AP U.S. HistoryScoring GuideUnit 9 Progress Check: MCQCopyright © 2017. The College Board. These materials are part of a College Board program. Use or distribution of these materials online orin print beyond your school’s participation in the program is prohibited.Page 1 of 10“The Reagan era unfolded amid major social and political transitions in the United States. The traumaof President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, followed by the foreshortened presidencies of LyndonJohnson and Richard Nixon, generated widespread public alienation from electoral politics andmainstream politicians. The disastrous war in Vietnam cracked open the bipartisan consensus overcontainment that had held during the cold war and badly divided Democrats against Democrats andRepublicans against Republicans, as well as against the opposing party.“. . . Reagan and his supporters, unlike the battered Democrats and the disgraced Republicanestablishment, gave the voters a compelling way to comprehend the disorienting and often dispiritingtrends of the 1970s—and to see those trends not as product of their own defects (as Reagan’sDemocratic predecessor, Jimmy Carter, came to imply) but as a consequence of bad leadership. WithReagan as its likeable, ever-optimistic standard-bearer and ultimate symbol, the Republican rightdelivered what sounded like straightforward, commonsense solutions to the nation’s ills: cut taxes, shrinkgovernment domestic spending, encourage private investment, and keep the military strong while aidingthose abroad who were fighting communist tyranny.”Sean Wilentz, historian, The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974–2008, published in 2008“Race and taxes, on their own, have changed the votes of millions of once-Democratic men and women.But it was the collision of race and taxes with two additional forces over the past twenty-five years thatcreated a chain reaction, a reaction forcing a realignment of the presidential electorate. These twoadditional forces were, first, the rights revolution demanding statutory and constitutional protections for,among others, criminal defendants, women, the poor, non-European ethnic minorities, students,homosexuals, prisoners, the handicapped, and the mentally ill; and, second, the rights-related reformmovement focusing on the right to guaranteed political representation that took root within theDemocratic party in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s.“This chain reaction acted most powerfully on two key swing voter groups, the white, European ethnic,often Catholic, voters in the North, and the lower-income southern white populists. For as long as voterscast Democratic ballots, the liberal coalition thrived; when they did not, the liberal coalition collapsed.Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, these key groups of voters, once the mainstay of the New Dealalliance, determined the viability of the conservative presidential majority. The collapse of the political leftand the ascendance of a hybrid conservative populism dominated by the affluent have had enormouspolicy consequences. . . . Show
Written by: Bill of Rights InstituteBy the end of this section, you will:
Independence did not bring economic prosperity to many parts of the United States. Great Britain restricted U.S. trade with the Empire, especially the lucrative trade with the West Indies. As a result, imports of British goods remained strong while the export of American goods to Britain slumped. Continuing inflation made paper money virtually worthless. Meanwhile, taxes rose to pay off Revolutionary War debts and make up for the loss, at the end of the conflict, of foreign loans. New England, in particular, was suffering an economic depression. Merchants and shopkeepers in eastern Massachusetts demanded the payment of debts from hard-pressed western farmers, many of whom had overextended themselves during the relative prosperity of the war years. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts legislature raised taxes to pay the state’s wartime debt and meet the national Congress’s requisitions of taxes from the states. Farmers were burdened by high taxes and unable to pay their debts, especially mortgages. They were hauled before county courts, often losing their property and going to debtors’ prisons. In the summer of 1786, farmers in the western counties assembled to petition the Massachusetts legislature for relief. They asked that no taxes be collected for a year, that courts be closed so property could not be confiscated, and that a paper currency be issued to cause inflation, raising the price of farmers’ goods. Citizens from whom these farmers had borrowed money insisted, however, that contracts be honored. Critics called the farmers traitors and agents of the British, even though many were veterans of the Revolution. Some lenders, eager for the money farmers had promised to repay, insisted that debtors should be more industrious and live more frugally. Neither side provided an easy way to resolve the crisis. Leaders of the farmers’ movement called on the people to be Minutemen, ready at a moment’s notice to defend their liberty as they had during the war. They met in taverns, churches, and town meetings to plot their strategy. Beginning in late August, they armed themselves and converged on county courts, hoping to close them. They reasoned that if the courts could not meet, they could not lose their property. At the end of August, fifteen hundred angry farmers took up arms and seized the Northampton courthouse. On September 5, the judges tried to convene their court in Worcester, but three hundred bayonet-wielding farmers blocked their access. Over the next month, the rebels shut down courts in Worcester, Middlesex, Plymouth, and Berkshire Counties. In late September, a crowd of fifteen hundred led by Revolutionary War captain Daniel Shays prevented the Massachusetts Supreme Court from meeting in Springfield. Where authorities called out the militia, its members were locals who either refused to muster against their neighbors and kinfolk or who joined them. This woodcut, from Bickerstaff’s Boston Almanack of 1787, depicts Daniel Shays, one of the leaders of the rebels who rose up against the Massachusetts government during 1786 to 1787. As a Revolutionary War veteran, Shays wears the uniform of officers of the Continental Army. Secretary of War Henry Knox asked Congress to send troops to quell the rebellion and protect the federal armory at Springfield, which stored seven thousand guns, bayonets, artillery, and gunpowder. Congress agreed, but little money and few recruits were forthcoming from the states. In October, Governor James Bowdoin called the Massachusetts legislature into session and warned that “wicked and artful men” were conspiring to “destroy all confidence in government.” The legislature provided some relief by suspending debt payments and property foreclosures for several months. However, it also passed several measures to deal with the crisis. The Militia Act made it punishable by court martial to join “any mutiny or sedition.” The Riot Act prohibited twelve or more armed persons from assembling and empowered sheriffs to