AP® United States
History
Free-Response Questions
Directions:
Answer Question 1 and Question 2. Answer either Question 3 or Question 4.
Write your responses in the Section I, Part B: Short-Answer Response booklet. You must write your response to each question on the lined page designated for that response. Each response is expected to fit within the space provided.
In your responses, be sure to address all parts of the questions you answer. Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable. You may plan your answers in this exam booklet, but no credit will be given for notes written in this booklet.
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"Distance and inadequate training in agricultural pursuits closed the frontier to eastern workingmen; instead America was settled by successive waves of farmers who were already skilled in wresting a living from the soil. Farming, even before the day of mechanization, was a highly technical profession; frontiering required a knowledge of even more specialized techniques. Clearing the land, building a home, fencing fields, solving the problem of defense, and planting crops on virgin soil all demanded experience few workingmen could boast. . . .
". . . Romantic characters took part [in frontier migration]: . . . trappers and leatherclad 'Mountain Men,' starry-eyed prospectors and hard-riding cowboys, badmen and vigilantes. But the true hero of the tale was the hard-working farmer who, ax in hand, marched ever westward until the boundaries of his nation touched the Pacific."
Ray Allen Billington, historian, Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier, 1949
"The rapid expansion of wagework in the United States . . . and the most intensive phase of the exploitation and settlement of the western third of the continent were roughly contemporaneous processes that occurred during a seventy-year interval [beginning in 1848]. Yet, at first glance, the terms frontier and wagework seem to describe mutually exclusive conditions. . . . In actuality, . . . one such conjunction [of these terms] was the wageworkers' frontier. . . .
". . . The wageworkers' frontier . . . was foremost a predominantly male community of manual labor dependent upon others for wages in the extractive industries of the sparsely settled Rocky Mountain and Pacific regions of the United States. . . . It also represented a zone of extremely rapid transition from wilderness to industrial, post-frontier society. . . . The wageworkers' frontier was a fragile entity forever at the mercy of the outside world's pricing of its basic [export] commodities. . . . All [commodities] were shipped out of the west because the Rocky Mountain and Pacific regions contained too few people . . . to constitute a viable home market. Settlements on the wageworkers' frontier tended to resemble factory towns in Pennsylvania or Massachusetts."
Carlos A. Schwantes, historian, "The Concept of the Wageworkers' Frontier," 1987
1. Using the excerpts, respond to parts a, b, and c.
a. Briefly describe one major difference between Billington's and Schwantes' historical interpretations of the American West.
b. Briefly explain how one historical event or development from 1848 to 1898 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to support Billington's interpretation.
c. Briefly explain how one historical event or development from 1848 to 1898 that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to support Schwantes' interpretation.
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"[I have] been selected as the representative of the twenty-five thousand [free African Americans] of Ohio, to ask your honorable body to the necessary and appropriate steps for striking from the . . . law of this State, all those clauses which make discriminations on the ground of color. . . .
"As men . . . we have rights, inherent rights, which civil society is bound to respect. . . . Prominent among those rights . . . is the elective franchise. . . . Self-government, in our opinion, is an inherent right. And without the privilege of saying who shall be the makers of our laws, . . . there can be no self-government. This was the view taken of the matter by the Fathers of the Republic. And it was upon this principle as enduring granite that they built up the free institutions of the land. . . .
". . . It is a . . . fundamental maxim of your political faith, that taxation and representation are never to be [separated], but always go together; and since we are taxed in common with all others to meet the expenditures of the government, we respectfully submit, that we ought to have the advantage of a fair and impartial representation [in the legislature]. . . .
". . . In conclusion . . . , we hold that it is unjust, anti-democratic, impolitic and ungenerous to withhold from us the right of suffrage."
John Mercer Langston, petition to the Ohio state legislature, 1854
2. Using the excerpt, respond to parts a, b, and c.
a. Briefly describe the point of view of the excerpt.
b. Briefly explain how one specific historical event or development between 1783 and 1854 led to developments such as that depicted in the excerpt.
c. Briefly explain how one specific historical event or development between 1854 and 1877 resulted from developments such as that depicted in the excerpt.
