This page shows a list of standards in the 8th Grade Social Studies public release collection at MSDE. 8th Grade Social Studies
Released Questions in Standard "5.0 History"
Select a question from the following list. The content of that question will be shown, and you can interact with it here.
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Study the image.
Receipt, 1896
Documents such as this one provide evidence that southern states intended to
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Study the table.
Select the two details that best complete the table about the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Supreme Court case and move them to the correct boxes.
| Constitutional Question | Arguments for Plessy | Supreme Court Decision |
|---|---|---|
The 14th Amendment provides equal protection under the law. |
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There is a kind of innate [natural] feeling, a lingering hope among many in the south, that slavery will be regalvanized [re-energized] in some shape or other. . . . The freedman has not now the protection which the master . . . gave him before.
—Testimony of a white Alabama resident, Joint Congressional Committee on Reconstruction, 1866
What topic is this resident referring to in the excerpt?
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Read the excerpt.
Select two phrases from the Mississippi Declaration of Secession that are evidence of the main cause of the Civil War.
Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery. . . . Its labor supplies the product which constitutes [makes up] by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. . . . There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates [orders] of abolition, or a dissolution [break apart] of the Union. . . . That we do not overstate the dangers to our institution, a reference to a few facts will sufficiently prove. . . .
The hostility to this institution . . . tramples the original equality of the South under foot. . . .
It has enlisted its press, its pulpit [churches] and its schools against us, until the whole popular mind of the North is excited and inflamed with prejudice . . .
We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money , or we must secede from the Union framed by our fathers. . . .
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How did the relationship between the United States and foreign countries change as a result of the Louisiana Purchase?
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How did Americans respond to the British burning of Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812?
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What was one argument against the annexation of Texas in the mid-1840s?
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Select two goals that were part of the Radical Republicans' plan during Reconstruction.
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Select two powers of the national government under the Articles of Confederation.
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Use your knowledge of U.S. history to answer the constructed-response question.
- Describe two ways that abolitionists brought attention to the issue of slavery.
- Explain the role of Harriet Tubman in the abolitionist movement.
- Use details and examples to support your answer.
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Study the graph.
Jim Crow-Era Advertisement
Which Supreme Court decision made signs like this constitutional in the United States?
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The Articles of Confederation represented an attempt to balance the sovereignty of the states with an effective national government. Under the Articles, the states, not Congress, had the power to tax. Congress could raise money only by asking the states for funds, borrowing from foreign governments, and selling western lands. In addition, Congress could not draft soldiers or regulate trade. There was no provision for national courts or a chief executive.
—The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Based on the excerpt, what was a central weakenss of the Articles of Confederation?
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Which event directly led to the expansion of slavery in the United States?
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I doubt whether it is possible . . . [that] a colony 3000 miles distant from the parent state shall enjoy all the liberty of the parent state . . . I wish the good of the colony when I wish to see some further restraint [control] of liberty rather than the [connection] with the parent state should be broken; for I am sure such a breach [break] must prove the ruin of the colony.
—Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson, 1769
Which term best describes the opinion expressed in this excerpt?
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All railroads carrying passengers in the state (other than street railroads) shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races, by providing two or more passenger cars for each passenger train, or by dividing the cars by a partition, so as to secure separate accommodations.
—Tennessee law, 1891
In which chapter of a U.S. History textbook would a student expect to find this type of law discussed?
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What difference between the North and the South most directly led to the Civil War?
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Which part of the 1860 Democratic Party platform caused the most conflict between the North and the South?
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Select two leadership qualities demonstrated by George Washington during the American Revolution in addition to obeying instructions from Congress.
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Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice. Additional information needed to answer the question is provided.
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In short, the Campaign is opening, and we have no Men for the field— . . . the Officers imployed in the recruiting Service must expect to be answerable for the Consequences. If they have done their duty, and it proceeds from unwillingness in the Men to Inlist, the Government must have recourse to [the option to use] coercive [forceful] measures.
—General George Washington, 1777
What factor that influenced the American victory in the Revolutionary War is described in this excerpt?
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Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice.
During Reconstruction, what allowed poor white citizens to avoid voting restrictions?
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Frederick Douglass is most known for his work with which group?
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Study the newspaper headlines.
Select two headlines that correctly describe parts of the congressional plan for Reconstruction.
