Preparing for the AP US History Exam (5/4/2016)
Hi, this is S of the KH Academy, and you know we've always had a lot of content on KH Academy for the various AP tests, and we've actually been building out a lot for American history. So I'm here with Kim, who's our AP History or American history fellow. What do you bring to the table here, Kim? Did we just find you on the street?
No, actually. So I used to teach college history for a number of years, and last year I actually graded the AP U.S. History exam. So I have a pretty good insight into what the graders are looking for when you're looking at the test. What we're hoping to do, you know we did an AP review for calculus a couple of days ago, and it seemed to be really successful. So we thought we would do the same today, but this is still a little bit groundbreaking, and we're still figuring it out just in terms of how to do these live streams.
So give us your feedback, give us your questions on the comment thread below this. This is pretty exciting; you're, I think, part of the first ever live streaming AP American history review session in like all of history. So this is a historic event that when they make our timeline of major points in American history, the live stream will be included.
So what I guess there's a bunch of ways we can tackle this. We have some stuff here; it looks like you've made a timeline of all of American history.
Yes, this is my beautiful timeline. So maybe we could first go through just a quick overview of it, just so everyone here, including myself, has context. Then you've put together a pretty neat study guide that has the different periods as well as the different themes that the AP American History test cares about.
We've uploaded a screenshot of this to Facebook so you can take a look at it yourself. But basically, what we're doing here is taking kind of the thousand-yard view of American history and examining these themes, like migration and labor over time, to kind of get you a sense of how things are moving. That will help you build intuition about what's going on in a particular moment in American history. Not only will this help everyone understand the layers of American history, but these are often just even called out on the essay portion of the exam or even the multiple-choice.
Yeah, absolutely. So this will kind of build that backbone for you so that when you're sitting down to answer an essay question, sitting down to write a multiple-choice question, you can say, "Oh, well what was going on in American culture in the early 1900s?" Oh yeah, this was the Jazz Age. This was, you know, a period of internationalism and nationalism.
Right, so awesome! I know people watching from home probably can't read this when I'm just holding it up like this, but it's available for download. And we'll make that more obvious if it's not already.
So let's get started. Let's do a walk through of 600 years of history.
Yeah, it's 600, and that’s not counting—we’re doing it multiple times. We're going to try to do seven times. So that's not counting like 15,000 years ago when people actually crossed the Bering Land Bridge into what’s now North America. So we're kind of skipping forward in time to say there were many Native peoples who were living on the American continent in 1492, which was this moment of contact between Europeans and Native Americans. You have it right there. And then we see that you have that contact, but then what's the significance of Jamestown? Why does this make this timeline?
So the first kind of hundred years of settlement on the North American continent is like the Spanish—they're trying to just mine things; they're traders. So these are people who are taking resources from the New World and bringing it back to the Old. They have no intention of staying. It's when we get to Jamestown and Plymouth Rock and Massachusetts Bay that this is when English settlers are coming to what will be the United States and planning on living there.
I see. So this is your first—I mean, you can see this was the first permanent, first permanent settlement in what would be the United States. That’s a little after 1600, it’s 1608 or something like that. And then you get to kind of the formation of the country. What’s going on in this really 200-year period?
So that's what we would call the colonial period. And this is when there are various colonies—we've got Massachusetts and Virginia and Georgia and Pennsylvania—who are all pretty much doing their own thing. They're mostly focused on trade and farming, commerce, and they don't really see themselves as being even really part of a nation or anything other than British subjects who are on the wrong side of an ocean.
It's kind of in this mid-1700s period when the British Empire starts really paying attention to the colonies. They're saying, "Wait a minute! Aren't you supposed to be helping us out economically? Why aren't we taxing you more? Why don't they start paying attention?" Just, they got big enough, and there were enough people there and their economies were large enough to matter.
Yeah, that, and there's an economic depression in England—they have a lot of debt that they want to pay off, so they look across the ocean and say, "We have a lot of people over there that we could be making more money off of." For the American colonists, who are very used to British power being super hands-off, this is not okay with them at all. They didn’t want that money just to provide benefits to the English citizens.
This was during the Age of Empire, or really, you know, where they're competing with the French and the Spanish. So there’s this Seven Years War, also known as the French and Indian War, where the American colonists and the British are fighting against the French and their Native American allies. Eventually, the British succeed, and the colonists succeed, but now England’s in a lot of debt. They want to tax the colonists to make up that debt, and the colonists are saying, "Oh, we already helped enough, right? We actually provided some manpower to do this fighting."
So that's when they start really rebelling against British taxation.
And not to dig too deep—we're trying to do a fast overview—but I always find it fun. You know, when I learned American history, like oh, the Seven Years War, or the French and Indian War? But as you say, Seven Years War—it's part of a larger theater. It wasn't just in the U.S.; this is a global war. It’s hard for us to see this, but this is, you know, these Empires all over the world who are competing for territory and resources.
So, you know, this is just one small part of a much larger War over Empire. And then that kind of attention builds. And revolutions, as far as revolutions go, the American Revolution is maybe a boring one, right? This is a revolution over taxes.
I've seen some very non-boring movies about it, but it's got this sort of revolutionary idea of these Enlightenment thinkers.
Oh, I see, because you're saying it's economic, right? But then there are principles underlying that, right? So the principles of, you know, consent of the governed—where government draws its power instead of absolute monarchy—this is kind of the birth of true democracy in the United States. It’s going to really spread throughout the world; the ideas from the Revolution go many places in the world.
And it's a successful revolution, and it is unique. It inspires the French Revolution in certain ways. And so now you have this, you know, in the Revolution, 1776, you have the Declaration of Independence, but it isn’t until the early 18 or late 1780s that you have the Constitution as we know it, right?
The Constitution is kind of the blueprint of American government. So before that, there was the Articles of Confederation, which was a very weak government system. You know, they had just fought against this tyrannical power abroad, and they were saying, "All right, well, we’re going to make sure that we don't have a central government that is going to be tyrannical at home." Unfortunately, that meant that their government couldn’t do anything.
So the Constitution is kind of this amendment saying, "Okay, we are going to organize our government into a judicial, executive, and legislative branch."
I mean, it was completely a redo! Yeah! And they basically built the system of government with its checks and balances that we still have today.
So where's this new country at the, you know, all pretty close to the turn of the century? Now we get into the 1800s.
Yeah, and so the 1800s for the United States is really this period of expansion—both sort of expansion of markets, expansion of technology, and literal territorial expansion. So early on there’s kind of the War of 1812, which we’d call maybe Revolution part two.
British leave us alone; really, we meant it!
Followed by—what was the British were? I mean they, it was another—it was like they were back! What was the factor that brought them back?
Oh, well, they never really left, actually. They were in Canada. Yeah, they’re up in Canada, they’re in the Great Lakes.
