indian Removal Act resulted in the (often forced) relocation of around 60,000 Native Americans from the South to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Thousands died on what became known as the Trail of Tears.
Irish and German Immigrant Historical Political Cartoon
In this antebellum political cartoon, Irish and German immigrants - caricatured for their reputation for consuming alcohol in an era of temperance - are depicted running off with a ballot box during a riot.
From 1845-1855, there was a wave of Irish and German immigration, which was the first major wave of Catholic immigration in the history of the United States. Most German immigrants settled in rural areas of Pennsylvania and the Midwest, while the Irish settled in coastal cities, such as Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia, which were fast becoming industrial centers.
​
NATIVISM: Irish immigrants did not receive a warm welcome because of their Catholicism and their willingness to work for cheap in the industrializing economy in the North. The “Know Nothing” Party received about 20% of the popular vote in the 1856 election after campaigning against Catholics and immigrants.

The Wild West (1840-1890)

During the 1840s, the height of Manifest Destiny, thousands of American pioneers ventured to the American West on the Oregon, Mormon, and California Trails. The 1849 Gold Rush made California a popular destination for Americans hoping to strike it rich.

The Gold Rush also attracted Chinese immigrants, who settled in San Francisco and prospected for gold. In the 1860s, Chinese made up the bulk of the workforce that constructed the Central Pacific Railroad.

NATIVISM: The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), which banned further immigration from China, was the first law passed in the United States to limit immigration. A 1907 “Gentleman’s Agreement” between the United States and Japan limited Japanese immigration without the United States passing a law.

The Progressive Era (1890-1920)

In the 1890s, as the United States was in the midst of unprecedented industrialization and urbanization, “New Immigrants” arrived in droves from Southern and Eastern Europe (e.g., Italy, Poland, Greece, and Russia). In addition to Italian and Polish Catholics, this represented the first large wave of Jewish and Orthodox Christian immigrants. 

NATIVISM: The New Immigrants did not get a particularly warm welcome in the United States because they did not tend to speak English, came from countries with little to no experience with republican institutions, and often lacked education and job skills.

Progressive reformers worked to culturally assimilate the New Immigrants into an American “melting pot.” The settlement house movement, led by people like Jane Addams (of the Hull House), sought to give immigrants job and language skills. Public education became more focused on citizenship and acquainting new immigrants with the American way of life.

Post-WWI (1920s)

The (First) Red Scare, which followed the Bolshevik Revolution, was a panic about immigration rooted in fear that immigrants would start a communist revolution in the United States. The Palmer Raids resulted in the deportation of hundreds of immigrants who held radical political views.

The Great Migration of African Americans from the South began during World War I, as black men sought jobs in Northern cities and eventually brought their families with them. Unfortunately, many of those trying to escape racism in the South found it in the North in the form of brutal race riots in Chicago and other cities.

NATIVISM MEETS RACISM: The (Second) Ku Klux Klan reached its peak membership in the mid-1920s, inspired by the silent film, Birth of a Nation, which glamorized the activities of the (First) Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction. The Ku Klux Klan was as nativist as it was racist, promoting an idea of America that was white, native, and Protestant (WASP).

Congress passed Immigration Quota Acts during the 1920s, which laid the foundation for a system of controlled immigration. Quotas, based on national origins, gave preference to immigrants from Northern and Western Europe.

The Sacco and Vanzetti Trial was a polarizing event in the 1920s. When Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty of a murder and armed robbery, Italian-Americans cried foul, claiming that the guilty verdict was based on the defendants’ national origins and anarchist politics.

Contemporary America (1960-Present)

In the decades following WWII, there was a sustained internal migration to the warm climates of the sun belt (from the Carolinas to California) because of the availability of air conditioning and cheaper (and often less regulated) labor.

In the 1960s, national origins quotas were modified in order to encourage more immigration from the developing world - especially from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East - and eliminating preferences for white immigrants.

The 1965 act also gave preference to educated immigrants who possessed specialized job skills (e.g., doctors, chemists), immigrants who already had relatives in the United States, and refugees.

The Immigration Act of 1990 lifted restrictions against homosexual immigrants, who had been classified among “sexual deviants” in the 1965 Immigration Act.
AP® is a trademark registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, this product.
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APUSH Interwar Foreign Policy Multiple Choice Practice

3/14/2020

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Topic 7.11 in the AP US History Course and Exam Description addresses Interwar Foreign Policy. One of the key understandings students must have to answer questions about this topic is to understand that while the American public was concerned about the rise of totalitarian regimes, such as Nazi Germany, most Americans opposed direct involvement in the war until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

The America First Committee

The America First Committee was an interest group organized in 1940 by Americans who were against intervention in World War II. America First rallies featured celebrity speakers, such as Charles Lindbergh, the first pilot to make a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Lindbergh's vocal advocacy of neutrality helped to harden American public opinion against entering the war until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The America First Committee dissolved itself within days of the Pearl Harbor attack, with Lindbergh and other leaders expressing their patriotic support for the war effort.
Download Multiple
​Choice Questions
Charles Lindbergh addresses an America First Committee rally with a picture of George Washington on display prior to the Pearl Harbor attack.
Charles Lindbergh addresses an America First Committee rally (charleslindbergh.com)
I have created a practice stimulus-based multiple choice question set featuring an excerpt from one of Charles Lindbergh's speeches. This should be helpful in preparing AP US History students for questions that they might encounter on the exam regarding Interwar foreign policy prior to Pearl Harbor. This is one of fifteen topics from Period 7 of the APUSH course that is subject to assessment.
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Compromise of 1850 (APUSH Lecture Notes)

12/1/2018

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Click here to download a printable set of these lecture notes.