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Select two phrases that are reasons for South Carolina’s decision to secede from the United States in 1860.
. . . [A]ll the States north of that [geographical] line have united in the election of a . . . President . . . whose . . . purposes are hostile to slavery. . . . [T]he public . . . must rest in the belief that Slavery is in the course of . . . extinction. . . .
The . . . Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government . . . and the Federal Government will have become their enemy.
. . . [A]ll hope of remedy is rendered vain [made useless], by the fact that . . . the North has invested a great political error with . . . a more erroneous [incorrect] religious belief.
—South Carolina declaration of secession, 1860
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Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice. Additional information needed to answer the question is provided.
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The 15th Amendment to the Constitution states that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
—U.S. Constitution, National Archives
What action was intended to deny this right to African American males?
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Information about the Paper Booklet.
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Study the timeline.
The Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871
Which group’s actions led to the passage of these laws?
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Study the diagram.
Select the two phrases that correctly complete this diagram about outcomes of the War of 1812 and move them to the correct boxes.
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God is the Father of us all, and we are brethren [brothers].
—partial motto of The North Star newspaper
What pre-Civil War goal does this newspaper motto support?
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Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice.
The initial task of delegates to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention was to
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Which foreign relations issue needed to be addressed by the Constitutional Convention of 1787?
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I honor those good men and women for their noble daring, and applaud them for willingly subjecting themselves to bloody persecution [mistreatment], by openly avowing [stating] their participation in the escape of slaves . . .
—Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
Which action is Frederick Douglass referring to in this excerpt?
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A Loyalist would most likely agree with which statement?
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Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice.
Which action demonstrated one of George Washington’s strengths as a military leader during the American Revolution?
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Information about the Paper Booklet.
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Study the diagram.
Selected Events Under the Articles of Confederation
Which action correctly completes this diagram?
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Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country . . . we insist that they [women] have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States.
Which female American leader most likely made this statement at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848?
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Select two statements from John L. O’Sullivan (1839) that reflect the key components of Manifest Destiny.
America is destined for better deeds. . . . We have no interest in the scenes of antiquity [the ancient past] , only as lessons of avoidance of nearly all their examples. The expansive future is our arena, and for our history. . . . We are the nation of human progress, and who will . . . set limits to our onward march? . . . We point to the everlasting truth on the first page of our national declaration . . . The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind . . . divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple . . . to the worship of the Most High —the Sacred and the True.
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The moment is, indeed, important! If government shrinks [hesitates], or is unable to enforce its laws; fresh maneuvers will be displayed by the insurgents [rebels]. . . .
—Letter from General George Washington to Secretary at War Henry Knox
in response to Shays’ Rebellion, 1787
Which weakness of the Articles of Confederation brought attention to the situation described in this excerpt?
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Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice.
What was one result of the Bargain of 1877?
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Study the diagram.
Select the two events that complete this diagram about African American voting and move them to the correct boxes.
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How did the War of 1812 most immediately affect national politics?
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What was one weakness of the Articles of Confederation that contributed to events such as Shays’ Rebellion?
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Read the excerpt.
[Congress] may enter into treaties of commerce, but [are] without power to enforce them at home or abroad.
—John Jay, 1787
One weakness of the national government under the Articles of Confederation demonstrated by this excerpt is the lack of
This is a test question that allows you to enter extended text in your response.
Use your knowledge of U.S. history to answer the constructed-response question.
- Identify the nullification crisis during Andrew Jackson's presidency.
- Explain the impact of the nullification crisis on the power of the federal government.
- Use details and examples to support your response.
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What was an obstacle that President Thomas Jefferson faced when making the Louisiana Purchase?
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One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute.
President Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, 1861
President Lincoln's idea expressed in this excerpt eventually led to the
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Article VIII. All charges [costs] of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred [raised] for the common defense or general welfare . . . shall be defrayed [paid] out of a common treasury. . . .
Articles of Confederation, 1781
Which limitation of the Articles of Confederation made this provision difficult to enforce?
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Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice.
Which role did Harriet Tubman play in the abolitionist movement?
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Multiple-choice question with one correct answer choice.
What factor led the United States into Civil War?
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Select two outcomes of the War of 1812 and move them to complete the table.
| Outcomes of the War of 1812 |
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