What really led the United States to declare war on England is the impressment of American soldiers, which or sailors, which meant that British ships—the most powerful navy in the world—would be stopping American ships and saying, "Hey, all you Americans, you must be British sailors who jumped ship. You belong to us now."
So the American government declares war, and they kind of get this final go-ahead, saying, "All right, England, get out of our affairs."
Okay, and so the U.S. wins again!
Yes, and as we’re expanding territorially, there are kind of tensions building in line with that expansion.
Yeah, and the tension here is the existence of slavery, right? Slavery started in the United States back in the 1620s. This was kind of shortly after Jamestown, shortly after Jamestown.
So enslaved people from Africa and the West Indies are being brought to what will become the United States and later the United States as laborers for cash crops. So they’re working in cotton fields; they’re working on tobacco.
And even though the American Revolution is built on this idea that all men are created equal—I’ll draw a parallel line to show this—so roughly here... I mean all of this is, you know, slavery is, you know...
Yep, yep, yeah. They just really did not solve the problem of slavery. So, you know, to get the cooperation of the southern states at the time of the Revolution, they kind of punted on this issue of slavery.
They continued, and throughout the founding documents, they are very principled on people being equal and life, liberty, all of that. But yes, it was kind of like, "Okay, we’ll not dig in too deep what that means right now just so we're unified."
Exactly! But then, as we added territory, why did this become—why did this somehow exacerbate the issue?
As we added territory, the problem would be kind of the balance of power between the North and the South. So the early stages in the United States—and we can take a look at our map. Do you want to see if we can do this?
All right, this is a beautiful map that I colored myself. We’re scrappy here! That's right.
So you know, when the United States was founded, here are the 13 colonies; they’re in red. And then with the Treaty of Paris at the end of the American Revolution, we get all this territory—these were already British territories.
Yeah, Britain hangs out up here, right?
Yes, and way over there.
Yes! But then, as the 19th century wears on, first Jefferson acquires a whole bunch of territory in 1803 in the Louisiana Purchase. And I always find that interesting because it's often built as like "Deal of the Century!" but Napoleon was in charge of France, and he was fighting these wars, and his navy was kind of being defeated. He’s like, "Well, I can’t protect that anyway."
Yeah! So he sells it off, and he gets a whole bunch of money to help him with his wars over on the other continent.
So we've got this whole bunch of land, and then with the Mexican War, we get all of this land. You can see it kind of goes right over the boundary where slavery existed in the South, and this is kind of the—the line of slavery here.
And then we have a lot of videos on this on Khan Academy, so if people want to dig deeper into this, we do. This is the free area up here. So, you know, they had managed to keep their representation in the federal government relatively equal. So they had, you know, 11 states that were free and 11 states that permitted slavery.
And then, as new states started to form out of these territories, that might upset the apple cart, upset the balance of power.
Why was that?
Because if there were more free states in Congress, they might be more likely to abolish slavery or, you know, in general, pass laws that would be more beneficial to people who weren’t part of the slave economy. This wasn’t just even a—I mean, I’m sure there were people on both sides on like a principal level like, "Slavery is good," or "Slavery is bad." There was also an economic—I remember you told me once, you know, Lincoln’s father was kind of put out of business because he couldn’t compete with plantations, right?
So, you know, there are many white people who are living in the North, who are living in what is now the Midwest, who, you know, they didn’t have any real moral opposition to slavery. What they wanted was to be able to move out to this area and not have to compete with someone maybe moving from here, here with a hundred slaves who he doesn’t have to pay.
How is this guy going to be able to sell his grain for less than someone who’s got free labor?
Yes! And so you have this onward expansion. Most of this is the 1800s—this is the era of Manifest Destiny. So these tensions really continue as they’re trying to balance power.
In the course of the 1850s, there are more moral arguments about slavery. The abolitionists are saying, "Slavery is evil, slavery is wrong, they're right; we've got to end it now." It doesn't matter what's happening over here; all slavery needs to go.
And then there are sort of apologists for slavery in the South who are saying, "You know, slavery is a good thing. We’ve done so much for these people."
And so, you know, there’s just this—it’s true. Sorry, you did. There’s a video you uploaded where you did AP U.S. History, and they had a passage from one of these apologists. So this isn’t you making it up; this was actually from one of these people.
Right! Fascinating! This is the 1800s. And also, I mean, it's worth noting that the American Indians were also kind of being pushed back, right?
I mean, the 1800s are, you know, just a rotten century for Native Americans. Maybe not as rotten as kind of this period of, you know, great death from disease that's happening really early in contact, but this is a time when Native American lands just continue to shrink and shrink and shrink.
Even Native Americans who, you know, followed the rules—they assimilated, they converted to Christianity—found that they were still forced out into farther and farther western lands because whites wanted those lands.
In this broader world context, I mean, that also was where the U.S. started going from this kind of agrarian to—because of the Industrial Revolution—to kind of an economic power that can start to rival the powers of Europe.
Yeah, and I think that's a good sort of takeaway for the era after the Civil War. So we have this great conflict of the Civil War.
The powder keg ignites, right? Right there in, you know, 1861 to 1865. And the North—the free part of the United States-prevails. So slavery is over, and there’s this kind of brief period in the South where African-Americans have guaranteed civil rights. Basically, they’ve got a military there protecting their civil rights.
Then, at the end of Reconstruction in 1877, the North kind of gives up on protecting them.
And so that starts the era of Jim Crow—it’s kind of an occupied territory until that point.
Yeah, and so this is where you have Jim Crow beginning. What is Jim Crow? You always hear that word.
I mean, so Jim Crow was a—no, just Crow like the bird—it was a system of segregation. So de jure segregation or segregation by law that said that, you know, it was legal for whites and blacks to be in separate places.
So this is the idea of separate but equal that comes up in the late 19th century, saying that it is perfectly fine to send black children only to black schools; it’s perfectly fine to send white children only to white schools.
It's developing and then there's barriers to voting and things like that, and that continues all the way until, you know, some—something like that—that's Jim Crow right over there.
And as you said, this coincides with the Industrial Revolution—the U.S. really getting its footing as maybe people didn’t realize it, but it was quietly becoming a world power.
Exactly! And, you know, part of that is power. It wasn’t like on the world stage yet. Right? So the North went to all this industrial production to win the Civil War, and then they have all these factories. What are they going to do with them?
They’re going to build stuff—specifically steel for railroads. And so really, by 1900, the United States is the world’s leading industrial power. We make more stuff than anybody else, and then that gives us—and we start flexing that power a little bit. You get the Spanish-American War right at around the same time, going into the turn of the century.
And that’s an imperial war against Spain, which the United States is basically looking to flex its muscles, saying, "Now we’ve got this big navy. We’re super wealthy. We’ve got great industry."
So let’s let everybody know!
What was the given cause, and what is the actual cause?
