From: The Measurement That Built America

How did the new federal government intend to raise money to pay off the debt in had incurred from the War for Independence?

a) tax the citizenry

b) tax foreigners

c) sell political offices

d) sell land

A township is

a) a piece of land, 6 miles square.

b) a piece of land 36 square miles

c) a piece of land 360 square miles

d) a piece of land 3,600 square miles

The Northwest Ordinance was passed in order to

a) remove Native-Americans from western lands.

b) transform the wilderness into private property.

c) serve as a bulwark against French and Spanish aggressions.

d) put the federal government into the real estate business.

The land survey helped

a) pioneer/settlers

b) real estate speculators

c) the federal government

d) all of these

Subsequent to the Northwest Ordinance, the Homestead Act was passed by Congress in 1862, dispensing with _________ acres of land to private ownership.

a) 100,000

b) 1,000,000

c) 1,000,000,000

d) 1,000,000,000,000

With regards to the frontier, Frederick Jackson Turner wrote that

a) the frontier formed the individualistic character of the American people.

b) the frontier was actually a myth, promoted by land swindlers.

c) pioneers belonged in the government, not the politicians.

d) the frontier belonged to native tribes and the animals, not Americans.

Frances Trollope, a Brit, wrote that easy acquisition of land in America

a) lowered the bar for civilized behavior, for it dissuaded the commoner from respecting his superior.

b) raised the bar for civilized behavior, for it brought everyman into the greater commerce of land and the procurement of wealth.

c) had no effect upon civilized behavior in the colonies, such customs having been lost forever at Yorktown.

d) never once looked at a map of the former colonies, lamenting to her dying day the march of American democracy.

Because of the easy availability of land on this continent, for the first time in history

a) an entire society was being created around a horizontal model of land distribution.

b) an entire society was being created around a vertical model of land distribution.

c) landed elites from Europe were prevented from owning large tracts of land in America.

d) landed elites from America (eg. Railroads) were prevented from owning large tracts of land.

How was the southern system of land dispersion unique?

a) most lands were owned by the foreign plantation owners.

b) Southern lands were worked by slaves, reducing the worth of land.

c) Sharecropping and the crop lien system discounted land values in the South.

d) Nobody trusted the corrupt, bribe-ridden land distribution system.

The biggest losers in the uniquely American system of land distribution were

a) the black slaves.

b) poor immigrants, especially the Irish and the Mexicans.

c) the American Indians.

d) British loyalists like Ms. Trollop, who lost their holdings after the Revolution.