Historical Context

In 1848, the United States annexed the Mexican Cession as part of the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War. The organization of the Mexican Cession became a hot issue in Congress that appeared to be unsolvable, as the doctrine of Free Soil, which prohibited any further expansion of slavery into the American West, gained acceptance in the North while Southern congressmen remained insistent on the existing practice of admitting an equal number of slave and free states into the Union. While it had never passed both houses of Congress, the Wilmot Proviso, with its declaration that slavery would not be allowed in any territories acquired from Mexico, still functioned as a line in the sand for the North.
 
When California petitioned to enter the Union as a free state, the proposal met resistance from Southern congressmen and it appeared that California would fail to clear the hurdle of the Senate – where the South was nearly equally represented with the North – and fail to attain statehood. Henry Clay, known as the “Great Compromiser,” designed a compromise proposal that he hoped would settle the differences between the sections as he had previously with the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise Tariff of 1833, which had ended the Nullification Crisis. This compromise, known as the Compromise of 1850, would be Clay’s last and the final compromise between the sections prior to the American Civil War.
The Compromise of 1850 is divided into five parts:

1. Admit California as a Free State

Free Soil advocates in Congress were dead set on admitting California as a free state, while Southern congressmen objected to the admission of California without also admitting a slave state, as had been done in the past. Some Southern senators demanded that California be divided into two states, while others objected on procedural grounds, since California was applying for statehood without previously being organized by Congress as a territory. The initial proposal to admit California as a free state failed to gain the support of the Senate, so something had to be done in order to gain some Southern votes.

2. A Stronger Fugitive Slave Act

Although the Constitution required the return of fugitive slaves who had escaped to free states to their owners, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 did not require state governments to cooperate with slave catchers and did not directly involve federal officials in apprehending escaped slaves. This especially concerned representatives of the states of the Upper South, from where it was easiest to escape to free states (Frederick Douglass, for example, had escaped from Maryland). A new and stronger Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed that required state governments to cooperate in the capture of escaped slaves. Additionally, anyone accused of being a slave was to receive a federal bench trial without the benefit of a jury.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was the most controversial part of the Compromise of 1850 and provoked hostility from antislavery activists in the North. Several states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, and Massachusetts, passed “personal liberty laws” that guaranteed jury trials to those accused of being escaped slaves. This resistance, while not formally nullifying the federal law, is considered to be a form of de facto nullification.

3. Popular Sovereignty in New Mexico and Utah Territories

Prior to the Compromise of 1850, Congress had decided the status of slavery in a federal territory when organizing that territory, as it had in the Missouri Compromise thirty years earlier. Given the stalemate between proslavery and Free Soil factions in Congress, this was not going to be possible. In order to break the stalemate, Lewis Cass and Stephen Douglas – both Northern Democrats – proposed popular sovereignty (also known as squatter sovereignty) as a solution. The doctrine of popular sovereignty placed the status of slavery in the hands of the settlers rather than in Congress. The New Mexico and Utah Territories were organized in the Mexican Cession on the basis of popular sovereignty, allowing members of Congress to vote to organize the territories without going on record as supporting or opposing slavery.

4. Texas "Bailout" - Land Ceded for War Debt Assumption

The greatest obstacle to organizing the New Mexico and Utah Territories was that Texas – a slave state – still claimed some of the land that the federal government considered as part of the Mexican Cession. Texas claimed that the Rio Grande formed not only its southern - but also its eastern - border. This included Santa Fe, one of the most important cities in the Mexican Cession. In order to get Texas to relinquish its western land claims, the federal government agreed to pay the state’s outstanding debt of $10 million. As with many conflicts between the federal government and the states, this one was solved by money.

Compromise of 1850 Map (Texas and the Mexican Cession

Map of Texas and the Mexican Cession Before the Compromise of 1850
Before (July 1848)
Map of Texas and the Mexican Cession After the Compromise of 1850
After (December 1850)
Map Credit: Golbez (Wikipedia)

5. Slave Trade Abolished in Washington, D.C.

Antislavery members of Congress wanted to see slavery abolished in the nation’s capital, seeing it not only as an affront to their own eyes, but an embarrassment in the eyes of the world, which sent its ambassadors to there. Southern congressmen were equally determined to preserve slavery in the capital, not only as a matter of principle, but as a practical matter since their personal valets traveled to Washington with them. A compromise was reached that prohibited the slave trade in Washington, D.C., but did not abolish the institution of slavery, itself.

Memorizing the Compromise of 1850

It can be difficult to remember five pieces of information by themselves, which is why I encourage students to divide their recollection of the Compromise of 1850 into three smaller parts. The admission of California as a free state (for the North) and the stronger Fugitive Slave Act (for the South) can be seen as an even trade. The organization of the Mexican Cession according to principles of popular sovereignty and the settlement of the Texas boundary in return for debt assumption are both territorial provisions for organizing the Mexican Cession. Finally, the abolition of the slave trade (but not slavery, itself) in Washington, D.C., stands on its own as a compromise between the sections.

The Failure of the Omnibus

Henry Clay initially attempted to pass the Compromise of 1850 as an omnibus bill, in which the entire compromise would be passed by a single vote in each house of Congress. When Clay’s omnibus bill failed, Stephen Douglas built a separate majority to pass each provision of the compromise as a separate bill. Douglas’ approach to the bill took additional work, but it got the job done. Although Clay still gets most of the credit for the Compromise of 1850 as an elder statesman, the younger Douglas – whose presidential aspirations were still ahead of him and not behind him, as Clay’s were – did most of the legwork.