The given cause was that the Spanish in Cuba were oppressing the Cubans who were rebelling against Spanish rule. And then when the United States sent a ship down there to protect American interests, that ship, the USS Maine, exploded in Havana Harbor.
It was probably a boiler malfunction, but the United States said, "Oh no, they totally blew it up. The Spanish sabotaged our ship!" So they went to war, and they won easily.
I would say ships are often used to justify war, only to later be found out. Gulf of Tonkin, Revolution; later on, Vietnam.
So, after this, the United States becomes an empire. They have islands in the Pacific, islands in the Caribbean. And those islands are pretty much part of the Philippines, and there’s no path to statehood for those islands.
You know, the United States has never before taken territory. They never expected the people who live there to become citizens, and that to some is almost a definition of empire.
Exactly! It’s when you have control over people who are not formal members of your nation, right? And contrast that with the American Revolution, right? How much did the people in the United States—what would be the United States—like having a power across the ocean in charge of them? Not at all!
So it’s quite a turnaround for the United States to take on that role as the power across the ocean to a people that isn’t self-governing. Yep, yep!
And so now we go—this is kind of more modern times. And this is where, I mean, just as a reminder, KH Academy has a lot of content on modern times. You’ve done a lot on the Civil Rights Movement. I’ve worked on the World Wars.
So for anyone who wants, you know, deeper context, go there. And we actually have a lot on the revolutionary period. We heard a lot from students when we started this project saying, you know, "My teacher is trying so hard, but she can’t get past 1945," or "My teacher slowed down; we never got past Vietnam."
And so what we did was say, "Let’s start there." If that’s a place where you’re feeling less confident, Khan Academy has a ton of material in that period just to help students who are struggling with the later stages of American history and its videos, its exercises, its articles.
Yeah, we actually have a few overview videos of all of American history, although this—we're kind of making one as we speak right now, live.
So we go into World War I, which once—that wasn’t really an American war. Not really. The United States only gets involved really late in 1917, and that’s because the Germans continued to attack U.S. ships in the Atlantic.
Yeah! The Lusitania, famously! But this was—I mean, this is kind of when the U.S. is like, "Wow, they can tip the balance!"
Yeah, it shows that they’re a real player on the world stage! And, you know, someone like Woodrow Wilson tries to negotiate what will become the League of Nations.
It’s this first international organization for keeping the peace, which clearly did not work, and the United States never joins it because there’s this sort of isolationist streak. A lot of people said, "Oh man, we should not have gotten involved in World War I."
We don’t want to get involved in another war! If we commit to being part of one of these international peacekeeping organizations...
Yeah, the U.S. is still kind of, not fully—you know, it wants to be out there, the world’s policeman, so to speak.
Yeah, and I mean they have an ocean in between them and a lot of those problems—which has worked out pretty well for them up until this point. You have the space to develop without having to fight wars all the time!
Absolutely! Absolutely! And so we go into that postwar period. And how do you describe the 20s, right before we get into the stock market crash?
Well, the 20s are kind of this era of consumerism, right? This is when we’ve got all sorts of cool new gadgets like radios and cars, and people are buying them on credit.
So there’s this massive expansion of American consumerism and also American dabbling in the stock market—you know, that was not something that an ordinary person did before the 1920s.
It seemed like a really fun game—right up until it didn’t seem like a fun crash, and you get a crash, and then we’re in a depression, the Great Depression.
Yeah, so the Great Depression—it wasn’t the first depression; we talk a lot about it. It’s the most recent big depression, right?
You know, the economics of the United States since the development of a market economy have always kind of been on this like 20-year cycle of boom and bust.
And there are a whole bunch of other panic events: Panic of 1837, Panic of 1819, Panic of... you know, there’s a panic every 20 years when there’s a bubble that bursts. But no bubble burst as badly as the bubble of the 1920s—Great Depression!
And how what effect did that have on like just the country? Was it just a bad time, and we got out of it, or did it somehow change the fabric of...
Oh yeah! Well, I mean, this was really the birth of the federal government having an idea that they have a responsibility for citizens' welfare, right?
I mean, for most of American history, the biggest influence the federal government had on your life was the post office. Like that’s the only time you saw the federal government.
And then starting—which is one of the themes, which we’ll talk more about—that the U.S. has always been very much a both individualistic, but also kind of a states—it's very decentralized. Yes, people have been very suspicious of the central government, the central government.
Yeah, so I mean, really, that's it—the post office until the Civil War when, you know, Lincoln expands a lot of federal power and institutes a draft for the first time.
But it wasn’t until the Great Depression that the federal government said it's up to us to make sure that our citizens aren't starving in the street.
It's up to us to make sure that when you’re old, you know, you can still live well when you're not able to work anymore.
So that’s kind of the expansion of what we call the social welfare state. And FDR shows up, and he’s kind of, you know, when people talk about Keynesian economics, he used it on a massive scale—building dams.
And, I mean, some of it was, you know, to actually provide energy, and all this, but also the theory is to jump-start the economy, to utilize all of that excess capacity to get the—and that kind of starts how you have FDR.
But then, really, the depression ends with World War II!
Yeah, clearly we weren’t all done in Europe with World War I!
No, no!
And World War II, you know, the United States had continued to be very isolationist throughout the 1930s. Their idea was, "We’ve got enough problems." So they really tried not to get involved in World War II as it was beginning in Europe.
But then in 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. And so the United States joined this world war that was already going. The Japanese had invaded China in the late 30s or actually in the early 30s, and then you have, you know, the Germans that had invaded Poland well before the U.S. joined in the war.
The Germans and the Japanese are allies. So after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the Germans actually proactively declared war on the United States.
We might not actually have gone into a war with Germany had not the ally of Japan already declared war on us.
Yeah! And it’s unlikely to be deeply covered on the AP American history, but since these were major things for the U.S., it was...
A lot of people cite reparations in the Treaty of Versailles and Germany, so you have a demagogue like Hitler comes to power and tries to kind of get that German pride going and builds this war machine that gets awfully close—scarily close!
Yes! So then World War II ends, and how is the U.S. relative to the rest of the world after World War II?
Well, the United States kind of comes out of World War II—remember, they're on the other side of an ocean, so they’re pretty much the only nation in the world whose industrial capacity is still functioning.
Right! The United States didn’t get bombed during World War II! The great industrial powers—you’re talking about Germany, England (or UK), France, Japan—they got their factories bombed.
Yeah! It’s going to take them a long time to rebuild from that!
So the United States really emerges as the world’s preeminent industrial power. They’re supplying stuff to everyone. And then they're in sort of a political standoff with the Soviet Union over basically what economic and political form the world should take.
You have Bretton Woods and they create this kind of economic world order because they’re competing against communism, right? So they want that to win; anyone who’s aligned with them has a better economy!
And then, obviously, also like a political and military escalation. And then that goes all the way until you have Vietnam, which is what's notable about Vietnam here?
