Unit 2
Nationhood to Reconstruction
Behavioral Items (Test Items)
Here are the specific tasks you
will be called upon to perform successfully on the Unit 2 Exam. The information
required for mastery of the reading objectives is contained in Chapters
4-6 of The History of Texas . The information required for mastery
of the lecture objectives is contained in the lectures for this unit -
"Life on the Precipice: The Republic of Texas", "Fighting on the Fringe: The Civil War in Texas",
and "The World Turned Upside Down: Reconstruction in Texas".
Launching A Nation, 1836-1848
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Identify the problems facing Texas
immediately following San Jacinto.
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Identify the outcomes of the September,
1836 elections in the new republic and the type of governmental system
implemented.
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Describe and evaluate the effectiveness
of President Sam Houston's efforts during his first term of office in the
following areas: (a.) securing diplomatic recognition of the Republic of
Texas, (b.) finances, (c.) land policy, (d.) Indian affairs.
-
Contrast Mirabeau B. Lamar's presidency
with that of Houston paying particular attention to spending and the deteriorating
financial picture and its causes.
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Be familiar with demographic trends
during the years of the republic such as population and the rising number
of towns and cities.
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Describe the growing institution of
black slavery being sure to cover governmental guarantees which helped
the labor system thrive.
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Contrast the Republic's Indian policies
as carried out by Houston and Lamar being sure to show how these policies
impacted the Cherokees of East Texas and the Comanches further west.
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Describe the situation of the Tejano
community during the years of the Republic being familiar with racial prejudice
and cultural acclimation.
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Explain how frontier conditions impacted
education and transportation.
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Be familiar with President Lamar's
ill-advised Santa Fe Expedition, the Mexican government's response, as
well as the failed Mier Expedition. Further, explain how these events convinced
Texans to more vigorously pursue annexation by the United States.
-
Describe the battle in the United States
over Texas annexation, the outcome and aftermaths of the annexation debate,
and the particular terms of Texas' admittance to the Union.
-
Identify the various historical interpretations
put forward as explanations for the Mexican War.
-
Describe the role of Texas Ranger companies
in the war with Mexico, how their actions were perceived by Mexicans, and
the impact this had on future relations.
-
Be familiar with the terms of the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Union and Disintegration
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Describe the numerical dominance of
Anglo-Americans in 1850s Texas being sure to differentiate between those
of the Border South and those from the Deep South.
-
Be familiar with each of the following
aspects of the Texas economy in the 1850s: (a.) cash crop vs. subsistence
agriculture, (b.) the spread of cattle ranching, (c.) industrialization,
(d.) inadequate transportation.
-
Characterize Texas society at mid-century
being sure to describe the stratification as well as the situation of Black
Texans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and Women. To what degree
did these groups share the state's opportunities?
-
Identify the provisions of the Compromise
of 1850.
-
Discuss the changing political party
scene in the 1850s being sure to include: (a.) the emergence of the Whig
party, (b.) the brief existence of the Know-Nothings, (c.) the increasing
militancy of Deep South Democrats (as distinguished from Unionist Democrats),
(d.) the reaction to the emergence of the new Republican party in the states
of the North.
-
Explain why the majority of Texans
and other southerners refused to accept the election of Republican presidential
candidate, Abraham Lincoln.
-
Identify those groups who supported
and those who opposed secession as well as the outcome of the election
of February, 1861.
Republicanism and Reunion
-
Identify the attitudes and foremost
goals of "radical" and "conservative" Republicans as well as southern Democrats
at the beginning of Reconstruction.
-
Characterize the situation in Texas
in each of the following areas as the Civil War ended and Reconstruction
began: (a.) the stability of government, (b.) economics, (c.) attitudes
of Unionists and northern sympathizers as opposed to ex-Confederates.
-
Enumerate the requirements of Presidential
Reconstruction as laid down by Andrew Johnson.
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Be familiar with each of the following
battles of Presidential Reconstruction and how they reflected an unrepentant
attitude by Texans toward Johnson's rather lenient plan: (a.) the constitutional
convention of 1866, (b.) statewide elections and the constitutional referendum
of 1866, (c.) the actions of the Eleventh Legislature (which convened in
August, 1866), (d.) reaction to the presence and operations of the Freedmen's
Bureau and military occupation forces.