Webster vs. Calhoun: Last Debate of the Great Triumvirate

The Compromise of 1850 represented not only the end of an era of compromise in Congress, but also the end of an era of the political dominance of the generation that came of age during the War of 1812. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun – known to history as the “Great Triumvirate” – were at the end of their long political careers, having all made their names in the Senate after unsuccessfully pursuing the presidency. While Clay’s role in the compromise has already been addressed, the speeches of Webster and Calhoun illustrate the turning point that the Compromise of 1850 represented in American politics. 
Daniel WebsterWebster
Daniel Webster, a senator from Massachusetts, delivered his “Seventh of March” speech in favor of the compromise. In his opening words, he proclaimed, “I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American,” attempting to interpose himself between the conflicting sections. However, his assertion that, “the South, in my judgment, is right, and the North is wrong,” in reference to the failure of the Northern states to cooperate in the return of escaped fugitive slaves did not sit well with Webster’s constituents, which included noted abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and John Greenleaf Whittier. Whittier wrote a poem, Ichabod, which cast Webster as an angel fallen from glory. In order to escape the ire of his constituents, Webster resigned from the Senate and finished his political career as Millard Fillmore’s Secretary of State.

John C. CalhounCalhoun
John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who had begun his career as a “War Hawk” and ardent nationalist during James Madison’s presidency, had become the elder statesman of Southern sectionalism and one of the most vocal advocates for the expansion of slavery into the American West. In a speech that was read aloud by a colleague while he watched silently due to advanced illness, Calhoun expressed his opposition to the compromise, believing that the South had already agreed to several compromises and was on its way to compromising itself out of existence. He predicted that the compromise measures, if passed, would lead the nation on an inevitable course toward disunion – a prediction with an air of prophecy.

Why it Matters

The importance of the Compromise of 1850 lies in its status as a turning point in the political culture of the United States. In crafting the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay used the same strategy that had worked to solve the Missouri question and the Nullification Crisis, both of which had been solved by compromise measures. However, the fruits of Manifest Destiny - the annexation of Texas and the Mexican Cession – ignited new conflicts over the status of slavery that had been settled before these new territories were added to the United States. In addition, the United States was transitioning from an aristocratic political culture based on political compromise to a democratic political culture based on majority rule (for more on this, see my analysis of aristocratic and democratic republics as applied to antebellum politics). Just a few years later, Congress would pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed elements of the Missouri Compromise and make slavery possible in areas that had been closed to the peculiar institution in 1820.

The era of Antebellum political compromise ended with the Compromise of 1850. Congress would never admit another slave state, ending the earlier practice of pursuing a parity between slave and free states. No successful political compromise would be reached between the sections until the Compromise of 1877, which ended Reconstruction.

The following key concepts from the AP US History Course Description and Concept Outline are relevant to the Compromise of 1850:
 
Congressional attempts at political compromise, such as the Missouri Compromise, only temporarily stemmed growing tensions between opponents and defenders of slavery. (Key Concept 4.3)
 
The courts and national leaders made a variety of attempts to resolve the issue of slavery in the territories, including the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision, but these ultimately failed to reduce conflict. (Key Concept 5.2)

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The Whiskey Rebellion (APUSH Notes - Period 3)

11/27/2016

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The Whiskey Rebellion was an uprising of Western Pennsylvania farmers that took place between 1791-1794 in response to Alexander Hamilton’s excise tax on whiskey. It was a key incident in the development of the First Two Party System in the United States.

View this lecture on YouTube!

Context

Alexander Hamilton had ambitious plans for building a strong central government with an equally strong credit rating. In order to build public credit, Hamilton pushed a plan for the federal government to assume the war debts that the states had incurred during the Revolution. After resisting the measure initially, Jefferson and Madison agreed to the measure in return for an agreement that the federal capital would be moved to a site on the Potomac River on the border of Virginia and Maryland.

Hamilton's Whiskey Tax

Alexander Hamilton
After the federal government took on over $20 million in new debt, Hamilton’s next step was figuring out how to pay for it. As is often the case in history, the people who were chosen to pay for this new debt assumption were not the people who benefitted most from it or even supported it in the first place. To fund this new debt, Hamilton recommended a federal excise tax on whiskey. An excise tax is a tax on the sale of a product or on a product produced for sale (in this case, the latter). Hamilton’s whiskey tax is also an example of a sin tax, which is placed on goods that are deemed luxurious – or even harmful (today, taxes on cigarettes are an example).

Today, Americans tend to think about whiskey as a luxury that is enjoyed by pretentious gentlemen, but at that time, wine was the preferred beverage of the upper classes and whiskey was more of a poor man’s drink. Jefferson, a critic of distilled spirits, hoped to encourage domestic production of wine in order that wine would become the alcoholic beverage of choice for all Americans.
“No nation is drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage. It is, in truth, the only antidote to the bane of whiskey."
​                 -- Thomas Jefferson
It’s important to note here that Jefferson wanted to explore ways for wine to become cheaper rather than to raise the price of whiskey through taxation.

A Regressive Tax

Hamilton’s whiskey tax hit especially hard in Appalachia, the region of westernmost settlement at the time, where farmers would distill small batches of whiskey for easier transport across the Appalachian Mountains or down the Ohio River to New Orleans. At the time, it was difficult to transport surplus wheat across such long distances, but a farmer could get a good return on a few barrels of whiskey, making for a profitable side hustle for these farmers. Whiskey also served as currency in these Western regions where precious metals and paper money were scarce.
Because of these economic realities, Western settlers felt targeted by Hamilton’s tax, which hit them harder than it did Americans living on the Eastern Seaboard. To add insult to injury, Hamilton’s tax was a regressive tax that allowed large distillers to pay a flat rate, while small distillers had to pay by the barrel. At this time, President George Washington was the largest commercial distiller in America. Distillers like Washington could pay a single flat fee and produce as much as they wanted with no additional tax, but Western farmers who lacked the resources to operate on that kind of scale had to pay a tax on every single barrel they produced.
Regressive Taxation (The Whiskey Rebellion)
A Regressive Tax (The Whiskey Rebellion)
Click on an image to enlarge
PowerPoint available at my Online Store