I guess you could say it was the hottest part of the Cold War!
Yeah, definitely! Maybe some of the things in the 60s—Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis—got pretty hot!
So the Cold War never involves an actual war between the United States and Russia. They never actually, you know, are fighting against each other directly. Instead, it involves a bunch of proxy wars, or wars where the United States is supporting one side—usually the side that is associated with capitalism—and the USSR is supporting the other side that is associated with communism.
So there’s this sort of nationalist fight, what we call a civil war in Vietnam where Northern Vietnam, which was communist, wanted to unite all of Vietnam under communism, and South Vietnam had the United States' help in kind of staving that off.
And this is... It’s fascinating how history all interests. Because Vietnam was a French colony.
Yeah, during World War II, the French get overrun by the British.
And then the Japanese overrun, and so you're left with that. And so there’s kind of a power vacuum after World War II, and so you have these different powers start to take hold.
But then, when you have, you know, communist China on the northern side, right? And now you have George Kennan and containment, and we have a lot, once again, of content on this.
You put Nixon resigning—why is that notable? And you know, we only list about 15 or 20 things here. Why is that in 400 years of American history? Maybe it doesn't deserve to be there; I don't know.
But I could say, you know, Nixon was the last president during Vietnam, and he says he’s going to get the United States out of Vietnam.
This was on both parties! I mean, Vietnam—Kennedy, who’s a Democrat, starts getting involved, yeah?
Then you have Johnson who really escalates! Right? I mean, being pro-communist was not a political position in the United States!
Or anti-communist, or whatever! So yeah, both Democrats and Republicans and everyone saying that they want to take us out—it’s not a popular war!
No, especially later on! But then they can’t help but getting further and further sucked in pretty much.
So Nixon presides over this. The war is kind of winding down, and then it comes out that Nixon has kind of worked to undermine the democratic process by spying on his Watergate office building.
So this is this real kind of a black mark on American democracy—but not the first! I mean, sometimes we think, modern times—things, politics have gotten ugly and all that.
But as you cited, some of the videos on Khan, politics has always been ugly.
Politics has always been ugly, but then we go—Cold War ends! That’s definitely a big deal!
Yeah, all of communism! The end of the 1980s, early 1990s—the Soviet Union collapses, and you can kind of debate how much the United States played a role in that.
Most historians think that it wasn’t very much! I mean, there were economic... You know, some would argue this arms race that, you know, Reagan helped accelerate really broke.
You know, our economy could somehow survive that better than the Soviet economy could. Well, capitalism clearly provided a better way of life than communism!
But the Soviet Union kind of fell apart under the weight of its own problems, I would say!
So by 1991, the United States is the world’s remaining superpower, and that’s essentially the world we live in today!
Yeah, where you don’t have this kind of, you know, two powers, you have the United States as the superpower and you have the smaller conflicts—and frankly, more complex in a lot of ways.
Yeah, fascinating!
So actually, our timer has gone to sleep! See how we are in time? Okay, all right, so we have about a half an hour left!
So that was cool! Let’s talk a little bit about some of these themes here, and we probably touch on stuff we already talked about, but just to reinforce it!
So these are the themes that come from the AP.
Exactly! It’s like these layers of American history.
So the first one is American national identity.
So we talked a lot about that!
Yes, exactly! So this is kind of a—what does it mean to be an American? Who is an American, and how does that change over time?
Over here, it’s the Native Americans, exactly!
And then you have explorers kind of showing up for discovery or looking for gold.
Yeah, and none of them are thinking “I’m an American now.” They’re thinking “I’m Spanish, and I’m going to go home with all my gold and look like a king!”
And then you have English settlers, and actually, why do they—I mean, why would you want to get on a boat and go, you know, 3,000 miles and live in a—you know, some place?
For some people, it was money. For other people, economic opportunity, get land. If you’re kind of a serf essentially in England, England has a real overpopulation problem at that time period!
So there’s a lot of there and this getting a land, religious freedom—yeah! The Pilgrims and whoever else they wanted to come.
These people tended to be more conservative religiously, and they were somewhat ostracized in England because of—so this is the Puritans that we’re talking about, and this is a branch of Protestant Christianity, which is very strict.
So they are—they’re not popular in England because the Anglican Church is not as strict and is in the ascendancy, you know, associated with the royal family!
So they can either be persecuted in England or they can just give up and go to a New World and make a society that fits with their standards!
Yeah, and so that’s starting to be, you know, you start having the settlements—English settlements—you think of, you know, the U.S., current U.S. Now at this point, people in the 1700s consider themselves English citizens.
They consider themselves English citizens or maybe Pennsylvanians or South Carolinians. They don’t have a strong American identity.
And then, as we go through the Revolution, that identity starts building!
Right, and so they have this sort of common cause against the British Empire saying, "Oh, maybe we need to join or die," as Ben Franklin wrote, and kind of develop an American spirit that will help defeat the British and make the United States.
But to be clear, as we already highlighted, even at this point, it was white males!
Right, and not just white males, but wealthy white males who own land. You know, this is who an American citizen is. You know, when Jefferson is considering, you know, who do I want to vote in this new republic, he’s not thinking everybody!
He is thinking the wealthiest, best-educated landowners who have that specific stake in the American experiment!
I think it’s important! I mean, we talk a lot about things like slavery, but I mean, women weren't participants in this.
I would put that on your timeline!
Yeah, when do women vote? Women don’t vote until 1920!
Yes! You see! I’m sorry, it was more important than Nixon resigning!
So this is World War I, somewhere right about there!
Yeah, it’s around here, some...
Okay, so this is a long time! That’s not even 100 years ago!
I know!
So anyway, back to this!
At this point, it’s white landowning men who are a lot of—maybe what even some of the founding fathers were thinking!
Not all of them, but some of them.
But then, it starts getting a little bit broader!
Yeah, so if you think about American national identity in this first part of the 19th century, I think you can think about it first as democracy expanding.
Because by the time Jackson is president in the 1820s, 1830s, the American electorate expanded to all white men!
So you didn’t have to own property! You know, you could be anyone who fits the bill of white and male, and cast a vote!
But there’s also this kind of growing sectional identity, right? If you’re thinking about yourself as an American, you’re probably thinking of yourself also as a Northerner or a Southerner. Early 1800s?
Very strong sort of sectional division as far as identity goes!
And does that change with the Civil War?
Sort of! I mean, the version of America where slavery is illegal prevails!
So I think that’s part of the national identity at that point!
It starts to shift, at least on paper! African-Americans are allowed to vote!
And African-American males, yes, are allowed to vote!
Yeah, and this is another moment for women’s rights because the 15th Amendment grants the right to vote to African-American men.
You know, they were already making an amendment to the Constitution, so a lot of women’s rights activists said, "All right, let's add women’s rights to the 15th Amendment!"
