Advanced Placement United States History
Welcome to Advanced Placement United States History at Lafayette High School. This
is a very challenging course; one that has been nicknamed “APUSH” because students
and teachers must “push” themselves to successfully manage the comprehensive
curriculum prescribed by the College Board. Students who qualify on the AP exam with
a score of 3 or higher may be awarded college credit.
Many of you may be asking, “Into what have I gotten myself?” At the risk of
oversimplifying, you have decided to take a college history course in high school. All
of you are capable of meeting the demands of this course and to qualify on the national
examination, but it will take arduous work and commitment. To put it bluntly, this is not
a course for the academically fainthearted.
Because the scope of the course is so overwhelming, we cannot spend much class time on
any one topic. Homework and outside reading is critical for the learning of the material.
Traditionally the first semester is devoted to the time before 1900 and the second
semester to the period since that time. This is an enormous amount of history to be
learned; so our pace must be brisk. Expect 6-8 hours of homework each week.
Tests will be administered after completing each unit. They will consist of document
based questions (DBQ) and Free Response essays. There will be a cumulative multiple
choice midterm and final for each semester. Quizzes will be given frequently, announced
and unannounced. It is imperative that students keep up with their reading and be ready
for class discussion.
To get a jump-start in the class, the students will have summer homework. They
are to buy, borrow or check out from the public library, A People’s History of the
United States, Abridged Teaching Edition by Howard Zinn (ISBN 1-56584-379-7)
and answer the questions on the attached pages (I have 5 copies to lend to the first
students who ask). Students are expected to have these questions finished and ready
to turn in the second day of class.
Return to Mrs. Reid with homework the second day of class.
Summer Homework for A.P. U. S. History
Read the Zinn book to answer the following questions. This assignment is due the
second day of class. Answer in complete sentences.
Part I
Chapter 1
1. According to Zinn, what is his purpose for writing A People’s History of the United States?
2. According to Zinn, how is Columbus portrayed in traditional history books?
3. What major issue does Bartholomew de las Casas bring up regarding Spanish expeditions in the
Caribbean?
4. Identify one early and one subsequent motive that drove Columbus to oppress indigenous people.
5. What was the significance of Quetzalcoatl?
6. Compare the strategies and motives underlying the conquest of Aztecs by Cotez and the conquest of
Incas by Pizarro.
7. What were the major causes of war between the Powhatans and the English settlers?
8. Explain Governor John Winthrop’s legal and biblical justification for seizing Indian lands.
9. What is Zinn’s final conclusion for the rationalization of exterminating Native Americans? Pg 21-22
Chapter 2
10. According to Zinn, what is the root of racism in America?
11. Why were Africans considered “better” slaves that Indians in Virginia?
12. How did 16th century Africa compare to 16th century Europe politically, economically, and militarily?
13. How did slavery in Africa differ from slavery in Europe and America?
14. Describe the conditions that slaves experienced on ships coming to America (Middle Passage).
15. What was the relationship between slavery and the plantation system?
16. What evidence existed that America’s slaves did not accept their fate easily?
17. Why did slave owners fear poor whites?
Chapter 3
18. What was the underlying cause of Bacon’s Rebellion?
19. What was the “double motive” of the Virginia government vis-à-vis Bacon’s Rebellion?
20. What groups of people took part in Bacon’s Rebellion?
21. Explain indentured servitude (also known as the headright system).
22. How did the voyage of indentured servants to America compare with the “Middle Passage”?
23. To what extent did a class structure emerge in America by 1700?
24. How did the rich manage to keep Indians “at a distance”?
25. What evidence does Zinn provide regarding the monopoly of power by the rich in Boston?
Chapter 4
26. According to Zinn, How did the creation of the United States benefit the upper class?
27. Describe the disproportionate distribution of wealth in Boston, Philadelphia and New York.
28. What major issues fueled the Regulator movement?
29. What advice did colonial radicals, including Samuel Adams and James Otis, give to the people
concerning the Townshend Acts?
30. What was the significance of Patrick Henry’s oratory?
31. What groups of Americans were deprived of the ideals set forth in the Declaration for Independence?
32. What is the irony that Zinn tried to convey concerning John Locke?
33. According to Zinn, who does Patrick Henry really represent?
Chapter 5
34. What impact did slavery have on the war effort in the South?
35. Why did Morris’s plan to assuage the concerns of financial contributors to the Continental Congress
anger the common soldier?
36. What was the impact of America’s victory on the Native Americans?
37. Why does Zinn state that democracy’s problem in post-Revolutionary America was not primarily due
to Constitutional limitations or voting?
38. How is Zinn critical of Madison’s argument in “Federalist X”?
39. How is Zinn characterizing the Constitution’s compromises?
40. How does Zinn argue the First Amendment is not as stable as one might assume?
41. How does Zinn contrast the government’s enforcement of the First Amendment and the power to tax?
Chapter 6
42. How does treatment of women differ between societies based on private property and those based on
communal living? Why?
43. How did the earliest female settlers in Virginia fare?
44. How did English law affect the status of women in America?
45. What social forces led to the onset of the “cult of true womanhood” or the “cult of domesticity”?
46. How was dress used as a means of social control?
47. What rights were denied to women in the “cult of true womanhood”?
48. How did workers’ strikes in the 1830’s and the 1840’s reflect the changing role of women?
49. What is the connection between primary school teaching and women’s participation in the reform
movements of 1830’s, and 1840’s?
Chapter 7
50. What evidence does Zinn cite to illustrate the overall impact of Indian removal?
51. Contrast Thomas Jefferson’s views as Secretary of State concerning Indian removal policy with those
during his Presidency. Why did his view change?
52. How does Andrew Jackson’s early political/military career foreshadow his Indian polices as President?
53. How do Zinn’s views of the War of 1812 contrast with traditional histories?
54. Create a basic outline of Jackson’s Indian related activities and their significance prior to his
presidency (treaties, land speculation, ect.)
55. Describe evidence Zinn utilizes to assess the view of Lewis Cass vis-à-vis Native American policy.
56. Create a table illustrating the fate of major Southeastern Indian tribes.
57. To what extent did the Cherokee nation change its culture in order to survive within the United States?
Chapter 8
58. Explain the term “Manifest Destiny” and its implications on U. S. foreign policy in the 1840’s?
59. Explain the Whig position vis-à-vis the Mexican War.
60. How does the U.S. philosophically justify its aggression?
61. What evidence does Zinn utilize to illustrate American opposition to the Mexican War?
62. How does the Zinn characterize the morale of U. S. soldiers after the initial stages of the conflict?
Provide evidence cited throughout the chapter for why soldiers came to feel the way they did?
63. Provide evidence of how the Mexican population was affected by the war.
65. How did veterans fare economically after they came home from the war?
Chapter 9
66. How were poor whites utilized by plantation owners to maintain control?
67. Explain the use of religion as a means of control.
68. To what extent did slaves maintain their sense of culture, community and kinship?
69. How did black women play an important role part in the Civil War?
70. Compare and contrast the views of Fredrick Douglas and William Lloyd Garrison.