The Whiskey Rebellion

Popular discontent spread throughout Appalachia and rose to the point of a full-scale rebellion in Western Pennsylvania – specifically, the area around Pittsburgh. The Whiskey Rebellion, as it is known to history, was the third in a line of major frontier settler rebellions. Bacon’s Rebellion in Colonial Virginia and Shays’ Rebellion in Massachusetts during the Confederation Period followed similar patterns of armed uprising by frontier farmers against Eastern elites. While the American Revolution had some features of these rebellions, it was a cooperative effort between frontier settlers and the colonial elites who supported it. The Whiskey Rebellion was the last of these armed uprisings in the early history of the United States.
The organizers of the Whiskey Rebellion used a lot of the same rallying cries and methods that had been used a few decades before during the years leading up to the American Revolution. “No Taxation Without Representation,” shouted the disgruntled crowds. Although Western Pennsylvania was represented in Congress, those who protested against the excise tax saw it as similar to the Stamp Act, where an outside government had taxed the colonies without the consent of their colonial legislatures. No one disputed the authority of the new federal government to collect taxes on imports, but the idea of this new government reaching directly into the pockets of citizens struck many people as a repressive throwback to the days of unfair taxation by Parliament. Just as the Sons of Liberty had used tarring and feathering to intimidate tax collectors, the Whiskey rebels tarred and feathered a federal tax collector, forcing him to “ride the rail” through the town in an old humiliation ritual.

Escalation

The Whiskey Rebellion escalated quickly.According to Ron Burgundy, a widely respected historian and Scotch connoisseur, the Whiskey Rebellion escalated quickly.
​Between 1792 and 1794, things escalated as the unrest in Western Pennsylvania went from a raucous protest to a full-scale rebellion. Threats were made, effigies were burned, tax collectors were assaulted, and finally, shots were fired by organized groups of armed militiamen. In 1794, Washington decided that the rebellion was too large to be contained by local authorities and worthy of federal attention and gained authorization from Congress to call up a federalized militia. The federal government raised an army of 13,000 men to put down a rebel militia whose size was estimated to be around 500. Once the federal militia was assembled, Washington showed up to personally inspect the troops. Although one historian refers to this as “the first and only time a sitting American president led troops in the field,” this isn’t strictly accurate, as following his inspection, Washington left the army under the command of “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, a Revolutionary War officer who was then serving as governor of Virginia. It was Lee who would lead the army into Western Pennsylvania to put down the rebellion. Ironically, Lee was the father of General Robert E. Lee, the most famous person ever to lead a “rebel army” in the history of the United States.

The force assembled by the federal government was so overwhelming that it prompted the small rebel militia to disperse before the federal militia even got there. This was viewed as a massive victory for Hamilton and the Federalists, who had sought to demonstrate the power of the new federal government to put down insurrections – an area where the Confederation government had proven to be woefully inadequate while Shays’ Rebellion had raged on for months in Western Massachusetts. In a gesture of clemency, President Washington pardoned two men who were found guilty of treason and sentenced to hang.

Jefferson and the Whiskey Rebellion

Thomas Jefferson
Although Federalists hailed this as an achievement of a strong central government against anarchist elements intent on undermining its authority, Jefferson viewed the federal government’s response as an overreaction to a minor uprising. “An insurrection was announced and proclaimed and armed against, but could never be found,” Jefferson wrote to James Monroe. Jefferson and Madison believed that Hamilton used the rebellion to advance his own partisan political agenda, casting the Federalist Party as the party of law and order and the Republican Party as the party of rebellion and lawlessness.

No matter what Hamilton’s motives were, the unceremonious end of the Whiskey Rebellion put an end to a tradition of armed uprisings of disgruntled whites on the western frontier that had spanned over a century.  Resistance against federal policies by disaffected whites would be confined to the political sphere until the 1850s, when violence erupted in Kansas in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Sin Tax Error?

The long-term victory would rest with the Jeffersonians, as no Federalist would ever hold the presidency again after John Adams lost his bid for re-election in 1800. In the years since, Americans have continued to have debates about how government policies affect the less fortunate, both in terms of the use of government police powers and of fair and equitable taxation – a debate that has shown itself most recently in the presidential candidacies of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Appalachian voters, angry with elites in Washington, were a key part of the coalition that elected Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States.
Politically, Hamilton’s victory proved to be short-lived, as small farmers in Appalachia put aside their bullets and went to the ballot box in protest. Western areas supported Jefferson’s Republican Party overwhelmingly in the elections that followed, leading to a Republican takeover of the White House and both houses of Congress in 1800. As president, Jefferson signed a repeal of Hamilton’s whiskey tax, along with all internal excise taxes, preferring to fund the government through revenue tariffs. “It may be the pleasure and pride of an American to ask,” Jefferson stated in his Second Inaugural Address, “what farmer, what mechanic, what laborer, ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States?”

Further Reading:
Dumas Malone, Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty (University of Virginia Press, 1962)

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The First Two Party System: Jefferson vs Hamilton (APUSH Notes)

10/31/2016

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The first two party system in the United States began around 1791 during George Washington's presidency and lasted until the 1816 presidential election following the War of 1812.

Jefferson vs. Hamilton

George Washington's cabinet (which included only four men) was dominated by Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, and Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State. The differences between Jefferson and Hamilton regarding the powers of the central government, the proper interpretation of the Constitution, the economy, and foreign policy quickly degenerated into partisanship as other political leaders rallied around Jefferson and Hamilton. Hamilton favored a strong, active, and energetic central government, while Jefferson advocated for a limited federal government that would respect the rights of the states.