And they didn’t get it! Fascinating!
And so then, we get—so we’re getting to this period; African-Americans become more citizens, although depends where they live and probably their economic situation and things like that.
And what is kind of—you know, we talked about the European immigration initi—this period up here as being primarily English, right?
When did it start becoming from other parts of Europe?
Well, we would start kind of around 1840, which is the Irish Potato Famine.
So there are just thousands upon thousands of Irish people who have given up in Ireland; they can’t eat! So they’re coming to the United States for a new way of life.
There are also political revolutions—the Revolutions of 1848—in Europe that are driving lots of other Europeans, especially Germans, to the United States.
So that kind of goes on into the 1870s, 1880s.
And then we have a huge wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe!
So this is in Italy, in Russia. When is that roughly?
That’s at the end of the 19th century—so 1880s, 1890s.
And this coincides with the industrialization exactly, so they’re looking for jobs!
You know, and you read these books, like Upton Sinclair and all these folks that are, you know, they’re working in the factories, maybe under suboptimal conditions—but they’re coming here for a better life!
Yeah! And I think one thing that’s interesting about this is because, you know, we have a definition of whiteness today that is very much based on skin color, right? You look white, you’re white.
But they had a much different idea of who was white, who was an American citizen because originally, they thought Irish people were really considered not white enough.
And then later on, they say, "Oh, well someone from Italy, someone from Russia—they’re too different from Anglo-Saxons to be considered white."
So even though they have some political rights—they can vote—they're not really considered part of the American body politic like someone whose ancestry is English might be.
Not really until, I would say, World War II!
Yeah! I mean, even in the 20th century, you know, it was a big deal— I mean, it was a big deal to John F. Kennedy, who was Catholic, right?
Absolutely! Yeah! Because, you know, Irish people—or, you know, the Catholics were Irish or Italians—and so this was a big deal that he was not Protestant.
Yeah! And there were strong ethnic communities, too! This is why you have, you know, Little Italy, and, you know, Polish brotherhoods, as these ethnic groups grew in American cities.
And then, starting around World War II, these men all kind of get sent to the war together, they develop more bonds, and after World War II—including African— I mean, African Americans fought in the Civil War!
Yeah, absolutely!
But it becomes people start to identify as a nation, right? Americans versus—language—ethnic. I mean, English is the language, but around ethnicity!
Yeah! And, I mean, if there’s one thing that brings people together, it’s having a common enemy!
Yes! So, you know, the idea, "We’re American!"
You know, we’re not German; we’re not Japanese!
These ideas really coalesce in World War II to bring national identity more about being from the United States than having specific racial identity.
And so now you have, after World War I, in the 20s, women become participants, at least as voters.
It takes a little while for them to get positions of power.
Exactly! One position of power maybe might happen soon, but that’s when they get involved!
So kind of those trends would you say they kind of go through World War II?
Exactly! And then how would you say that they've changed since then?
Well, I think the Civil Rights Movement is one of the most important sort of political and cultural movements to come out of World War II.
Which is, you know, think about being an African-American soldier in World War II, and you're in France and having to listen to someone say the United States is the, you know, the location where democracy is true, and every man is created equal.
And you’re thinking, "Yeah, that’s not been my experience!"
Or, if you’re a second or third-generation Japanese, you know, your grandfather immigrated from Japan to help build the railroads, and your family's in an internment camp while you're fighting or something.
Exactly! So, you know, a lot of African-American veterans come home, and they say, "All right! We listened to all this propaganda abroad. I think, you know, if we learned anything, it’s how important voting is."
So they really begin the Civil Rights Movement, which is a national movement in the South and the North to first secure voting rights for African-Americans, and then there’s sort of a more generalized movement for, you know, housing rights and poverty that kind of work toward a more inclusive idea of American citizenship.
And it’s really inc—because, I mean, and this is not going to be on the AP American History exam, but it’s always worth citing. I always pointed out because there weren’t a lot of other non-white people here then, for example, people from South Asia or...
And that they—that was a civil risk, frankly, for all of us!
Yeah, because if that didn't happen, then then you would have had a segregation! I mean, it wasn’t more broadly...
And the Civil Rights Movement also inspires future social reform movements, too! In the late '60s and '70s, there’s the women’s rights movement that said, "You know, women shouldn’t just be able to vote. They should also be able to hold the same jobs as men and be paid equally."
Or the LGBTQ movements also patterned on the Civil Rights, saying, "We’re going to use the same tactics of protest and, you know, advertisement of what’s going on to try to change our social...".
And you had figures like Martin Luther King inspired by Gandhi—who was revolutionary in India during, you know, the lead-up to World War II.
So let’s go through more of these themes. Politics and power!
All right! This one is a little bit more specific, I would say. Just because we’re talking about maybe who gets to rule, right?
I would say, like this early period here—it’s all about the Spanish!
Yeah! Right? I mean, the Spanish set up this sort of system of slavery basically to try to extract wealth from the best political tool up here was probably the gun.
Maybe a ship, I would say probably the microbes would be the microbe tool, right?
And then there's a kind of a—I would say a difference again between the North and the South for what political power looked like.
You know, in the North, they kind of set up a very democratic system, right? They’re small farmers; they’re living in small towns, so they have Town Hall meetings and kind of decide things pretty democratically.
I mean, there’s religion, and religion plays a really central role in what’s important and who gets power in the North. But in the South, there’s a system of slavery, right?
And so there are these landowners who have, you know, thousands of acres of land, and they really hold all the wealth and the political power.
So even the democratic institutions of the South, like the Virginia House of Burgesses, are based on the wealth generated by slavery.
Fascinating! And that continues, and obviously, power—politics—I mean, we talked about it into the Civil War!
Yeah!
And I mean, we can also talk about sort of the democratic and the political parties that arise in the early part of the United States!
So what were the political parties of your early part?
So at first—and Washington warned us against parties.
Was Washington not a fan of political parties?
Washington was not a fan of political parties!
That’s strange! Most of us love them! What could be better than a party system?
It would be terrible because it’s just going to make us yell at each other all the time, and he was not wrong about that!
But the original parties were divided on this concept of whether power should be centralized in the United States or whether it should be diffused to the states.
So the Federalist Party was all about central power. They wanted a strong central government. They wanted a national bank; they wanted lots of development.
And then the Anti-Federalists—or we often call them Democratic Republicans—were kind of the opposite of that, is there in there?
Yeah! They wanted the states to have most power. They wanted a pretty small central government.
And we mostly associate Federalists with Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and then the Anti-Federalists—their real standard bearer was Thomas Jefferson.
Yeah! And if anyone has extra time while they’re preparing, I highly recommend the John Adams, what is it, like a six or seven part?
Oh! That’s a great miniseries!
That is really—it’s very inspiring!
So we start out with the Federalists—with John Adams.
And then, in 1800, I think this is one of the most important political dates in the United States. March 3rd, I think that's the right day.
