Sample Questions: History of the United States I
The following History of the United States I sample questions aren't used in actual CLEP exams and aren’t presented here as they will be on the test. Use them to get a sense of question format and difficulty level.
Directions
Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by suggested answers or completions. Select the one that is best in each case.
Questions
1. Which of the following crops was most important to the early development of the Chesapeake Bay colonies?
(A) Cotton
(B) Sugar
(C) Tobacco
(D) Rice
(E) Wheat
2. Which of the following most characterized the First Great Awakening?
(A) The spread of religious evangelicalism
(B) An emphasis on Christian humanism
(C) The revival of the Calvinist concept of predestination
(D) A stress on strengthening the authority of traditional churches
(E) A rising secularization of American society
3. Which of the following best describes how Bacon’s Rebellion contributed to the transition from indentured servitude to slavery in seventeenth-century Virginia?
(A) Elites consciously encouraged racism to destroy interracial cooperation in the lower classes.
(B) Indentured servants’ inability to acquire land caused many to return home, thus creating a labor shortage.
(C) Landless indentured servants collaborated with Native Americans to disrupt the fur trade.
(D) Skilled indentured servants created competition for jobs after gaining their freedom.
(E) The execution of indentured servants for their part in the rebellion discouraged interest in signing indentured contracts.
4. The Proclamation of 1763 was intended to do which of the following?
(A) Raise taxes on North American colonists
(B) End the French and Indian War
(C) End slavery in colonies above the Mason-Dixon Line
(D) Restrain colonial settlement along the Appalachian Mountains
(E) Increase fur trading between British and French colonists
5. In the nineteenth century, rural laborers new to factory work had difficulty adjusting to the
(A) racial and gender integration of the workplace
(B) absence of children in the workplace
(C) relative abundance of leisure time in the manufacturing system
(D) rigid system of timetables and living by the clock
(E) work rules imposed by unions
6. The Erie Canal was significant to the development of the early United States because it
(A) replaced travel by covered wagon to the Oregon Territory
(B) demonstrated the necessity of developing railroad transportation
(C) encouraged the growth of the area around Washington, D.C.
(D) spurred innovations in steam engine technology
(E) expanded trade between New York and the Midwest
Questions 7 - 9 refer to the excerpt below.
“The said annexation of Texas to the United States tramples on the conservative principles of society, attacks all the rights that Mexico has to that territory, is an insult to her dignity as a sovereign nation, and threatens her independence and political existence. . . .
“. . . The United States, [has] trampled on the principles which served as a basis to the
treaties of friendship, commerce and navigation, and more especially to those of boundaries fixed with precision, even previous to 1832. . . .
“. . . The unjust spoliation of which they wish to make the Mexican nation the
victim gives her the clear right to use all her resources and power to resist, to the last
moment, said annexation.”
Source: Proclamation by José Joaquín de Herrera, president of Mexico, 1845
7. Which of the following was a context of the development described in the excerpt?
(A) Mexico did not properly administer its northern territories and allowed United States settlers to be attacked by Native Americans.
(B) Many settlers from the United States who migrated to Texas supported either independence or annexation by the United States.
(C) Mexico had illegally nullified United States settlers’ titles to property in Texas.
(D) Mexico refused petitions from United States settlers for relief from high taxes paid only by foreigners.
(E) Mexico had banned United States settlers from introducing slavery into Texas.
8. Which of the following was an argument made by Herrera in the proclamation?
(A) Texas should remain independent as a buffer between Mexico and the United States.
(B) Mexico should fulfill its own Manifest Destiny and push back the boundaries of the United States.
(C) The United States was violating its own principles by disregarding the sovereignty of other nations.
(D) The United States and Mexico should negotiate a fair treaty to settle the disagreement over Texas.
(E) The United States should fulfill the Monroe Doctrine and protect Mexico from European annexation.
9. Which of the following was the most immediate outcome of the development described in the excerpt?
The United States used a disagreement over the location of its border with Mexico as a pretext to declare war.
Southern states seceded from the Union because of limitations placed on the expansion of slavery.
The United States signed a treaty with Mexico recognizing the right of Mexican citizens to own property in the United States.
Northern and Southern states agreed to a compromise federal law that required the return of escaped enslaved people to their enslavers.
The United States established a program to recruit Mexican laborers for employment in agricultural industrie
10. The United States Supreme Court made which of the following rulings in Dred Scott v. Sandford?
(A) African Americans had the right to sue in federal courts.
(B) Public facilities could be segregated by race if equality of service was maintained.
(C) African Americans were not citizens of the United States.
(D) Newly admitted states should vote on the legality of slavery.
(E) Local governments had to provide schools for African American students.
Keys for items:
1. C
2. A
3. A
4. D
5. D
6. E
7. B
8. C
9. A
10. C