John Adams sided with the Federalists in spite of some personal and political disagreements with Hamilton, while Jefferson was joined by his close friend, James Madison. Madison's alignment with Jefferson is significant because it represented an end to the political alliance between Madison and Hamilton that produced The Federalist Papers. It's important to note here that the first two party system wasn't a simple continuation of the debate over the ratification of the Constitution between the Federalists and the Antifederalists, although there certainly were some correlations.  While nearly everyone who had opposed the ratification of the Constitution would have been gravitated toward Jefferson's party, there were those who, like Madison (the "Father of the Constitution), had advocated strongly for ratification, yet saw Hamilton's plans to strengthen the central government as exceeding the powers delegated by the Constitution.

Federalists vs. [Jeffersonian] Republicans

​Hamilton's party, which became known as the Federalist Party, retained the branding that Hamilton had used in his campaign to ratify the Constitution. The Jeffersonians began to refer to themselves as Republicans - a lowkey snub at the Hamiltonian Federalists. In calling themselves Republicans, members of Jefferson's faction claimed that theirs was the only party that favored a republican form of government. Jeffersonians frequently referred to their opponents as "monarchists" and "monocrats" who sought to overthrow the republican society that sprang from the American Revolution.  To Jefferson, Hamilton was a counter-revolutionary who sought to mold the young United States in the image of Europe.
Check out my short video lecture comparing the political and economic views of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.
Graphic Organizer
It's important to distinguish Jefferson's Republican Party from the Republican Party that exists in the United States today. The present-day Republican Party was founded in the 1850s after the breakup of the Second Party System. In order to avoid confusion, historians have traditionally referred to Jefferson's party as the Jeffersonian Republican Party, although the "Democratic-Republican" terminology used by political scientists has lately become more common (in spite of its historical inaccuracy).

​Strong Central Government vs. States' Rights

The difference between the Federalists and the Republicans concerned the role of the central government. Although the Constitution was drafted and ratified in order to create a stronger central government than had existed under the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution still retained many features of federalism, which limited the power of the central government. In The Federalist Papers, Madison specifically reassured states' rights advocates that the Constitution would not destroy the power of state governments.
"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite."  -- Federalist No. 45 (Madison)
James Madison - Father of the Constitution
Madison
In order to get the Constitution ratified, Federalists had agreed to adopt a Bill of Rights that would protect the rights of the people and the states - the rights of the latter being specifically protected by the Tenth Amendment. Although Madison did not initially believe that a Bill of Rights was necessary, he guided the passage of these amendments through Congress. The Bill of Rights was a compromise with the Antifederalists that placed additional restrictions on the central government created by the Constitution.
While Madison appears to have been acting in good faith with every intention of respecting the spirit of the Bill of Rights, Alexander Hamilton - who presented a plan at the Constitutional Convention to completely do away with state sovereignty and argued in Federalist No. 84 that a Bill of Rights was unnecessary - was determined to make sure that the central government had as much power as possible. This difference in approach was the source of the split between Hamilton and Madison in the 1790s.
Alexander Hamilton - Advocate of Strong Central Government
Hamilton

The Fears of the Federalists

As is always apparent in politics, fear is a powerful motivator. The political positions of the Federalists and the Republicans largely started with their fears. The Federalists feared anarchy - complete chaos in the absence of organized central government.  Shays' Rebellion alarmed many elites, who saw in it the future of the United States without a strong central government.  This is reflected in the Constitution's empowerment of the federal government to "suppress insurrections" - a power not delegated to Congress under the Articles of Confederation.  For Federalists, a strong central government was the best guarantee against mob rule.
Check out this great video lecture on Shays' Rebellion by my friend, Keith Hughes!
While Federalists feared anarchy, Jefferson and Madison were much more fearful of tyranny. During Shays' Rebellion, Jefferson wrote to Madison, "a little rebellion now and then is a good thing." Rationally, Jefferson did not see how one rebellion in a single state threatened the existence of the United States, but he feared that a strong central government could place the states at risk of having their rights stripped away as they had been at the outset of the American Revolution. "I am not a friend to a very energetic government," Jefferson wrote, "It is always oppressive." This view of government was behind all of Jefferson's efforts to keep the power of the central government as limited as possible, fearing oppression (which he had experienced) more than anarchy (which he had not experienced).

​Strict vs. Loose Construction of the Constitution

In order to limit the power of the central government, Jefferson interpreted the Constitution as a strict constructionist. To Jefferson, the government only had the powers that were enumerated (specifically listed or numbered) in the Constitution. Hamilton, a loose constructionist, advocated for the doctrine of implied powers, claiming that by granting some powers to the central government in the Constitution, the Framers had implied a grant of other powers that will assist the government in executing the enumerated powers.
Hamilton's doctrine of implied powers was based on the Elastic ("Necessary and Proper") Clause of the Constitution, which states that, "The Congress shall have Power... to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution... all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States." Jefferson and Hamilton disagreed on the extent to which the Elastic Clause conferred powers to the central government beyond the enumerated powers.
The Elastic Clause - The Constitution's Rubber Band
Photo by Bill Ebbesen
Alexander Hamilton: Loose Constructionist
Thomas Jefferson: Strict Constructionist

Constituents: The Support Bases of the Federalists and Republicans

Every political movement in a society with representative government depends highly upon the constituencies being represented by each political faction. Hamilton and the Federalists drew their support largely from Northeastern coastal areas that were highly dependent on commerce. These were the same people who had advocated most strongly for a stronger central government that would have the power to control trade. The Northeast was also cultivating a manufacturing sector, which Hamilton sought to use the power of the central government to promote.
The Jeffersonians, on the other hand, represented traditional agricultural interests in the South and the West. These interests were doing just fine during the 1790s and only needed the government to stay out of the way in order to thrive. "Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God," Jefferson wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia. Jefferson envisioned the United States as an agrarian republic inhabited by virtuous farmers who were spared the many vices of the unwashed masses in the cities of Europe. He believed that an agricultural economy was essential​ to the maintenance of a republican form of government.
Jeffersonian Agrarianism
This is a slide from my PowerPoint on the Legacies of the American Revolution, which can be purchased at my Online Store.
View Lecture Notes