Do you know what happened on that day?
Nothing!
Nothing happened on that day?
No! Nothing happened!
Because there was a peaceful transfer of power from one political power—from one political party to another.
And that is basically unheard of!
Can you imagine voluntarily giving up power in this sort of monarch world? As recent nation-building experiments have shown, that doesn’t happen peacefully normally!
So the Anti-Federalists are pretty much more or less in power up until slavery debate kind of becomes even bigger.
And then the Federalists kind of die off because they were against the War of 1812.
Nobody likes a hater, so the Whig Party kind of takes over.
What are the Whigs?
I was weird! What do they represent?
The Whigs—Abraham Lincoln was a Whig! Before he became a Republican, and the Whigs were pretty much for—they were for development! They were pro-railroad, pro-canal.
And who are the Whigs going against?
They’re going against the Democrats, who are kind of the heirs to the Anti-Federalists.
So, you know, just as Jefferson had only imagined democracy for wealthy, white landowners, then Jackson said there should be universal white male suffrage!
His version of this sort of anti-centralized...
So this, like, if I was a business owner at this period, I’d probably be a Whig.
You’d probably be a Whig! If you were a small farmer around the West, you’d probably be a Democrat.
And in terms of the slavery issue, the Whigs were a little bit generally anti-slavery. They were often sort of northeasterners; they were generally very religious.
And then Jacksonian Democrats were generally pro-slavery.
So when do we get into kind of our modern period of parties?
Well, I would say this Democratic Party is still the Democratic Party that we have today.
And, you know, as we’ve gone through the years and we’ve changed different issues, you know, what they stand for changed.
And then in the late 1850s, the Republican Party was born!
And the Republican Party was an anti-slavery party!
The Whigs kind of fell apart in the late 1840s, I think is correct, and were replaced by the Republicans, who had many of the same values but were specifically anti-slavery!
Yeah! This was more like, these were sympathetic to the anti-slavery movement!
And Lincoln gets elected as the first Republican president!
As the first Republican president! And so that was the spark, as we’ve done in several videos where we talk about it together!
And so the Republicans pretty much stay in power up until World War I. That’s when Wilson gets elected. He’s the first Democrat to serve, I believe, in between the Civil War and World War I. So that’s a long period!
And this, you know, this is the business interest party, which is going to do very well in this time of industrialization.
So you have rep—yeah, this is the era of industrialization—that’s the Gilded Age.
That’s when you know, you have the Carnegies and the...
So okay! And so that period, and you see the swing back and forth in American history!
Exactly! Between the, you know, kind of the everyman, very populist, and it’s...
It’s ten minutes!
Oh, ten minutes left!
Ten minutes! We could go a little over! This is fun!
We’re trying to go fast!
This is fun!
We’re trying to go fast. You have these swings, and you have these swings between, you know, kind of the ever—the common man and more populist movements, and maybe more of business interest or economic growth.
Yeah! Sometimes they’ll say, you know, the system isn’t democratic enough, and then they’ll say, "Oh, maybe the system’s a little too democratic."
So the Republicans, except for this moment with Wilson, are in power until the stock market crash.
Right! This is a big hit for business!
Yeah! And then you have FDR coming in, who maybe defines the modern Democratic Party!
Yeah, exactly! You know, this is a new deal—this period of increased government work towards social welfare. And the Democrats who, you know, want to spend money on social problems, on social movements in general—they pretty much stay in power until Nixon.
So there’s a 30-year period where the Democrats are really defining U.S. politics.
It seems like something to the air right now, but it’s fun to connect it.
I mean, you see, like, you have what parties stand for transitioning a little bit right now!
Yeah! And I mean, after that, we generally think of the modern era as being more conservative than this era that came before it, right?
This is the time when labor unions are really strong, and, you know, the government is spending a lot of money on social programs.
Starting in the 1980s, there’s been a little bit of a walk away from...
And you have a little bit of a flip between the parties, where you have the Republicans are a little bit more sympathetic to—or the Civil Rights Movement gets a little bit more sympathy from, you know, the Johnsons of the world, from the Democrats.
Yeah, this is a little bit confusing because there is a sort of a flip-flop of the parties, especially the Democratic Party.
Business interest—the business of economic growth—that’s kind of consistent with the founding of the Republican Party, right? But the Democrats really used to be the party of slavery and later the party of Jim Crow.
But with the Great Depression, and then later the Civil Rights Movement, the Democrats said, "You know, if we want to get the economy back on track, we're really going to need to use this federal money."
And later, said, "You know, we should continue..." it gave a lot of power to the federal government.
I mean, just going back to that whole states' rights, I mean with FDR expansion of the federal government too!
Yeah! Which was so fascinating!
And we could have many videos on this!
So I mean, we could do a couple of things—we could do more of these themes or we could tackle a couple of questions!
Do you want to do that?
Oh, what do you want to do?
I think so, so there have been a couple of interesting questions that have come up!
Okay, first is a couple of students are nervous about the long essay!
Oh! Okay, all right! So repeat the question!
Sure! The question is how do we approach the long essay and just synthesis as a general skill.
Uh, and we have a sample long essay question if you want us to work on through that!
Lots of thumbs up!
All right! We’re not going to write it!
We will speak to what could be written!
All right! This one right here?
Yeah!
All right! Let’s tape this one up! You’re going to have to use your own council on migration and culture and society!
Yes!
Well, we’re going to make this available so people can—and I suggest everyone to take a look at these!
I mean, Kim's done an incredible job here because this really talks about all of the major themes that—and these actually would be really good points to even bring up in the essay portion!
So really encourage you to take a good look at this!
And I’m around, you know—I answer questions on Khan Academy; I answer questions on YouTube and Facebook! So, yeah, if you have any other questions for us, just let me know!
Awesome! So let’s read this: "Some historians have argued that the American Revolution was not revolutionary in nature. Support, modify, or refute this interpretation, providing specific evidence to justify your answer."
So what would you do, Kim, when you see that you have this block to fill up?
So I think all of the essay questions are going to be kind of like this! You know do you support, modify, or refute this interpretation?
So we have three ways we could go with this, right? We can say support it—the American Revolution was not revolutionary. We could say refute it!
I want to refute it!
Yeah, the American Revolution was super revolutionary! Or refute would be like, "Or modify!"
Yeah! This is a terrible question! Here’s the right question!
That's a little harder to do! I don't know! I can’t think of something off the top of my head that would do that!
Yeah, so support, it was like, "No! It wasn’t revolutionary!" Modify was like, "It was revolutionary in some respects but maybe not in other respects!" For few, would be like, "No, it was actually quite revolutionary!"
Exactly! Yeah!
Does anyone even have a pen or like a marker or sharpie?
Yeah, I think so!
But just high-level thinking! So where do you personally fit on this spectrum?