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Directions:
Answer either Question 3 or Question 4.
3. Respond to parts a, b, and c.
a. Briefly describe one way that one Native American society adapted to its environment prior to European contact.
b. Briefly explain one similarity in how Native American societies in two regions adapted to European contact from 1492 to 1763.
c. Briefly explain one difference in how Native American societies in two regions adapted to European contact from 1492 to 1763.
4. Respond to parts a, b, and c.
a. Briefly describe one way reform movements responded to economic conditions from 1880 to 1920.
b. Briefly explain one similarity in how two reform movements attempted to change United States society from 1880 to 1920.
c. Briefly explain one difference in how two reform movements attempted to change United States society from 1880 to 1920.
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Question 1 (Document-Based Question)
Suggested reading and writing time: 1 hour
It is suggested that you spend 15 minutes reading the documents and 45 minutes writing your response.
Note: You may begin writing your response before the reading period is over.
Directions:
Question 1 is based on the accompanying documents. The documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise.
In your response you should do the following.
- Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning.
- Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.
- Support an argument in response to the prompt using at least six documents.
- Use at least one additional piece of specific historical evidence (beyond that found in the documents) relevant to an argument about the prompt.
- For at least three documents, explain how or why the document's point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is relevant to an argument.
- Use evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the prompt.
Begin your response to this question at the top of a new page in the separate Free Response booklet and fill in the appropriate circle at the top of each page to indicate the question number.
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1. Evaluate the extent to which the United States developed a national identity between 1800 and 1855.
Document 1
Source: Year of Removal of Property Qualification for White Male Suffrage, 1800 to 1850.
[Map: Year of Removal of Property Qualification for White Male Suffrage, 1800 to 1850]
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Document 2
Source: Report, or Manifesto of the Causes and Reasons of War with Great Britain, produced by the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States House of Representatives, 1812.
After the experience which the United States [has] had of the great injustice of the British government towards them, exemplified by so many acts of violence and oppression, it will be more difficult to justify . . . their patient [tolerance] . . . to avenge the wrongs and vindicate the rights and honor of the nation. . . .
The effect produced by this attack on the lawful commerce of the United States, was such as might have been expected from a virtuous, independent, and highly injured people. But one sentiment pervaded the whole American nation. No local interests were regarded, no sordid motives felt. Without looking to the parts which suffered most, the invasion of our rights was considered a common cause, and from one extremity of our union to the other was heard the voice of an united people, calling on their government to avenge their wrongs, and vindicate the rights and honor of the country.
Document 3
Source: President James Madison, annual message to Congress, 1815.
Among the means of advancing the public interest the occasion is a proper one for recalling the attention of Congress to the great importance of establishing throughout our country the roads and canals which can best be executed under the national authority. No objects within the circle of political economy so richly repay the expense bestowed on them; there are none the utility of which is more universally ascertained and acknowledged; none that do more honor to the governments whose wise and enlarged patriotism duly appreciates them. Nor is there any country which presents a field where nature invites more the art of man to complete her own work for his accommodation and benefit. These considerations are strengthened, moreover, by the political effect of these facilities for intercommunication in bringing and binding more closely together the various parts of our extended confederacy. Whilst the States individually . . . avail themselves of their local advantages by new roads, by navigable canals, and by improving the streams susceptible of navigation, the General Government is the more urged to similar undertakings, requiring a national jurisdiction and national means.
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Document 4
Source: Constitution of the Cherokee Nation, adopted by delegates at the Cherokee capital in New Echota, Georgia, 1827.
We, the people of the Cherokee Nation, in National Convention assembled, in order to establish justice, insure tranquility, promote the common welfare, and to secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of freedom—acknowledging with humility and gratitude the goodness of the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in permitting us so to do, and imploring His aid and direction in its accomplishment—do ordain and establish this Constitution for the government of the Cherokee Nation.
. . . Article I. Section 2: The lands of the Cherokee Nation shall remain common property; but the improvements [to the land] made thereon . . . are the exclusive . . . property of the citizens respectively who made, or may rightfully be in possession of them; provided, that the citizens of the Nation . . . shall possess no right or power to dispose of their improvements, in any manner whatever, to the United States, individual states, or to individual citizens thereof.
