Chapter 12 Reading Questions
How does the story of Marius and Emily Rakestraw introduce the major themes and structure of the
chapter? Identify the major themes of the chapter and define each.
What social, economic, and political forces motivated Americans to seek ways of controlling their
lives? How did they try to shape both their own lives and also America?
Finney and the Second Great Awakening
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2.
3.
4.
5.
When was it? How did it happen?
Why did the awakening begin in Rochester, NY and the Old Northwest?
How was Finney different from Jonathan Edwards?
What did Finney believe about humans and revivals?
How was religion becoming more democratic?
Transcendentalists
1.
2.
3.
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5.
6.
What does the word transcendentalist mean?
What did Emerson urge Americans to do?
What troubled transcendentalists about American life?
What did Margaret Fuller questions?
How did Hawthorne and Melville’s literature reflect the times?
Who was Thoreau? What did he write? What did question?
The Political Response to Change
1. How many Americans were impacted by evangelical Protestantism?
2. How did American politics change after 1820? Why did politics change?
Changing Political Culture
1. What did Jackson promise the American people? What happened to voter turnout in the
election of 1828?
2. Was Jackson a person who believed in democracy?
3. Explain how politics changed during the 1820s.
Jackson’s Path to the White House
1. List interesting facts about Jackson’s past.
2. How did Jackson acquire a national reputation?
3. How did the Democrats create support for their party?
4. What was the “reign of king mob”?
What were the major issues of Jackson’s presidential administration? Do you think he was primarily a
unifier or a divider? Did he advance or set back the development of American democracy? Explain your
response.
Old Hickory’s Vigorous Presidency
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2.
3.
4.
What were some of the convictions that Jackson had as president?
Did Jackson clean up the corruption in Washington?
What happened to the tariff of 1828?
What did South Carolina threaten to do?
Jackson’ Native American Policy
1.
2.
3.
4.
How did Jackson justify the removal of Native Americans?
What case helped to restore Native American rights?
Describe how the Cherokee trek began.
How much did removal cost?
Jackson’s Bank War and “Van Ruin’s Depression
1. How did the national back influence state banks?
2. What were the arguments made against the bank? How did those arguments differ by region of
the U.S.?
3. What arguments did Jackson make against the bank?
4. How did the arguments over the bank cause political party differences?
5. After the election of 1832, what did Jackson do to the bank?
6. What were the economic consequences of the war on the bank by Jackson?
7. What happened in 1837? Provide examples of what took place in society.
What were the key differences between Democrats and Whigs? Who supported each party and why?
The Second American Party System
1. Make a chart to outline the differences between the two parties. Be sure to include who
supported each party and why.
What was the role of religion in antebellum American life? How did revivalism affect social change?
Do you agree that this was the proper function of religion?
The International Character of Reform
1. Explain how social reforms were an international concern.
The Dilemmas of Reform
1. Compare and contrast the two paths to reform.
2. What things cause reformers to disagree?
Utopian Communities: Oneida and the Shakers
1. What was the purpose of utopian communities?
2. List the characteristics of both groups of utopian communities.
Other Utopias
1. List the other communities and what they believed in.
2. Why did most communities fail?
Millerites and Mormons
1. What did the Millerites believe? Who was their leader?
2. What did the Mormons believe? Who was the leader of the Mormons?
What were the reform movements of the antebellum period? What motivations, values, challenges,
and resources were common to each of them? Would you have been a reformer?
Outline the following reform movements:
Temperance
Health
Asylums
Trade Unions
Abolitionism
Explain how there was tension in the abolitionist movement
Women’s Movement