I’m... personally, my gut when I even read, like, "No, it is revolutionary," I would totally go the other way!
Maybe I'm a negative Nancy!
And either one would be okay as long as we back up our points!
Well, so yeah! I would say—so the question that they’re asking here for us is: "Is society before 1776 very different than society after 1776, or after 1783?"
Right, so there are various things that we could think about here! We could think about politics, right?
We just have been going through these themes. Like, is the political system different?
We could think about society, you know. Are social roles different?
Economics?
Yeah! We could think about economics, geopolitics, or military or, yeah!
So do all the same things of those!
So about geopolitics, or culture would be another?
I don't know how you can think it wasn't revolutionary!
I mean, let’s—let's lay it out! Politics!
Politics! Yeah! I mean, England at the time had some—had a parliament and stuff, but it was still— you know, they had a king on their money!
And they... but now you had, you know, you had Thomas Paine and the rights of man!
And you have this little, you know, this colony taking on the most powerful military or navy for sure, probably military in the world, and they're able to win!
And they—and it’s all about rule by the individual!
And these ideas that they resurfaced and, in a lot of ways, perfected from the Greeks and the Romans come back, but thousands of years, what is it, roughly 1,500, 2,000 years later!
This is great because, okay, so now you’re doing, like, the pro-revolutionary side, and I'm going to do the anti-revolutionary side.
I’m just devil's advocate!
Yes, all right!
So you’re now saying, "Okay, how different was American society after 1776 than it was before?"
Well, not right after!
Okay, not right after! But once again, if the revolution didn’t happen, then once again, you wouldn’t have had all of these—not only do you have a democracy, but this even goes to economics!
If the revolution didn't happen, you would have had the big power—England—have all of this extra industrial might and all of this extra agricultural land!
But now you had an economic power that was growing in the next hundred years that was also a democracy!
And so that combination—and so the, you know, when you have a superpower here that’s, you know, it's imperfect! There’s, you know, there are some parts that look a little bit hypocritical, but for the most part, it was true to the tenants, and it became more and more true over time!
And it’s continuing to!
All right, so you’re saying in the long term, these social values came to pass.
I’m going to say in the short term—I mean, how can you have a revolution that says all men are created equal and still have slavery, right?
Yes! It wasn’t—it was definitely not—I mean, revolutions are never— by definition! I mean, can you point to a revolution that’s, like, clean?
That, like, you know, people storm... whatever and then, you know, they put the king out of rule, and then the next day, everything's hunky-dory!
Revolutions are all—yeah, I don't know! Maybe you know more history than I do!
But from what I know, they’re always messy!
And there's always a period where people are fighting!
And a lot of the people who had power before still have power!
But they start an interesting conversation!
Yeah! But does that last for like 87 years?
Four score and seven years of slavery after the revolution?
I guess! Yes!
I mean... all right! How about economics?
Economics!
Economic revolution? That I would not say so much!
That’s not... No!
That’s not...
And for example, if you were to compare—and that could be like a modify—and that’s maybe a point to bring up, is the 1800s economically—the U.S. and England were similar!
You know, they developed—they were part of the Industrial Revolution!
They were...
So if they were the same country—not unclear if they were—that fundamentally different!
All right! Well, I’m going to take the international view now and say, in terms of revolutions, if you compare the American Revolution and the French Revolution—economically, I mean, the French Revolution was a revolution of the people against the monarchy, right?
Against the wealthiest people!
While the United States doesn’t change anybody’s real...
No, you’re right! I agree with you there!
This was not an economic revolution!
The... I mean, there were pocketbook issues of taxation and representation!
But it was much more philosophic!
It was economic for everyone! It wasn't one class versus another class.
While the French Revolution was like textbook, the class is fighting it out!
Well, I think I'm winning right now!
So you're going to need to provide...
I don't think I really—I think you're very biased in this!
So let’s see! Geographically!
Yeah, it’s unclear!
I think—by becoming a nation, the ideas of Manifest Destiny became... You know, if you're part of the British Empire, you would have, you know, the "Sun never sets on the British Empire."
They were already in India; they were already in Africa, they were—you know, or starting to become in Africa, especially in the 1800s.
And so, you know, there could have been an argument that like, "Oh, it was just an extension of this already vast empire," while here it’s like this notion of Manifest Destiny!
It’s much more of a nationalistic thing, right?
So it causes Manifest Destiny to be this big transformation of the American body politic!
Yeah, and I might make the opposite argument that the American Revolution was terrible for Native Americans!
Right! I mean, the British were the major power that were defending the rights of Native Americans.
That’s why in the War of 1812, Native Americans are going to ally with the British!
So, but wouldn’t you argue, I mean, for better or for worse—that would be an argument that that was a change!
Yeah!
So put it on that!
So you could see it could go either way!
I mean... and actually in a certain way, slavery probably would have ended sooner if we stayed a British colony!
I would say so! Because slavery was outlawed in England before it was outlawed here!
Where we’re structuring—you know, there are multiple ways to structure it!
How would have the world been different if the revolution happened?
Which is actually a fun thing! I mean, now that we’re doing it, we’ll continue—it's a super fun thing!
And I mean just to, you know, obviously, if we were taking the test, we wouldn’t write it this way!
Right! You write it out a little bit!
But these are how does it get you—you’ve graded these things!
How does this get graded?
Well, I would say that what you want to do here is use each of these big themes as your topic sentences!
So maybe, you know, if I were doing something like this, I might just write down some possible things I could talk about!
Right?
How does the economy change? How does the politics change? And then make notes and decide which side you fall on, and then use that as your thesis statement, right?
To say that, "Oh, the American Revolution was super revolutionary because none of these major social changes could have happened down the line without it."
Or the American Revolution wasn’t revolutionary at all because it changed nothing for actual people who lived there!
See? I’m still arguing for myself!
And I mean, this is why this framework is really valid because it’s right!
When I first saw it, I was like, "Man, maybe I could write like a sentence on this!"
But then when you start to say, "Okay, we could talk about national identity, which is kind of culture, and we could talk about politics and power, we could talk about work technology and exchange and economics, we could talk about culture of society, migration and settlement."
So when you have this framework in... you know, if you just know, “Okay, these are the dimensions I can talk about on pretty much any essay statement,” then all of a sudden, you have a lot to write!
Yeah! Consider these themes whenever you're thinking about writing an essay because they’ll kind of illuminate things for you about where things are changing and where things are staying the same!
And the graders, unlike you, are fairly impartial, and they’re not good!
Right! Because as long as you are making a strong argument and you're providing evidence, then they know that you're, you know, think of them like a jury—that you’re trying to convince if you’re a lawyer! Right?
You are making an argument and saying, "Here’s why I’m right!"
And so what they’re interested in is: Are you convincing them? Not, are you saying what I want you to say?
And how much do things like grammar and...
You know, you have to be understandable!