Document 5
Source: Maria W. Stewart, free African American woman, speech to the New-England Anti-Slavery Society in Boston on the status of free African Americans, 1832.
It was asserted that we were "a ragged set, crying for liberty." I reply to it, the Whites have so long and so loudly proclaimed the theme of equal rights and privileges, that our souls have caught the flame also, ragged as we are. As far as our merit deserves, we feel a common desire to rise above the condition of servants and drudges. . . .
. . . It is true that free people of color throughout these United States are neither bought nor sold, nor under the lash of the cruel driver; . . . but few, if any, have an opportunity of becoming rich and independent. . . . Had we had the opportunity that you [members of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society] have had, to improve our moral and mental faculties, what would have hindered our intellects from being as bright, and our manners from being as dignified as yours? . . .
. . . But ah! methinks our oppression is soon to come to an end. . . . Did the pilgrims, when they first landed on these shores, quietly compose themselves and say, "The Britons have all the money and all the power, and we must continue their servants forever?" Did they sluggishly sigh and say, "Our lot is hard—the Indians own the soil, and we cannot cultivate it?" No—they first made powerful efforts to raise themselves, and then God raised up those illustrious patriots, Washington and Lafayette, to assist and defend them.
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Document 6
Source: Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The American Scholar," address delivered at Harvard University, 1837.
Another sign of our times, also marked by an analogous political movement, is the new importance given to the single person. Everything that tends to insulate the individual—to surround him with barriers of natural respect, so that each man shall feel the world is his . . . the man is all; in yourself is the law of all nature . . . ; in yourself slumbers the whole of Reason; it is for you to know all; it is for you to dare all. . . . We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, imitative, tame. . . . See already the tragic consequence. The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself. . . . What is the remedy? . . . We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds. . . . A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.
Document 7
Source: Reverend Samuel W. Fisher, "Female Education," Godey's Lady's Book, 1850.
There has been a long standing dispute respecting the intellectual powers of the two sexes, and the consequent style of education suitable to each. . . . It is among the things settled by experience, that, equal or not equal in talents, woman, the moment she escapes from the despotism of brute force, . . . shares with man the scepter of influence; and, without presuming to wrest from him a visible authority, by the mere force of her gentle nature, silently directs that authority, and so rules the world. . . . And who that compasses [considers] the peculiar purpose of woman's life; who that understands the meaning of those good old . . . words, mother, sister, wife, daughter; who that estimates aright the duties they involve, the influences they embody in giving character to all human kind, will hesitate to place her intellect . . . as high in the scale of power as that of the father, husband, and son? If we estimate her mind by its actual power of influence when she is permitted to fill to the best advantage her circle of action, we shall find a capacity for education equal to that of [men].
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END OF DOCUMENTS FOR QUESTION 1
Question 2, 3, or 4 (Long Essay)
Suggested writing time: 40 minutes
Directions:
Answer Question 2 or Question 3 or Question 4.
In your response you should do the following.
- Respond to the prompt with a historically defensible thesis or claim that establishes a line of reasoning.
- Describe a broader historical context relevant to the prompt.
- Support an argument in response to the prompt using specific and relevant examples of evidence.
- Use historical reasoning (e.g., comparison, causation, continuity or change over time) to frame or structure an argument that addresses the prompt.
- Use evidence to corroborate, qualify, or modify an argument that addresses the prompt.
2. Evaluate the relative importance of causes of population movement to colonial British America in the period from 1607 to 1754.
3. Evaluate the relative importance of causes of the rise of industrial capitalism in the United States in the period from 1865 to 1900.
4. Evaluate the relative importance of causes of internal migration within the United States in the period from 1900 to 1970.
Begin your response to this question at the top of a new page in the separate Free Response booklet and fill in the appropriate circle at the top of each page to indicate the question number.
WHEN YOU FINISH WRITING, CHECK YOUR WORK ON SECTION II IF TIME PERMITS.
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