Undergraduate Program, Department of History at the University of Georgia

The University of Georgia, Department of History

The University of Georgia United States and Georgia History Exam

This test is now administered by University Testing Services at Clark Howell Hall. Please contact University Testing Services to register for the test.

A passing score on the United States and Georgia history examination is required of all persons receiving a baccalaureate degree from the University of Georgia, unless exempted by one of the following courses: HIST 2111 (U.S. survey to 1865), HIST 2112 (U.S. survey since 1865), HIST 2111H and HIST 2112H (honors versions of the U.S. surveys), HIST 3080H (America and the World—honors), or HIST 4100 (the history of Georgia).

The exam consists of 100 multiple-choice questions. The minimum passing score for the exam is 60% or more correct answers in each section of the exam. The sections and minimum passing scores break down as follows:

Georgia History: 20 questions	Minimum Passing Score: 12
U.S. History to 1877: 40 questions	Minimum Passing Score: 24
U.S. History since 1877: 40 questions	Minimum Passing Score: 24
Total: 100 questions	Total: 60

Students may NOT receive course credit for this exam. There are multiple versions of the exam.

How to Prepare for the Exam

The United States and Georgia History Exam tests historical literacy, that is, an awareness and knowledge of the basic facts of American and Georgia history. All of the examination questions are factual and deal with the people, events, movements, relationships, and trends that have shaped the state and the nation.

A reading of any one- or two-volume U.S. history text or synopsis will provide the basic information you need for the U.S. portion of the exam. See the bibliography at the end of this guide for a list of such texts. For the Georgia portion, students should read James C. Cobb’s Georgia Odyssey, which is available for purchase at the Tate Center Bookstore and for checkout at the Main Library.

This Study Guide for the United States and Georgia History Exam is not a substitute for reviewing a textbook or Georgia Odyssey. The Guide will assist you as you read to identify the more important people, events, and episodes in U.S. and Georgia history. The Guide alone will NOT provide the information you need to pass the exam. You may pick up the Guide at University Testing Services, Clark Howell Hall or read it below.

When and Where to Take the Exam

Examinations will be given to freshmen during orientation.

Examinations will be given once each semester. You must register to take the exam. Specific information about the times and locations for the exam can be found on the exam sign-up sheets in the lobby at Clark Howell Hall and is available on the first day of classes each semester. You will be required to bring the ticket portion of the sign-up form and a picture identification to the exam.

Students may take the exam on an individual basis at University Testing Services in Clark Howell Hall. The cost is $15 for scheduled appointments. Same day appointments/walk-ins are $20. The testing center is open M-F 8:30-5pm. For questions about individual testing, call 542-TEST.

Reexamination is permitted.

History Study Guide

The Georgia history section of the study guide includes brief commentaries and lists of important people, places, events, and concepts. These lists are not inclusive. They are intended to give students an idea of what they should know and understand after reading James C. Cobb’s Georgia Odyssey.

Colonial Georgia

Under the Trustees who oversaw Georgia’s settlement and early growth, colonial Georgia was initially a land of high expectations and strict rules. Colonial leaders envisioned an idyllic New World colony free of slaves and capable of producing luxury items. Georgia’s early image and character changed as the colonial period continued. Royal governors replaced the Trustees, and white Georgians disregarded the advice of the early leaders. Georgians adopted slavery and single-crop plantations like their Carolinian neighbors. By the eve of the Revolutionary War, Georgia was quite different from what its founder, James Edward Oglethorpe, had foreseen.

To answer questions about Colonial Georgia, students should be familiar with Georgia’s origins and the motivations behind Georgia’s settlement; the details of Georgia’s colonial economy; the economic and agricultural problems that plagued colonial Georgia; the origins of slavery in Georgia; changes in Georgia’s colonial government; the social tensions that divided Georgia residents; and Georgia’s limited role in the War of Independence.

Important names include:

James Edward Oglethorpe
James Wright
Nancy Morgan Hart

Georgia from 1783 to 1865

In the period between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, slavery increased dramatically in Georgia and affected every facet of life. Georgia’s land area also grew for several reasons. Students should be familiar with the reasons and events behind this growth and how slavery shaped Georgia and its people.

Important names and events include:

Yazoo Land Fraud
Governor James Jackson
Trail of Tears

Georgia played an essential role in the Civil War. As the most populous southern state and as the state with the most slaves, Georgia’s decision to secede was crucial to the secessionist movement. To answer questions about Georgia and the Civil War, students should know the details behind Georgia’s secession; the effect of the Northern invasion; the different perspectives black and white Georgians had on the war’s outcome; and how this outcome affected both groups.