Yeah! Other than that, like spelling and grammar, you don't ding!
I mean, be understandable! But as main as your ideas, and I think, you know, when I took this exam more years ago than I care to, I took it even more years ago!
You know, I had this idea that the graders were like, "Oh, I’m looking for all the things that they did wrong so I can mark them down." But having graded it myself, what I noticed was that we were looking for opportunities to give people points!
Like, the people who have graded this exam—they are AP U.S. History teachers; they are college teachers, and they want you to succeed!
So they're actually on your side!
So as much as time allows, keep writing!
Yeah! And make sure you give context!
Right? Like, make sure you say who’s doing something, when, and why! Because for example, if you say, "What’s one thing that Europeans changed about Native American culture?" and you respond, "Disease!"
Right there, there’s not enough there for you to say, "All right, well, where’s the disease happen?"
And I actually don't know the answer to this; when I took it I wrote it out, but can you make a table, write points on either side, and then refer to...
I mean, is that recommended?
Oh yeah! That’s totally recommended!
You get 35 minutes to do this question, and I would say absolutely use the first five to ten minutes just to make some notes and an outline for yourself!
Even the table itself could be part of your answer—maybe not.
I mean, I think they're looking for the thesis stat; they're looking for the thesis statement and the topic sentences!
But definitely use something like this just to structure it!
Just, yeah, get your thoughts in order!
All right, we have a couple more; we’re probably close to out of time!
Let’s do one!
Oh, are we over?
Over!
We’re over time!
You want to do one multiple choice?
Just for kicks, if you want to!
Let's do one multiple choice!
We're sticking around!
We're sticking around! This is history for you!
I'm still a little worked up about how you can think that that was not a revolution!
I'm just devil’s advocate!
Yes! All right!
You want to do this side, C?
[Laughter]
Okay, so this is a typical multiple choice question for the AP exam, and all of these questions, they have either a set of quotes or a graph or a political cartoon.
So they’re never in the void; they’re always asking you to refer to something, refer to some information. So then there’ll be like two to four questions that are actually related to it!
Okay, so let’s just try to do this!
Okay, so first, let’s actually look at our graph!
Yeah, okay! You look at the graph first; I’ll read the question first!
Okay, I will—I will look at this graph while you’re reading this question!
The pattern depicted on the graph from 1450 to 1800—all right, that's the years here—best serves as evidence of which of the following?
Now I’m going to look at the graph before I look at the choices!
So let’s see!
Number of Africans transported to the New World between 1450 and 1900!
Right! So those are our bounds!
And that we see very few were transported prior to 1600, which is consistent to what you were saying!
It wasn't being settled; it was kind of exploration and trying to get riches and stuff!
Then you have more in 1600 to 1700—you start having permanent settlements!
Referencing—I’m just thinking of what I just learned from you, yeah!
Using the logic of the context!
Yeah!
And then 1700s to 1800s, you have a—that's the peak of influx!
And this is the peak of kind of, I’m guessing?
Yeah!
The settlement—the creation of plantations and especially in the South!
And then it dies off here, especially because, I mean, actually before the Civil War, the importation started to slow down!
Yeah!
And then, after the Civil War, it was abolished!
So that’s why you have this!
Okay, so now I have—I think you’ve got the context!
Yeah!
So the pattern depicted on the graph from 1450 to 1800 best serves as evidence of which of the following?
The replacement of indigenous labor and indentured servitude by enslaved Africans in New World colonies!
No! That just doesn’t feel right because indigenous labor—we didn’t even talk about indigenous labor as being a major—
Oh yeah!
Let’s see!
One thing I want to point out: "IND"—oh, but indentured servitude!
Yeah, that’s interesting!
One thing I want to point out here is that it says 1450 to 1800, and that is not including this.
So let me get this wrong!
Let me get this wrong!
Yeah! Don’t help me too much!
The development of various systems of racial categorization in the...
Now this doesn’t do that at all!
That’s definitely—I can rule that—I definitely can rule that out!
The effectiveness of the abolitionist movement in Europe and the Americas?
So that could speak to this! But they’re saying between 1450 and 1800!
So we are not even looking at...
We’re not even looking at this!
So if you just look at that part, you just see this upward trend!
So that doesn’t imply any effectiveness!
Yes! So let’s cross that one out!
The susceptibility of enslaved populations in the New World to diseases?
No! This doesn’t say whether people survive or not!
It’s just saying who’s coming!
So that’s definitely not!
And so the thing that I was about to rule out because I was like, "Indigenous labor?"
And I—I’m thinking Native American labor, which I'm not aware of being a major source of labor in, like Mexico! The Spanish used a lot of indigenous labor!
But I’m... But oh, you’re right!
And this is to the New World—kind of a U.S.-centered!
But you’re right! I mean, we do read about indentured servitude!
You get your trip to the New World, but you have to work for seven years, etc., etc.
And, but this is a good example because this is one where "A" didn’t jump out at me!
In fact, when I first read "A", I’m like, "Yeah! I don’t know, indigenous labor!"
But then these other three were way more wrong!
Yes!
So this is evidence that I'm doing this the first time!
Yes!
Okay, now I’m going to do that!
I’m in the AP American history, which of the following contributed most directly to the change in the number of Africans transported to the New World after 1800?
So now we're talking about what contributed to the change.
Which you see this down delta—the emergence of a more industrial economy in Great Britain and the United States!
So well, I mean, they’re talking about Great Britain!
We’re talking about transportation to the New World! So in Great Britain, industrialization, I guess you’re less...
These large agricultural plantations—okay, I’ll think about it!
The outlawing of the international slave trade by Great Britain and the United States, that seems interesting!
I’ll kind of—you know, I’ll star that one!
The increased resistance to slavery within African nations!
Uh…I didn’t talk a lot about that, and I don’t remember so I don’t—yeah!
This one doesn’t seem too right!
The influence of major slave rebellions in Haiti and elsewhere?
Um, no! There were rebellions, but that shouldn’t impact the overall...
So, and just having a more industrial economy—you still had large—I mean, it was still a very agricultural country at the time in the early 1800s!
So, you know, that might have been more in the North, and that's why frankly they were more on the abolitionist side!
So yeah, the outlawing of international slave trade, which makes sense!
Yeah, you're right!
I'm right! Thank you!
All right! Well, we’re all done! Hopefully, everyone enjoyed this!
Any parting thoughts for the test takers?
Don’t stress! Right? The test is not designed for you to know every little fact!
What it’s designed to do is to test your historical reasoning!
Right? Do you have this general overview sense of what's going on?
And using that knowledge, can you make a good guess?
Uh, I didn’t guess! I deduced!
Yes, I deduced!
Put on your—it was not a guess; this was a deduction!
Can you deduce the correct answer?
So, you know, think about the large themes, and don’t sweat the details!
Thank you!
Thanks a lot! Good luck!