beat, jail, and kill rioters and take their land. Finally, the ancient liberty of the writ of habeas corpus was suspended, authorizing the roundup and detention without bail of suspected traitors. The legislature offered a pardon to any insurgent who swore allegiance to the government. Most courts closed or recessed in October; the farmers went home to harvest their crops. Another round of troubles occurred in November and December, however, when courts in Worcester and Springfield were forcibly closed. The farmers continued their appeal to Revolutionary principles and protested the suspension of habeas corpus. In early January 1787, Governor Bowdoin authorized a force of more than four thousand men to be paid through privately raised funds. An army of nearly two thousand was eventually placed under a Revolutionary War general, Benjamin Lincoln, to secure “system and order” in the western Massachusetts countryside. Lincoln marched to Worcester to defend the courthouse, while a force of some twelve hundred local militia occupied the Springfield Armory to deny it to the rebels. For their assault on the armory, Shays and other insurgent leaders called on the farmers to “immediately assemble in arms to support and maintain not only their rights, but the lives and liberties of the people.” Guided by the Revolutionary principle that they had the right to overthrow and replace a distant and unresponsive regime, the insurgents announced their intention to smash the “tyrannical government in Massachusetts.” They controlled all the roads to Springfield, seized supplies going to the militia, and sent threatening ultimatums to the militia commander. Of course, Shays’ enemies also considered themselves to be Revolutionary War Patriots. Those in government considered their decision to increase taxes a necessary consequence of the need to pay for an expensive war. Others, who had agreed to loan money to the western farmers, viewed the repayment of debts as the upholding of the contracts that guaranteed their property rights. On January 25, the rebel army of almost two thousand advanced through four-foot snow drifts, urged on by Shays. When they launched a three-pronged assault on the arsenal, the defending artillery, “humanely wishing to frighten them to lay down their arms,” first fired over their heads. Yet the farmers kept coming. The militia fired grapeshot, killing four and wounding dozens. The farmers retreated, and the battle for the arsenal was over. Most of the insurgents dispersed and returned to their farms. Shays and other leaders fled to Vermont and New York to escape prosecution, although thirteen Shaysites were rounded up, tried for treason, and sentenced to death. The governor pardoned them. Daniel Shays eventually received a pardon as well. Shays’ Rebellion greatly influenced many to support revising the Articles of Confederation to strengthen the national government. Governments not strong enough to maintain order were too weak to protect liberty. James Madison thought the insurrection gave “new proofs of the necessity of such a vigor in the general government as will be able to restore health to the diseased part of the Federal body.” Review Questions1. Why did farmers in western Massachusetts begin to take up arms and march on courthouses in 1786?
2. Which of the following best describes the result of Shays’ Rebellion?
3. How was the perspective of Shays’ followers different from that of the Massachusetts government?
4. How did Shays’ Rebellion catalyze discussion about the national government?
5. Which of the following best explains the economic situation in post-Revolutionary War America?
6. Why wasn’t the federal government able to support Massachusetts in putting down Shays’ Rebellion?
Free Response Questions
AP Practice QuestionsReactions to Shays’ Rebellion
George Washington to David Humphreys, December 26, 1786
George Washington to James Madison, November 5, 1786 Refer to the excerpts provided.1. Which of the following best describes the influence of Shays’ Rebellion on the mindset of many U.S. political leaders such as George Washington?
2. Which of the following best explains why Shays’ Rebellion garnered national attention?
3. What did Washington mean by “the superstructure we have been seven years raising at the expence of much blood and treasure”?
George Washington to Henry Knox, February 3, 1787 Refer to the excerpt provided.4. The excerpt provided was most likely written in response to which of the following?
5. The excerpt provided most directly reflected a growing belief that
Articles of Confederation, 1781 Refer to the excerpt provided.6. Which of the following was the main intent of the second article of the Articles of Confederation?
7. Which of the following best describes the impact on Shays’ Rebellion of the central government under the Articles of Confederation?
Primary SourcesJefferson, Thomas. “Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 30 January 1787.”Founders Online, National Archives and Records Administration. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-11-02-0095 Madison, James. “James Madison to Edmund Pendleton. 24 February 1787.”Founders Online, National Archives and Records Administration. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-09-02-0151 Washington, George. “George Washington to David Humphreys, 26 Dec. 1786.” The Washington Papers. http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/george-washington-to-david-humphreys-26-dec-1786/ Washington, George. “George Washington to James Madison, 5 November 1786.”Founders Online, National Archives and Records Administration. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-09-02-0070 Suggested ResourcesCondon, Sean. Shays’s Rebellion: Authority and Distress in Post-Revolutionary America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015. Richard, Leonard L. Shays’ Rebellion: The American Revolution’s Final Battle. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. Szatmary, David P. Shays’ Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1980. Which of the following best explains a longWhich of the following best explains a long-term political change resulting from the New Deal? Political alignments shifted as African Americans came to support the Democratic Party.
Which of the following best describes the relationship of ideas such as those in the excerpt to the broader progressive reform?Which of the following best describes the relationship of ideas such as those in the excerpt to the broader Progressive reform movement of the era? The ideas in the excerpt challenged the racial stereotypes held by many White Progressive reformers.
Which of the following was a longTerms in this set (40)
Which of the following was a long-term result of the situation described by Diamond in the excerpt? The devastation of native populations as a result of Spanish exploration.
Which of the following postwar developments most directly contributed to the ideas in the excerpt?Terms in this set (42) 1) Which of the following postwar developments most directly contributed to the ideas in the excerpt? The foreign policy strategy of supporting developing nations as a means to prevent the spread of communism.
|