Week 8 · Chapter

Chapter 8 — Midterm Review & Exam

U.S. History to 1877 Free sample edition

The module's primary reading · ~45–55 minutes · Objectives 1 to 5 · Read it early this week, before the lecture, the practice set, and the midterm study guide.

In plain language

This chapter helps you review the first seven weeks before the midterm. Instead of rereading everything, you ask each week for the one distinction it asks you to keep (a line between two ideas that are easy to mix up). You rerun each distinction on an example you have already worked. Then you meet one new source: the first federal census (the count of the country's people that began in 1790), read as a numeric primary source (a source from the time whose evidence is numbers). You finish by asking what the census numbers show, who they counted, and what they cannot prove.

Why you already care about this

Picture the page Thomas Jefferson certified in 1791 as the Report on Census. On it are the people of a new country, sorted into columns, district by district. One row, South Carolina's, is blank, because that state's count had not yet arrived.

You have handled numbers like that. A team roster, a paycheck, a grocery receipt, a phone that counts your steps: each one is a count someone made, in categories someone chose. When two counts of the same thing disagree, you do not shrug. You ask where each number came from.

That habit is this week in one sentence. Seven weeks of notes is a big pile, and the course is built to be supportive of that load. So you take it one line at a time, and then you read one table.

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

sort a source as primary or secondary, and say why;
state the one distinction each of Weeks 1 to 7 asks you to keep, with its years;
source the 1790 census schedule by its maker, date, type, and host;
explain why two totals for 1790 differ by 112, and give the Census Bureau's figure;
tell what a pattern in a table shows from a cause it does not prove.

Carry this sentence with you: a total has a maker; a pattern is not a cause.

Where we are

Already covered: Weeks 1 to 7, from the worlds before 1607 to Jefferson's First Inaugural Address of 1801.
This week: one distinction per week, the first federal census as a numeric source, and the midterm.
How they connect: every review example is one you already worked, and the census uses Week 1's four moves on a table of numbers.
Where we're going next: Week 9 opens a new unit on Jeffersonian and Jacksonian America.

Week 1 gave you the four moves: sourcing, contextualization, close reading, and corroboration. Weeks 2 and 3 showed how colonies formed and how colonial law built hereditary racial slavery. Weeks 4 and 5 followed the break with Britain. Week 6 read the Articles, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and Week 7 watched the new government survive its first parties. The census this week is a document from the middle of Week 7's story, so everything you learned still applies. One reminder from Week 6: the Constitution counted people to divide seats in the House, and that rule is why a census exists at all.

1. Sort the sources: primary versus secondary

Think about a birthday party. The invitation, the photos, and a guest's text that night all come from the party itself. A video your cousin makes ten years later, explaining what the party meant to the family, comes later. Both are useful. They answer different questions.

That difference is Week 1's first line:

A primary source was made during the period you are studying (a letter, a law, a map, a treaty, a census return).
A secondary source is a later account that interprets primary evidence (an encyclopedia summary, a museum label, a documentary).

Worked example — three items from the source-sorting set (illustrative). You sort each one for a question about the period it comes from.

Item 1, a ship's log kept on a 1620 crossing, was written during the crossing. It is primary.
Item 2, a museum exhibit label from 1999 explaining that crossing, came centuries later. It is secondary.
Item 10, a printed census schedule certified in 1791, was made by the government doing the count. It is primary.
Count: 2 primary and 1 secondary, so 2 + 1 = 3 items sorted.

In words: the date a source was made, compared with the date of the events, decides the sort. Item 10 is this week's new source, so you will meet it again in section 7.

Misconception check. Students often think a primary source must be old and a secondary source must be new. That is tempting, because most primary sources you meet are old. But the real test is whether the source was made in the period you are asking about. The cure is to ask, "Made when, and about when?" every time.

2. Tell the meeting from the takeover: contact, conquest, and two towns

Imagine two neighbors meeting at a fence for the first time. That is a meeting. Now imagine one of them later taking over the other's house by force. That is a different event, even if it started at the same fence.

Weeks 1 and 2 ask you to keep three lines from that era:

Contact is a meeting between peoples who had not met before. Conquest is taking control of a people and their land by force.
The Columbian Exchange ran in two directions, from the Old World to the Americas and from the Americas to the Old World.
St. Augustine (1565), a Spanish town in Florida, is older than Jamestown (1607), England's first permanent colony in North America.

Worked example — the contact-era years. You rerun three pinned results.

Contact: Columbus reached Guanahani, in the Caribbean, in 1492. That was a meeting, not yet a conquest.
Conquest: Cortés landed in Mexico in 1519, and Tenochtitlán fell in 1521, so 1521 − 1519 = 2 years.
Two directions: the Columbian Exchange set holds 7 items that crossed to the Americas and 5 that crossed to the Old World, so 7 + 5 = 12 items.
Two towns: 1607 − 1565 = 42 years, so St. Augustine is the older settlement.