Important names and places include:

Joseph Brown
Milledgeville
Henry L. Benning
Robert Toombs
William T. Sherman

Georgia from 1865 to 1890

After the fall the Confederacy, white Georgians were eager to regain many aspects of the world they had known before 1860. Despite different phases of Reconstruction, by 1871, Democrats again controlled the state government and, using a combination of violence, intimidation, and legislation, effectively controlled and disfranchised black Georgians. Nevertheless, life in Georgia changed considerably with the end of the Civil War. The loss of millions of dollars in slave capital pushed many whites into poverty, and the crop-lien system created a cycle of debt for white and black farmers alike. To answer questions about late nineteenth century Georgia, students should know how white Georgians attempted to thwart Reconstruction; the economic and social difficulties that plagued the freedmen in the late nineteenth century; and how whites and blacks responded to these problems.

Important names, concepts, and movements include:

Rufus Bullock
the crop-lien system
Tunis Campbell
Georgia Populism
the ‘New South’ Crusade

Georgia from 1890 to 1940

As Georgia entered the twentieth century, white Georgians attempted to institutionalize and strengthen the system of racial discrimination that developed after the end of Reconstruction. Segregation by law replaced segregation by custom, and restrictions on black voting rights became even more stringent. As cotton prices plummeted and Georgia felt the effects of the Great Depression, the state’s economic and agricultural problems increased. To answer questions about Georgia from 1890 to 1940, students should be familiar with the "Jim Crow" era and with the important political figures of the day. Students should also know how Georgians responded to the New Deal and how the New Deal affected the state and its populace.

Important names, events, and concepts include:

Jim Crow
W.E.B. Du Bois
Rebecca Latimer Felton
Leo Frank
the county-unit system
the Agricultural Adjustment Administration

Georgia from 1940 to the Present

Georgia experienced an unprecedented transformation during and after the Second World War. Agriculture became less central to the state’s economy, and industry, manufacturing, and urbanization greatly increased. The efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Civil Rights activists brought legalized racial segregation to an end, and black Georgians gained the opportunity for the first time since Reconstruction to wield political power. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, Georgia also entered the world stage. The American people elected former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter to the White House in 1976, and Atlanta hosted the Olympic Games twenty years later. In addition, a tremendous shift occurred in the political loyalties of many white Georgians, as they increasingly joined or voted for the Republican Party in the 1990s. To answer questions about Georgia from 1940 to the present, students should know the history behind these events and changes.

Important names, events, and concepts include:

Herman Talmadge
Martin Luther King, Jr.
controversy over Georgia’s state flag
Georgia literature and music
the 1996 Olympic Games

United States History

There are eight sections in the United States History portion of the study guide. Each section includes a brief commentary, a list of themes with which students should acquaint themselves, six sample names, events, or concepts similar to those that will be on the exam, and two sample exam questions. These lists and samples are not inclusive. They are intended to give students an idea of what they should know and understand after reviewing a one- or two-volume U.S. history text or synopsis. See the bibliography at the end of this guide for a list of such texts.

Prehistory to 1754

In the two and a half centuries between Christopher Columbus’ landing in the Americas and the North American outbreak of the French and Indian War, the area that was to become the United States underwent an extraordinary transformation. Explorers from numerous European nations came into contact with a native population that had occupied the continent for centuries, and European colonies eventually dotted the Eastern seaboard and Southwest. Colonists came to the New World for religious freedom, profit, adventure, and a variety of other reasons. Some Native Americans resisted European settlement, but trade, disease, and warfare undermined their efforts. As the colonies matured, they became more entrenched in the economic systems of their mother countries and experienced the religious, social, and cultural dynamism and conflicts of complex societies.

Themes to study:

To answer questions about American history to 1754, students should be familiar with the origins of the native populations of the Americas and their interaction with Europeans; the major early explorers of the Americas and the first settlements in the future United States; the origins and early leaders of the colonies, particularly those on the east coast; the differences among the governments and the economies of the colonies; the political relationship between the colonies and the Old World; indentured servitude and slavery in the colonies; and the principal elements of colonial society and culture, including religion, family, and social conflict.

