The 1800s

In 1803 the United States paid France about 15 million dollars for the Louisiana Territory and roughly doubled in size.

The 1800s section has ten questions on the 2025 list, numbers 90 to 99. They follow one story: the country grew west, fought several wars, split over slavery in the Civil War, and then rebuilt itself with three new amendments to the Constitution.

Growth and wars

In 1803 the United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France (question 90), land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. President Jefferson made the purchase, which is why doubling the size of the country is one of his answers in the previous unit. Question 91 asks for a war fought by the United States in the 1800s: the War of 1812 against Britain, the Mexican-American War (1846 to 1848), the Civil War, or the Spanish-American War of 1898.

The Civil War

The war between the North and the South is the Civil War (question 92), fought from 1861 to 1865. The 2008 test asks for a problem that led to it: slavery, economic reasons or states’ rights. It began when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861. The list of important events (question 93) also includes the Battle of Antietam in 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863, Sherman’s March in 1864, the surrender at Appomattox in April 1865 and the assassination of Lincoln a few days later.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, is the subject of a starred question (question 94). He freed the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation, saved or preserved the Union, led the United States during the Civil War and delivered the Gettysburg Address. The Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, freed slaves in the Confederate states (question 95). The Civil War ended slavery (question 96), and the 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished it in law.

Reconstruction amendments

Two more amendments followed. The 14th Amendment (1868) says all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, are citizens (question 97). The 15th Amendment (1870) said the right to vote could not be denied because of race, which is why the list gives after the Civil War, during Reconstruction, the 15th Amendment or 1870 for when all men got the right to vote (question 98). In practice many Black citizens were kept from voting for decades afterward, which is part of the story of the civil rights movement in the next unit.

Women’s rights

Question 99 asks for a leader of the women’s rights movement in the 1800s: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Lucretia Mott or Lucy Stone. Stanton and Mott organized the Seneca Falls Convention in New York in 1848, the first women’s rights convention in the country. The 2008 test asks the same idea as What did Susan B. Anthony do? (fought for women’s rights, fought for civil rights). Women won the national vote only in 1920, which belongs to the next unit.

2008 version: 1800s, questions 71 to 77