-
Describe the different Republican attitudes
in Congress toward Johnsonian Reconstruction and explain how southerners'
actions helped produce a far more sweeping set of requirements to gain
readmission.
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Identify the new requirements of Congressional
Reconstruction.
-
Describe the constitutional convention
of 1868-69 as well as the document produced.
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Be familiar with the election of Governor
E. J. Davis, the nature and actions of the Twelfth Legislature, and the
performance of the Davis administration following Texas' readmission to
the Union.
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Characterize the situation/status of
freedmen in Texas during the Reconstruction experience.
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Be familiar with the undoing of Reconstruction
as expressed in each of the following: (a.) the special congressional election
of October, 1871, (b.) the general legislative election of November, 1872,
(c.) the actions of the Thirteenth Legislature, (d.) the gubernatorial
election of December, 1873.
-
Characterize Richard Coke and his supporters
as "Redeemers". What were their attitudes toward race relations, white
supremacy, and the "New South"?
-
Describe in detail the government
established by the Constitution of 1876 being sure to demonstrate how it
was a reaction against the perceived excesses of the Reconstruction experience.
LECTURE OBJECTIVES
"Life on
the Precipice: The Republic of Texas" (HIS1693.HUP.22539x)
-
Identify the particulars of the Treaty
of Velasco signed by Santa Anna following the Battle of San Jacinto and
Mexico's compliance with the treaty.
-
Describe in detail the precariousness
of Texas independence and its vulnerability vis-à-vis the Republic
of Mexico.
-
Describe in detail the Santa Fe expedition
authorized by President Lamar being sure to cover each of the following:
(a.) reasons for the expedition and its goal, (b.) the attitudes of the
residents of Santa Fe and the Republic of Texas, (c.) the outcome of the
expedition, (d.) Mexico's response to the Santa Fe expedition.
-
Be familiar with the two Mexican invasions
of the Republic of Texas in 1842.
-
Be familiar with each of the following
events: (a.) the Dawson "Massacre", (b.) the Somervell Expedition, (c.)
the Mier Expedition (under W. S. Fisher's command), (d.) the attempted
escape of the Mier prisoners.
-
Evaluate why Texans were eager for
annexation by the United States in light of the events covered in this
lecture.
"Fighting on the Fringe: The Civil War in Texas" (HIS1693.HUP.22540x)
-
Describe and be familiar with the military
and economic significance of each of the following Civil War engagements:
(a.) the evacuation and seizure of U. S. military installations in Texas,
(b.) the New Mexican campaign of John R. Baylor and G. H. Sibley and the
Battle of Glorietta Pass, (c.) the Battle of Galveston, (d.) the Battle
of Sabine Pass, (e.) the Red River campaign and Battle of Pleasant Hill,
(f.) the Battle of Brownsville.
-
Explain why Texas witnessed so little
significant military action during the Civil War.
"The World Turned Upside Down: Reconstruction in Texas" (HIS1693.HUP.22541x)
-
Contrast the popular myth of Reconstruction
perpetuated by Texans for nearly a century with the overall view of Reconstruction
now held by historians.
-
Contrast the wartime Reconstruction
views and programs of President Abraham Lincoln and Congress: (a.) Lincoln's
10% Plan, (b.) Congress' Wade-Davis Bill.
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Identify the particulars of President
Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction program.
-
Describe in detail how Texans responded
to the requirements of Presidential Reconstruction.
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Explain why Texas was not readmitted
to the Union under Johnsonian requirements even though President Johnson
had declared Texas "reconstructed".
-
Identify and describe in detail the
new requirements set by Congress for readmission to the Union in 1867.
-
Describe in detail how Texans responded
to the requirements of Congressional Reconstruction: (a.) the constitution
of 1869, (b.) the composition and actions of the Twelfth Legislature, (c.)
the actions of Governor E. J. Davis.
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Explain in detail how Texans, once
readmitted to the Union, undid the products of congressional Reconstruction
between 1871 and 1876.
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Identify the various enduring impacts
of Reconstruction in Texas.