Sample names, events, or concepts:

Iroquois League
Hernán Cortés
Jamestown
The Stono Rebellion<
William Penn
The Great Awakening

Sample questions:

Many of the European settlers who first came to the New World did so to escape religious persecution. Which colony was granted to a benefactor for the purpose of settling the Quakers?

A. Virginia

B. Massachusetts

C. New Hampshire

D. Pennsylvania

Early settlers in New England depended primarily upon what source of labor?

A. their children

B. slaves

C. indentured servants

D. wage laborers

From Colonies to Nation: 1754 to 1800

From the French and Indian War to 1800, some of the British colonies were transformed into a nation. Tensions between England’s colonies and the British Parliament increased in the 1760s and 1770s, erupting into war in 1775 and leading to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The revolutionaries wished to be rid of the political and economic burdens they felt as taxpaying members of the British Empire who received little or no voice in its government or policy-making. After defeating the British, the states forged a weak central government under the Articles of Confederation but soon replaced it with a federal system under the Constitution. The young nation had its share of controversy over economic development, political rights, and international relations. By the election of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency in 1800, however, a peaceful two-party political system had emerged to channel these differences.

Themes to study:

To answer questions about American history from 1754 to 1800, students should be familiar with the political and economic relationship between the colonies and England; the significance of the French and Indian War; the political ideas of the revolutionary era; the events and issues that led to the Revolutionary War; the major figures and battles of the Revolutionary War; the principal documents of the early nation; the struggle to ratify the Constitution; the impact of the Revolution on the American social structure; and the different beliefs and events that led to the emergence of the two-party system.

Sample names, events, or concepts:

Mercantilism
Thomas Paine
Alexander Hamilton
Federalist Papers
Northwest Ordinance
Kentucky and Virginia resolves

Sample questions:

During the American Revolution, Tories were:

A. leaders of the Sons of Liberty.

B. guerrilla fighters in the South.

C. English who sympathized with the revolutionaries.

D. loyal to the Crown of England.

What belief led most states to require a certain level of property ownership in order to qualify for voting or holding political office?

A. Concentrating political power in the hands of the wealthy would hasten economic development.

B. Such qualifications would encourage the poorer classes to work hard and save money.

C. It would be easier to keep track of one list of property owners and one list of voters, rather than having a list for each.

D. Only property owners would possess the necessary independence to make wise political choices.

The Young Republic: 1800 to the 1840s

The young republic grew and developed rapidly in the first several decades of the nineteenth century. As Americans moved westward, the United States purchased vast amounts of land from France and fought wars with both Britain and Mexico. The Industrial Revolution began in this period, slowly transforming social patterns in the Northeast. In the South, slavery remained a principal source of labor as well as a defining element of southern society, and planters moved westward to cultivate lands recently occupied by Native Americans. This westward movement of slavery led to several compromises that attempted to forestall the growing differences between the North and the South. Reform movements emerged in large numbers in the 1830s and 1840s. Advocates of abolition, temperance, education reform, and women’s rights pleaded their cases with a newfound vigor. Simultaneously, Andrew Jackson and his presidency gave American politics a new democratic spirit, exacerbated several controversies such as states’ rights and the National Bank, and resurrected the two-party political system.

Themes to study:

To answer questions about American history from 1800 to the 1840s, students should be familiar with the physical growth of the United States; the causes and outcomes of the War of 1812; the influential Supreme Court cases of the era; the key components of the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in America; the origins and results of the Mexican-American war; the place of slavery in southern society; conflict with Native Americans; the demise and rebirth of the two-party system in American politics; and the reform movements of the 1830s and 1840s.

Sample names, events, or concepts:

Louisiana Purchase
Hartford Convention
Dartmouth College Case
Frederick Douglass
Trail of Tears
Nullification Crisis

Sample questions:

The national political parties of the second American party system were:

A. the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

B. the Democratic Party and the Whig Party.

C. the Federalist Party and the Republican Party.

D. the Democratic Party and the Populist Party.

All of the following were consequences of Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin, except:

