All SAT II US History Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : U.S. Economic History
A Robber Baron of the nineteenth century might have done all of the following exploitive practices to achieve wealth EXCEPT:
Obtained unyielding control over necessary resources of the nation
Supported the workers' right to unionize
Created monopolies in order to raise prices
Paid very low wages
Exerted excessive, self-interested government influence
Supported the workers' right to unionize
A rich and powerful businessman of the 1800s, pejoratively named a Robber Baron, would not have supported the workers' right to unionize as this would have worked against his business interests.
Example Question #1 : Facts And Details In U.S. Economic History From 1790 To 1898
The Whiskey Rebellion, or Whiskey Insurrection, which began in 1791 (under the presidency of George Washington), was an often violent protest by farmers against what?
Whiskey purity laws
The drinking age
Federal taxes
The anticipated prohibition against alcohol
Price fixing
Federal taxes
The Whiskey Rebellion was an oftenviolent protest by grain and corn farmers against Federal taxes levied on whiskey intended, primarily, to help pay for the nation's assumed war debt.
Example Question #3 : Facts And Details In U.S. Economic History From 1790 To 1898
The Homestead Acts .
Established protected Native American territories that could not be legally occupied by white settlers
Placed a cap on the number of Northerners who could move to the South in an attempt to placate disillusioned Southern land owners
Displaced Native American communities from territories in the western United States to make room for white settlers
Granted to every freed slave the right to forty acres and a mule to help get them started
Offered one-hundred and sixty acres of land to anyone who would commit to living on and working the land for a period not less than five years
Offered one-hundred and sixty acres of land to anyone who would commit to living on and working the land for a period not less than five years
The Homestead Acts, first passed during the Civil War, offered free land grants to anyone who had not previously “taken up arms against the Union.” The land offered generally, although not always, amounted to roughly one-hundred and sixty acres. Between the period of 1862 and 1934, the Federal government granted 1.6 million homesteads to American families (roughly ten-percent of United States land was appropriated) and it was a big motivational factor behind the consistent westward expansion of the American people in that time period. The Homestead Acts were officially repealed in the 1970s.
Example Question #1 : Facts And Details In U.S. Economic History From 1790 To 1898
The southern plantation system underwent a lot of changes, while still maintaining economic power, throughout much of its existence. Which of the following changes did not create a positive change on the plantations?
Increased prices of tobacco.
Bacon's Rebellion.
Harsh slave codes.
The introduction of the cotton gin.
The mercantilist system of the colonies.
Bacon's Rebellion.
The success of Bacon's Rebellion, in 1676, allowed for the change from indentured servants to slaves as the first major migration of indentured servants became free. The rebellion looted plantations and took over the government for a short period of time, but later led to the increase of African slaves.
Example Question #11 : U.S. Economic History From 1790 To 1898
Named after the luggage many of them tended to carry, these Northerners who moved to the South after the Civil War were viewed suspiciously as manipulative and opportunistic by the Southerners.
Yankee rucksackers
Trunkers
Carpetbaggers
Suitcasers
Yankeebaggers
Carpetbaggers
Named for their bags made from old carpets, these Northerners who moved South during the Reconstruction Era for generally financial purposes were derisively known as carpetbaggers.
Example Question #12 : U.S. Economic History
What waterway across New York State, finished in 1825, connected the East Coast and the Midwest?
The Bridgewater Canal
The Hudson River
The Erie Canal
The Patowmack Canal
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
The Erie Canal
Finished in 1825, the Erie Canal runs across New York State, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes.
Example Question #2 : Facts And Details In U.S. Economic History From 1790 To 1898
Who is referred to as “The Father of the Factory System”?
Eli Whitney
John Walker
John D. Rockefeller
Thomas Edison
Samuel Slater
Samuel Slater
Samuel Slater was a British-born industrialist who came to America towards the end of the eighteenth century. He is generally credited with having brought the Industrial Revolution to the United States, in the form of textile factories.
Example Question #3 : Facts And Details In U.S. Economic History From 1790 To 1898
Who invented the steel plow?
John Deere
George Pullman
Samuel Colt
Thomas Edison
Alfred Noble
John Deere
The steel plow was invented by John Deere in 1837. Deere moved to Illinois and worked as a blacksmith for many years; as the story goes, he was attempting to use a cast-iron plow and found that it was unsuited to the rough soil of Illinois, so he fashioned a steel plow. The importance of the steel plow to the growth of American agriculture, industry, and society would be difficult to overstate. It is generally referred to as the invention that opened up the West. It allowed farmers to work land previously thought untenable and greatly increased individual profits.
Example Question #4 : Facts And Details In U.S. Economic History From 1790 To 1898
On May 10th, 1869 in Promontory, Utah, the Union Pacific Railroad Company and Central Pacific Railroad Company met, thereby completing what famous engineering achievement?
The Promontory Line
The Transcontinental Railroad
The Central-Union Railroad
The Northwestern Passage
The American Railroad
The Transcontinental Railroad
The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 chartered the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Central Pacific Railroad Company to construct a railroad linking the west with the established eastern railroads.
Example Question #15 : U.S. Economic History From 1790 To 1898
The Erie Canal connected __________.
New York City with Boston
New England's industrial centers with the Mississippi River Valley
New Orleans with plantations in Georgia and the Carolinas
New York City with Albany
the Hudson River in Albany and the Great Lakes at Lake Erie
the Hudson River in Albany and the Great Lakes at Lake Erie
Shortly after the creation of the new country, New York was expanding but faced a geographical problem. Although blessed with a safe, natural harbor, getting supplies to ships at that harbor was difficult, as the Hudson River connected to no other major watersheds. New York Governor DeWitt Clinton helped remedy this by building a canal from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes, cutting across the length of the state. The canal allowed crops and resources from the Midwest to reach the Eastern seaboard through New York Harbor, and New York City quickly became the nation's largest metropolis.
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