Economic Development vs. Laissez-Faire

Alexander Hamilton believed that the future of the United States as a powerful nation depended on the development of a manufacturing sector on par with that of Britain. He believed that government would be an essential support for building a manufacturing sector that would make the United States an economic and military power. Jefferson, who saw no need for domestic manufacturing when the United States could trade for European manufactured goods, resisted Hamilton's plans to develop a manufacturing sector.
Jefferson advocated for a laissez-faire (let it be) approach by government toward economic involvement. His ideas were influenced not only by his devotion to agriculture, but also by the influence of Adam Smith's recently published book, Wealth of Nations, which advocated laissez-faire and free trade as the best paths to economic growth. Jefferson's "hands off" approach contrasted with Hamilton's "hands on" approach to government's role in the economy.

The National Bank

By far, the most famous disagreement between Jefferson and Hamilton was on the issue of the national bank. Hamilton believed that the establishment of a national bank was "necessary and proper" for helping the government to execute its enumerated powers in the financial sector, such as collecting taxes, borrowing money, and coining money. 
Jefferson saw Hamilton's plan for a national bank as an unconstitutional seizure of power by the federal government. At no point does the Constitution ever explicitly authorize Congress to charter a bank. Jefferson also opposed the bank on economic grounds, as he believed that it would increase the central government's role in the economy and work for the benefit of commercial and manufacturing interests. He advised President George Washington to veto the bill that created the First Bank of the United States, but Washington ultimately went with Hamilton's advice on the matter.
Alexander Hamilton on the National Bank
This general principle is inherent in the very definition of Government and essential to every step of the progress to be made... that Every power vested in a Government is in its nature sovereign, and includes by force of the term, a right to employ all the means requisite, and fairly applicable to the attainment of the ends of such power; and which are not precluded by restrictions and exceptions specified in the constitution, or not immoral, or not contrary to the essential ends of political society.

Thomas Jefferson on the National Bank
It has been much urged that a bank will give great facility, or convenience in the collection of taxes. Suppose this were true: yet the constitution allows only the means which are "necessary" not those which are merely "convenient" for effecting the enumerated powers. If such a latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go to every one, for [there] is no one which ingenuity may not torture into a convenience, in some way or other, to some one of so long a list of enumerated powers.

To download the primary sources from which I've drawn these quotes, click here.

Protective Tariff vs. Free Trade

​In order to help with the establishment of a domestic manufacturing industry, Hamilton advocated for a tariff that was higher than what was necessary to fund the government, known as a protective tariff. A protective tariff would artificially increase the price of foreign manufactured goods in order to encourage Americans to buy more expensive products manufactured domestically, which would help with the growth of domestic manufacturing. 
Jefferson opposed protective tariffs for both constitutional and economic reasons. Southern farmers who depended on foreign trade would find themselves paying more for the manufactured goods that they bought from Europe, so Jefferson's laissez-faire approach benefited them most. In addition, the Constitution empowers the government to levy taxes in order to "pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States." Since the objective of a protective tariff meets none of these criteria, Jeffersonians believed that such a tariff was unconstitutional and that only revenue tariffs should be imposed by the central government. The constitutionality of protective tariffs would continue to be a divisive issue in the United States for decades, culminating in the Nullification Crisis following the Tariff of 1828.

Federal Assumption of State War Debts

One of Alexander Hamilton's goals was to build public credit. At the time the Constitution was ratified, the United States government had a massive debt that it was making little progress in repaying. Some states, such as Massachusetts, had similar debt problems as a result of the Revolutionary War. In order to effectively build public credit, Hamilton proposed that the federal government assume the war debts of the states.
Jefferson opposed Hamilton's plan to assume state debts because it would bind the states more closely together and strengthen the central government. Also, as a Virginian, he came from a state that had paid its war debts in full and would have to pay the war debts of other states under Hamilton's plan.
In what is known as the "Dinner Table Compromise" (or the Compromise of 1790), Hamilton got Jefferson and Madison to go along with his plan for the federal government to assume state war debts in return for a promise that the federal capital would be moved from New York (the financial center of the United States) to a site on the Potomac River that separated Virginia from Maryland. Jefferson and Madison believed that this would remove the government from the influence of the financial sector and that this would outweigh the impact of Hamilton's debt assumption plan, but today, the federal government can hardly be considered outside of the influence of New York's powerful financial sector.

Foreign Policy: France vs. Britain

Disagreements between Jefferson and Hamilton were not limited to domestic policy. When the French Revolution plunged Europe into a series of continental wars, Jefferson advocated that the United States should support the French Republic as a sister republican government. Jefferson believed that the very existence of the United States depended on European nations adopting republican governments. While Jefferson may not have condoned the excesses of the French Revolution, he found a violent revolution preferable to a continued state of absolute monarchy in France.
For more information, check out my video lecture on George Washington's foreign policy on YouTube.
Hamilton and the Federalists did not share Jefferson's enthusiasm for the French Revolution, believing it to be a threat to the stability of Europe. Hamilton was an admirer of the British system of government and saw the French Republic as going far beyond that form of balanced government into something that could degenerate into mob rule.
Jefferson was disappointed when Washington issued his Neutrality Proclamation in response to the war between France and Britain. In spite of this disappointment, Jefferson would later come to appreciate what would become one of George Washington's most enduring presidential legacies and the centerpiece of his famous Farewell Address.

The End of the First Two Party System

The first two party system in the United States lasted through the War of 1812, after which Federalist leaders were branded in the popular mind as un-American due to their role in the ill-fated Hartford Convention. James Monroe's election as president ushered in a brief period of non-partisanship known as the "Era of Good Feelings." 
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Legacies of the American Revolution (APUSH Notes)

10/25/2016

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Compared to the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution, the American Revolution was a relatively tame affair.  This has led many historians to characterize it as little more than a political revolution that left the same elite class in control of American politics (minus the British supervision) and resulted in few - if any - meaningful changes to American society.  But then, to characterize the American Revolution as a mere political turnover overlooks some important ways in which the Revolution was an important turning point in American society.

[r]epublicanism

Note the small "r" that distinguishes the political philosophy
​from the political party of the same name.
Nearly all of the changes that took place in American society - no matter how minor or major - have their roots in republicanism, a form of government that the Founding Fathers sought to borrow from the Romans​. The principles of republicanism start with popular sovereignty - the idea that the people are ultimately in charge and that the government is administered on their behalf (rather than by a monarch ruling by divine right). A republican government is a limited government, in which elected representatives make laws in the people's interest while respecting the constitutional rights of citizens.
Principles of Republicanism
PURCHASE pOWERpOINT
Since a republic is administered by citizens, it is important that these citizens have a sense of patriotism and are educated in their civic responsibilities. Those who lead in a republic are expected to carry themselves with simplicity and perform their duties without regard to personal gain or profit.

Egalitarianism

While some citizens in a republic are wealthier than others, republics are more egalitarian​ in their social structure than monarchies. Before the Revolution, some states, such as Virginia, had primogeniture laws on the books that allowed for the firstborn son of a family to receive the lion's share of the inheritance (this kept the family's wealth together). Although Richard Hofstadter noted in The American Political Tradition that primogeniture had largely fallen out of use by the time of the American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson still considered the abolition of Virginia's primogeniture law a victory for republicanism, as it formally abolished a practice common in monarchical societies.
The society that emerged from the American Revolution was also a society without noble titles. The United States Constitution specifically forbids the United States government from granting titles of nobility and also prohibits government officials from receiving titles of nobility from foreign governments.  Although some were certainly "more equal than others" in the new nation, the prohibition of noble titles reinforced Jefferson's assertion that "all men are created equal."
US Constitution Titles of Nobility Clause

Emancipation in the North

Slave States and Free States (1800)
Slave States and Free States (1800)
DOWNLOAD MAP
In the wake of a revolution that espoused egalitarian principles, Americans had trouble reconciling these principles with the existence of slavery.  In the North, where the economy was not highly dependent on slavery, states began to pass gradual emancipation laws.  Although every state north of the Mason-Dixon line except for New Jersey had passed emancipation laws by 1800, slavery continued to exist in some form in most of these states well into the 1840s. 
Northern Emancipation following the American Revolution
Northern Emancipation (Statistics from SlaveNorth.com)
In the South, where slavery was central to the cash crop economy, no progress was made toward emancipation, although the founding generation had faith that slavery would be phased out at some point.  Unfortunately, that did not come to pass and slavery became even more entrenched in the South in the 19th century.

Religious Freedom

Before the American Revolution, most of the colonies had established churches that were supported by taxes and religious minorities were persecuted. After the Revolution, nearly all states (except for a few in New England) disestablished their tax-supported state churches. The most famous of these religious disestablishment acts was the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, written by Thomas Jefferson, which disestablished the Anglican Church in Virginia.  
Thomas Jefferson's Epitaph (Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom)
Thomas Jefferson's Epitaph
Jefferson was so proud of his authorship of the Virginia Declaration for Religious Freedom that he specifically listed it as one of the three accomplishments he wanted on his epitaph - the other two accomplishments being his role in authoring the Declaration of Independence and in founding the University of Virginia. There is no mention of Jefferson's presidency on his gravestone, an indication that Jefferson was much more concerned about what he did to spread freedom and enlightenment than with what offices he had occupied. This is very much in line with the republican view of public service as a civic duty rather than as a stepping stone to self-aggrandizement and wealth.

Women and the American Revolution

Molly Pitcher
The American Revolution was not without its heroines. After the Battle of Monmouth, a story circulated about a woman, nicknamed Molly Pitcher, who took her husband's place at an artillery piece after he fell from heat exhaustion. Many women assisted the Continental Army as camp followers during the war, assisting the army by washing blankets, caring for sick and wounded soldiers, and bringing soldiers water in the heat of battle (hence the "Pitcher" nickname). 
Another famous heroine of the Revolution was Nancy Morgan Hart, a Georgia patriot was said to have taken a small group of Tory loyalists captive and even shot one of them when he ignored her warning not to move. Today, Hart County is the only county in Georgia that is named after a woman.
In addition to the legendary women who took up arms when the opportunity presented itself, there were women like Abigail Adams who were hopeful that the American Revolution might usher in a new age of political equality for women.  "​In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make," she wrote to her husband, John Adams, "I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors."  
Abigail Adams - Remember the Ladies
While Adams' hopes of political equality for women would not be realized until the passage of the 19th Amendment after World War I, republicanism called for women to play an active role in the civic education of their sons. In order to fulfill the duties of republican motherhood, women had to receive an education, as well.

Agrarianism

As Europe experienced the Industrial Revolution, many of the Founding Fathers glorified agriculture as a virtuous profession that was necessary for the support of a republican form of government. "Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God," Thomas Jefferson wrote as he insisted that the United States had no need of factories. Agricultural societies, such as the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, flourished and produced propaganda aimed at glorifying the agrarian way of life.
Venerate the Plough - Agrarianism and the American Revolution

George Washington: [r]epublican Soldier

No American is associated more closely with the American Revolution than George Washington, and none worked more intentionally to cultivate a public image in accordance with the values of republicanism.  Like Jefferson, Washington took great joy in being a farmer and was always seeking to find new ways to improve production and efficiency on his farm. Today, visitors to George Washington's home at Mount Vernon can see a functioning replica of the sixteen-sided barn he designed to thresh wheat.
George Washington's Sixteen-Sided Barn
Houdon's Statue of George Washington
When Congress commissioned Jean-Antoine Houdon to sculpt a statue of George Washington, he visited Washington at Mount Vernon and got to know him in his home environment. Houdon's statue of Washington was intended to be a realistic and republican portrayal of the general. This is exactly what both Washington and America wanted. Decades later, a statue of an idealized Washington, enthroned like a Greek god, was not well-received by Americans who viewed Washington as more of a republican hero.
As a leader, Washington consciously set out to follow the example of Cincinnatus, a hero of the Roman Republic. Cincinnatus was given the dictatorship, which he could have retained for up to six months, and gave it back to the people after only sixteen days. After the Revolutionary War, Washington voluntarily resigned his commission with the intention of fully retiring from public life. Even as president, he stepped down voluntarily after two terms, surrendering power as soon as he had gotten the new nation on its feet. Upon his death, Washington made one final nod to the principles of republicanism by emancipating his slaves.
CLICK TO vISIT mY aMERICAN rEVOLUTION pAGE
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Native American Cultures (APUSH Notes)

6/17/2016

 
In the new AP US History curriculum, Key Concept 1.1 focuses on the development of Native American societies in the years preceding and immediately following European contact.
My video lecture on Native American cultures describes the characteristics of Native American societies between 1491 and 1607, describing and comparing the characteristics of the major regional tribal groups (Arctic, Plains, Great Lakes, Southwest, and Southeast).  These notes present a brief outline of the lecture.

Key Concepts

There are three broad ideas that a student really needs to understand in order to be successful when questioned about this topic on the AP US History exam:
​
  1. Native Americans were diverse - get rid of any stereotypical image that you may have in your own mind that represents ALL Native Americans.

  2. There were many different language and culture groups, with over 150 distinct ethnic groups in the Americas and ten broadly characterized culture groups in North America.

  3. Each tribal group interacted differently with its environment.  While native tribes in colder climates subsisted exclusively by hunting and gathering, most tribes also practiced some form of agriculture.  Each geographical culture group adapted to and interacted with its distinct regional environment. 

Nomadic vs Settled Tribes

While some tribes - especially in the North - subsisted exclusively on hunting and gathering, most Indian tribes employed agriculture for at least part of their food supply.  Tribes that subsisted on hunting and gathering tended to be nomadic, while tribes that depended more heavily on agriculture built more permanent settlements.  Those living close to rivers, lakes, and oceans also fished.
Some European innovations impacted the lifestyles of the natives they encountered.
The introduction of horses influenced the lifestyles of the Plains Indians, who began hunting bison on horseback as a result of the European encounter.  (This lifestyle would later be threatened by the construction of the transcontinental railroads after the Civil War.)
Plains Indian on a Bison Hunt
A Plains Indian on a bison hunt
Romulus APUSH Review

Geographical Culture Groups

Native American Culture Groups Map - APUSH
Map of Native American Culture Groups
(high resolution available on Wikipedia)
Download Native American Tribes graphic organizer
Native tribes in North America have been divided into ten distinct culture groups, of which I examine five:

ARCTIC - Tribes in the frigid northern climates, such as the Eskimo and the Inuit, subsisted entirely by hunting, gathering, and fishing.  Seal meat provided the primary source of sustinence for these Arctic tribes.

PLAINS - After the introduction of horses from Europe, most Plains Indians became migratory bison hunters.  The teepee dwelling, which many see (falsely) as a stereotypical dwelling for all Native Americans, was especially popular with the nomadic tribes living in this region.  Some tribes in the Plains, such as the Wichita, grew crops in settled communities, trading their produce with the nomadic hunting tribes, such as the Sioux.

NORTHEAST / GREAT LAKES - Tribes in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions subsisted through a combination of hunting and gathering and slash and burn agriculture, in which areas of forestland were burned to create fields that would be abandoned after a few seasons.  This form of agriculture, based on the "three sisters" (corn, squash, and beans), was not as labor intensive as European settled agriculture and the fields were primarily tended by women.
Battle Between Iroquois and Algonquian Tribes
Iroquois and Algonquians in Battle
The dominant tribal groups in the Northeast were the Iroquois Confederation and the Algonquian tribes.  These groups were often engaged in inter-tribal warfare, in which the Europeans took part by siding with favored groups and supplying them with European weapons in exchange for furs.

The Iroquois, known by the British as the "Five Nations," were a confederation of five (later six) distinct tribes who maintained a permanent peace and military alliance with each other.
SOUTHWEST - Native tribes in the Southwestern United States subsisted primarily by maize (corn) agriculture.  Some tribes constructed cliff dwellings that provided defense against attacks, while other tribes, such as the Hopi, built large apartment complexes out of mud bricks.

SOUTHEAST - Indian tribes in fertile Southeastern region of the United States relied primarily on settled agriculture for food production. Ruins from Mississippian societies that thrived in the centuries preceding European contact include large mounds and the remains of large cities, such as Cahokia outside of St. Louis, which at one point had a population of around 40,000 people.
DOWNLOAD pOWERpOINT PRESENTATION

Gender Roles

In societies that practiced hunting, gathering, and agriculture, women tended to do the lion’s share of agricultural labor, while men spent most of their time hunting.  Early European colonists believed that Native men were lazy and oppressed their women, but from their cultural standpoint, this was simply a different division of labor (Native men wondered why European men did "women's work" on the farm).
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