A. the urbanization of the southern economy.

B. the strengthening of slavery in the southern states.

C. the development of an American textile industry.

D. the spread of cotton as a cash crop in the southern states.

Sectionalism, The Civil War, and Reconstruction: 1840s to 1877

From the 1840s to 1877, trends such as industrial growth, westward expansion, and social reform continued in the United States, but in the 1860s and 1870s, the nation suffered through a brutal Civil War and bitter periods of Reconstruction and Redemption. The expansion of slavery into western territories and the rise of the abolition movement increased tensions between the slave states of the South and the free labor states of the North. Despite numerous compromises in the 1850s, the South seceded in 1861, and the two sections waged war on each other for four years. By 1865, the South lay in ruins, former slaves tried to find their families and build lives as free men and women, and Northern troops occupied the Southern states. The readmission of the Southern states into the Union was a hotly contested issue. Several ‘plans’ guided Reconstruction aiming either quickly to reunite the nation or to reform the South. Reconstruction ended in 1876 with the compromise election of Rutherford B. Hayes, but by then, most southern states had already returned to white control and begun the slide toward the disfranchisement of blacks, the legal institutionalization of racism, and the crippling arrangements of the crop-lien system and sharecropping.

Themes to study:

To answer questions about American history from the 1840s to 1877, students should be familiar with America’s movement westward in the 1840s and 1850s; the women’s rights movement; the growth of the abolition movement; the compromises and the eventual breakdown of compromise over slavery and sectionalism; the proximate causes, the major figures, and the important battles of the Civil War; the fate of slaves and slavery during the war and freedmen after the war; the central issues of Reconstruction; the various phases of Reconstruction; white opposition to Reconstruction in the South; and the end of Reconstruction.

Sample names, events, or concepts:

Seneca Falls Convention
Morrill Act of 1862<
New York City Riots
Jefferson Davis
Ku Klux Klan
Andrew Johnson

Sample Questions:

What effect did John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry have on the United States?

A. Southerners realized that Brown was insane and chose to ignore the incident.

B. Southerners became convinced that slave uprisings could never be successful.

C. Both northern abolitionists and southern fire-eaters became incensed.

D. Many northern abolitionists,afraid of what happened, abandoned their political stance against slavery.

During the Civil War, conscription was:

A. first instituted by the Union.

B. unnecessary.

C. overturned in the North by a Supreme Court ruling.

D. first instituted by the Confederacy.

Industrial America: 1877 to 1920

The United States transformed itself form a rural-agrarian society into an urban-industrial one in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century. Immigrants and rural Americans flooded old and new cities to work in manufacturing and processing businesses, and large corporations, modeled on the railroad industry, dominated the economy. Labor unions organized workers to fight for better wages and working conditions, as the American society and nation adjusted to changes in work, living, and leisure patterns. In the South and West, farmers organized in Farmers’ Alliances and eventually formed the Populist Party in 1890 to defend themselves in the new economic environment. At the same time, America emerged on the world stage with considerable overseas involvement, eventually entering World War I in 1917. The customary segregation between the races that had emerged after the Civil War became a legal institution in the form of Jim Crow laws, and continued westward expansion led to the creation of reservations for Native Americans. It was during this period that large numbers of blacks left the South in search of jobs in the North. In the early decades of twentieth century, multiple reforms coalesced into the Progressive movement. Corrupt ward bosses gave way to city managers, the prohibition and women’s rights movements secured amendments to the Constitution, and the federal government began regulating the economy and establishing standards in food and health.

Themes to study:

To answer questions about American history from 1877 to 1920, students should be familiar with the rise of big business and changes in the workplace; the diverse labor organizations that emerged in this time period; immigration, Jim Crow, and conflicts concerning Native Americans; the rise and fall of the Populist Party; the migration of African Americans to the North; America’s growing international engagements in the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Asia; Woodrow Wilson and America’s involvement in World War I, the Treaty of Versailles, and the League of Nations; and the various reformers and reforms of the Progressive Movement.

Sample names, events, or concepts:

Eugene V. Debs

Booker T. Washington

Battle of Wounded Knee

Free silver

Sherman Anti-Trust Act

Open Door Policy

Sample Questions:

Jim Crow laws were:

A. declared from the beginning to be unconstitutional.

B. a method of imposing strict segregation in even the smallest aspects of society.

C. laws passed by supporters of African-American equality to insure their equal treatment in Southern states.

D. a series of acts passed by Congress to encourage the growth of agriculture in the South.

The most significant third political party of the late nineteenth century was the:

A. Whig Party.

B. Progressive Party.

C. Populist Party.

D. Mugwump Party.

The 1920s, Depression, and World War: 1920 to 1945

America experienced nearly a decade of notable prosperity, longer than a decade of severe Depression, and a stunning victory in a global war in the twenty-five years between 1920 and 1945. Big business flourished in the 1920s, stimulating vigorous economic growth for much of the decade. The Republican presidents of the era were content to leave the economy alone. Prohibition, fear of communism, the return of the Ku Klux Klan, and controversies over evolution and creationism were some of the ways Americans responded to the new urban and modern society that had emerged in America by the 1920s. In 1929, however, the Stock Market crashed, ushering in a Depression of immense proportions. Looking for an alternative to the Republicans of the 1920s, Americans elected Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. Experimenting widely with the powers of the federal government, Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ was a collection of social programs designed to solve or ease the economic crisis. The Supreme Court declared some of his measures unconstitutional, but other programs like social security survive today. The Great Depression was not limited to the United States. In Europe, Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany aided by discontent over the harsh penalties laid on Germany after World War I and the dismal economy. World War II broke out in Asia in 1937 and Europe in 1939, but the United States did not enter until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Before then, the United States had been supplying the British and Chinese in their efforts to contain Germany and Japan. By August 1945, the Allied nations had defeated the Axis powers and the United States had dropped two atomic bombs on Japan.

Themes to study:

To answer questions about American history from 1920 to 1945, students should be familiar with the social conflicts amid prosperity of the 1920s; the popular culture of the 1920s and 1930s; the origins and essential facts of the Great Depression, including its major causes and challenges to Franklin Roosevelt’s solutions; the most prominent New Deal programs and the legacy of the New Deal; American economic, political and military involvement in World War II; and American society during the war, including internment camps, victory gardens, and the increased number of women in the workforce.

Sample names, events, or concepts:

Calvin Coolidge
Scopes Trial
Father Charles Coughlin
Tennessee Valley Authority
Lend-Lease Act
Hiroshima

Sample Questions:

The Harlem Renaissance was:

A. a new craze in urban planning inspired by the New York borough of the same name.

B. an African-American literary and artistic movement.

C. an architectural revival of Manhattan.

D. a school of urban landscape painting.

________ found themselves forced into internment camps in the western U.S. during

World War II.

A. Jewish-Americans

B. Japanese-Americans

C. African-Americans

D. German-Americans

The Cold War, Affluence, and Anguish: 1945 to 1974

After World War II, the United States experienced phenomenal economic and population growth. American affluence was on the rise, as more people moved to the suburbs, creating a middle class lifestyle for the twentieth century. This prosperity was accompanied, however, by increasing tensions abroad and mounting unrest at home. The Cold War pitted the Soviet Union and the United States in a nuclear arms race that heated occasionally with events like the erection of the Berlin Wall, a war in Korea, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. One of the most complex manifestations of this American struggle against international communism was the Vietnam War. Thousands of American soldiers went to Vietnam in the 1960s. Over 50,000 of them lost their lives, America unceremoniously withdrew from the war, and the war caused massive disruption and dissent in the United States. Fueled by the youth movement, the Free Speech Movement, and the civil rights movement, antiwar protests shook the nation throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. The war effectively destroyed the presidency of Lyndon Johnson who had hoped to run again in 1968 to continue his Great Society programs. These programs, like Medicare and Medicaid, continued the efforts of the New Deal to make the federal government more economically and socially responsible for its citizens, creating an economic safety net and challenging racism and discrimination. The civil rights movement made incredible strides in the 1950s and 1960s. Leaders like Martin Luther King and countless unknown heroic youths marched in parades, participated in boycotts and sit-ins, and suffered abuse to demand the equal rights for African Americans that were already protected by the Constitution. Women also agitated for equal rights with organizations like NOW, the National Organization of Women that unsuccessfully campaigned for an equal rights amendment to the Constitution. As president, Richard Nixon opened American relations with China and worked to maintain peace in the Middle East, but in 1974, he became America’s first president to resign from office after the exposure of the Watergate break-in and his attempts to conceal his involvement in various illegal activities. Watergate decreased American’s already low confidence in the government and the nation after decades of tensions with the Soviet Union, impossible foreign entanglements, and domestic strife.

Themes to study:

To answer questions about American history from 1945 to 1974, students should be familiar with the origins of the Cold War; the major ideas, people, and events of the Cold War; American culture in the 1950s, including sex roles, the impact of the baby boom and Word War II, and the fear of communism; America’s involvement in the Korean War; the principal issues, people, and events of the civil rights movement; America’s experience in Vietnam; the protests, assassinations, and youth movement that rocked the 1960s; the strengthening women’s movement of the 1970s; and the details and impact of the Watergate scandal.

Sample names, events, or concepts: