Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States 1492 ...



Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States 1492 – present

As you read the chapters (10 pages at a time!) answer the following questions. I might suggest you highlight all answers in the text (if you print them online), then after reading each chapter write the answers out. I know this is a very difficult, sometimes tedious read, but it will help a great deal to be successful on the AP test. Please remember that there are different schools of historical interpretation of American History. This may be the quintessential New Left historical tone.

Chapter 1 : Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress

1. What frenzy marked the first messengers to America?

2. What was Columbus looking for, why?

3. Why was gold so important I Europe?

4. What was the aim of Columbus’ second voyage?

5. How were the Arawaks treated by Columbus and the Europeans?

6. According to Las Casa what three results occurred when European / Indians met?

7. Zinn says historians inevitable must do what three things?

8. Zinn wants to tell history not by way of the conquerors but by way of the conquered. Explain and cite examples?

9. What did Cortes, Pizarro, and Grenville do to the Natives they came in contact with?

10. What three lessons did Indians learn from the Pequot War?

11. How was Iroquois society so different from European society?

12. Zinn ends chapter one with the quote “Even allowing for the imperfection of myths, it is enough to make us question, for that time and ours, the excuse of progress in the annihilation of races, and telling of history from the standpoint of the conquerors and leaders of Western civilization” Can you explain this quote by citing five examples from chapter 1.

Chapter 2 : Drawing the Color Line

13. Who coined the phrase “the color line”?

14. How was African slavery different from plantation or mining slavery in America?

15. By 1800 how many Africans were lost to deaths result from slavery / slave trade?

16. For what reasons did blacks become slaves?

17. Slavery grew as what grew?

18. How did slaves show rebelliousness?

19. How were slaves punished?

20. Describe three famous slave revolts.

21. What six historical threads allowed for blacks to be enslaved in America?

Chapter 3 : Persons of Mean and Vile Conditions

22. What two things characterized Bacon’s Rebellion?

23. Explain Zinn’s “complex chain of oppression” in Virginia

24. Explain Zinn’s “leveling” theory.

25. How were indentured servants treated? Cite examples

26. What does Zinn’s statement that the colonies were “societies of contending classes” mean?

Cite examples in your answer

27. What groups did the colonial elite fear would join together? Why?

28. What caused most fear among wealthy white planters?

29. What would be the buffer against black slaves, frontier Indians, and very poor whites?

30. What device united whites to fight a war against England without ending slavery or inequality?

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