United States History & Government: Colonial Foundations to the Early 21st Century — Midterm exam

Parent / teacher answer key

A course-authored written history assessment. Use two 60-minute blocks for the midterm, three for the final, and one for the optional sample. Marking and revision have a separate parent-plan session.

20 questions · 60 points · suggested 120 minutes

Student instructions

Use supplied evidence and your timeline; notes and a glossary are permitted.
Give short reasoned answers; distinguish observations from interpretations.
Keep worked keys closed until after attempting the paper.
Equivalent supported explanations and accessible response formats are accepted.

Historical inquiry methods

Task	Method
Context	Identify period, place, institutions, and earlier conditions.
Source	Identify maker, date, purpose, form, and limits.
Causation	Explain a mechanism; chronology alone is not causation.
Comparison	Use stated criteria and comparable evidence.

Coverage and marks

Chapter	Questions	Points
Colonial Foundations & Constitutional Government	1, 2, 3, 4, 5	15
Expansion, Slavery, Civil War & Reconstruction	6, 7, 8, 9, 10	15
Industry, Migration & Gilded Age Politics	11, 12, 13, 14, 15	15
Progressive Reform, Empire & World War I	16, 17, 18, 19, 20	15

Name: ____________________ Date: ____________________

Question 1 · 3 points

Does describing the colonies as self-governing mean every resident could vote?

Question 2 · 3 points

Would one Loyalist letter establish that all colonists rejected independence?

Question 3 · 3 points

Does an institution appearing in the constitutional text prove it worked exactly as intended?

Question 4 · 3 points

Would winning an election allow a president alone to change the Bill of Rights?

Question 5 · 3 points

Does the peaceful transfer in 1800 prove all residents had equal voting rights?

Question 6 · 3 points

Does a treaty transferring territory prove every resident received secure land rights?

Question 7 · 3 points

Would an abolitionist newspaper alone establish how most voters thought?

Question 8 · 3 points

Does identifying slavery as central mean every person on either side had identical motives?

Question 9 · 3 points

Would a law ending slavery alone establish equal economic independence?

Question 10 · 3 points

Would the end of a federal military role in 1877 mean the Reconstruction amendments ceased to exist?

Question 11 · 3 points

Can lower consumer prices and weaker worker bargaining both result from a large firm?

Question 12 · 3 points

Would a court order ending a strike establish that the workers’ safety concerns were factually false?

Question 13 · 3 points

Does a foreign-born population count measure how many noncitizens lived in a city?

Question 14 · 3 points

Does criticizing railroad rates prove every farmer favored the same reform?

Question 15 · 3 points

Why is a homestead grant not sufficient evidence that the recipient received an economically viable farm?

Question 16 · 3 points

Would two policies both called progressive necessarily expand freedom for the same people?

Question 17 · 3 points

Did the 1898 settlement give Cuba and the Philippines identical independent institutions?

Question 18 · 3 points

Would a wartime conviction automatically prove that an expression caused concrete military harm?

Question 19 · 3 points

How could the Nineteenth Amendment be a major change while many women still faced voting barriers?

Question 20 · 3 points

Would a higher Black population in a northern city prove racial exclusion had ended there?

Revisit the covered chapters

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