'Old Marion' Teachers Guide
1900 History Questions

The following are study questions similar to those high school students would have had in 1900. They are taken from A School History of the United States by William H. Mace.

1. What was the first American colony to declare that the American colonies should be free and independent states? Answers

2. What great plan of campaign did the British decide on for 1776, and for what reasons? Answers

3. What was the population of the states when George Washington became president? Answers

4. What acts by the English prompted the United States to go to war in 1812? Answers

5. Trace the railroad route from Boston to Buffalo in 1842. How did people travel from Buffalo to Chicago in that year? Answers

6. Daniel Webster gave his Seventh of March speech in 1850. What was it about? Answers

7. Why was Lincoln successful in his arguments with Stephen Douglas in 1858? Answers

8. In 1865, before the Thirteenth Amendment had been adopted, what Union states had already begun the work of giving freedom to their slaves? Answers

9. Explain why more men in war die from other causes than from being shot? Answers

10. Make a list of the different ways of lighting buildings, beginning with colonial times Answers






Answers: Top of Page

(1) Virginia, on May 14, 1776.

(2) The British decided to conquer the Middle States and thus cut off New England from the South, and separate the "ringleaders," Massachusetts and Virginia.

(3) 3.9 million

(4) England insulted our national pride by 1) furnishing the Indians of the Northwest with arms and encouraging them to attack the settlers 2) refusing to recognize that neutral ships made neutral goods, and then, by seizing American cargoes. 3) searching American vessels to find British deserters, and by impressing American sailors. 4) refusing to pay for the wrongs inflicted.

(5) Railroads did not operate to Chicago until 1852, so people traveled from Buffalo by foot and steamboat.

(6) Webster's speech was called "For the Union and the Constitution," and in it he denounced agitators in both the North and the South. He placed most of the blame for the country's troubles on the anti-slavery men. He previously had been a strong opponent of slavery.

(7) Lincoln arranged his arguments and put his questions on slavery so that Douglas by his answers was compelled either to please the people of Illinois and displease the people of the South, or to please the South and displease his own neighbors.

(8) Maryland, West Virginia, and Missouri.

(9) At least half a million men perished in the Civil War. The great majority of deaths, more than two to one, were due to disease and hardship.

(10). Candles, oil lamps, gas lamps, electricity.