In words: contact and conquest are two events with different dates, and the exchange was not one-way. The Mexica, the people of Tenochtitlán, and the Native nations of Virginia lived through all of it, and their descendants live today.

Misconception check. Students often think Jamestown was the first European town in what is now the United States. That is tempting, because English colonies get so much attention later. But St. Augustine was founded 42 years earlier. The cure is to attach the year to the town before you compare them.

3. Keep servitude apart from slavery

Think about two work agreements. One says you will work for a farm for five years, and then you go free. The other is not an agreement at all: a law says you, and your children, will be held for life. The first has an end date. The second passes down.

That is Week 3's line:

Indentured servitude was labor for a term of years, after which the servant was free.
Hereditary racial slavery was lifelong bondage that colonial law made inherited through the mother and tied to African descent.

Worked example — the long making of slavery. You rerun Week 3's span.

The National Park Service reports that Africans were brought to Virginia in 1619.
The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (D06), dated 1669 in Avalon's heading, gave every freeman of Carolina absolute power over the people he enslaved, as its own text says.
Span: 1669 − 1619 = 50 years.

In words: slavery in the English colonies was built by law over those decades. It was not finished in 1619, and it was never the same status as servitude.

Misconception check. Students often think indentured servants and enslaved people held the same status. That is tempting, because both did forced or bound labor in the same fields. But a servant's term ended, while slavery was for life and passed to children. The cure is one question: does this status end, and does it pass down?

4. Keep two congresses apart: 1765 and 1774

Picture a tenants' group that meets once to protest a new fee and sends a letter. Nine years later, after much worse trouble, a bigger group meets and starts acting like a government. The two meetings have similar names. They are not the same body.

That is Week 4's line:

The Stamp Act Congress met in 1765 and declared that colonists could be taxed only with their own consent.
The First Continental Congress met in 1774, after the Coercive Acts.

Worked example — two congresses, nine years. You rerun Week 4's gap and its sourcing trap.

The years: 1774 − 1765 = 9 years.
The trap: Avalon's page title for the 1765 declarations calls them resolutions of the Continental Congress. The document's own date shows 1765, before any Continental Congress met.
The claim: the declarations objected to taxes without consent, not to every tax.

In words: you trust the document's date over a page title, and you keep the colonists' complaint exact.

Misconception check. Students often think the colonists objected to paying any taxes at all. That is tempting, because the slogan sounds like a refusal. But the Stamp Act Congress objected to taxes laid without their own representatives' consent. The cure is to read the claim as the document makes it.

5. Put three founding documents in order

Think about a new club. First it posts a statement saying why it exists. Then it writes a first set of rules. Later it throws those rules out and writes better ones. A mission statement is not a rulebook, and the first rulebook is not the second.

Weeks 5 and 6 ask you to keep three documents apart:

The Declaration of Independence (1776) announced independence and its reasons.
The Articles of Confederation, in force in 1781, made a league in which "each State shall have one vote" and Congress could not tax.
The Constitution (1787) framed the government that replaced the Articles.

Worked example — three documents, two gaps. You rerun the years from the course chronology.

Declaration to Articles in force: 1781 − 1776 = 5 years.
Articles in force to Constitution: 1787 − 1781 = 6 years.
Check: 5 + 6 = 11, the same as 1787 − 1776 = 11 years.

In words: the Declaration is a statement of independence, the Articles were the first frame of government, and the Constitution was the second. Week 5 also taught you to date a document from its own text when an archive's heading disagrees, as with the Treaty of Paris of 1783.

Misconception check. Students often think the Articles of Confederation gave Congress the power to tax. That is tempting, because every government seems to need taxes. But under the Articles, Congress could ask the states for money and could not tax. The cure is to name the power before you name the document.

Pause and choose one. (a) Write two sentences on which of the three documents you would show a friend who mixes up the Declaration and the Constitution, and why. (b) Write two sentences on what changed between the Articles and the Constitution that a state with one vote might notice.

6. Give each address its year: 1796 and 1801

Picture a famous quotation on a poster with the wrong name under it. People walk past it every day. After a while, the wrong name feels right.

That happened to a phrase from Week 7, so keep this line:

George Washington's Farewell Address (1796) was a published letter that warned against the spirit of party and permanent alliances.
Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address (1801) contains the phrase "entangling alliances with none".

Worked example — two addresses, five years. You rerun the gap and the attribution.

The years: 1801 − 1796 = 5 years.
The phrase: "entangling alliances with none" belongs to Jefferson's address of 1801.
The parties: the Federalists of 1788 supported the Constitution; the Federalist Party of the 1790s formed later around Hamilton and Adams.

In words: two founders shared a worry about ties abroad, but the famous words are Jefferson's, and the year proves it.

Misconception check. Students often give "entangling alliances" to Washington. That is tempting, because his address also warns about alliances. But the phrase is Jefferson's, from 1801. The cure is corroboration: search the document itself before you trust a poster.

7. Read the first census: a numeric primary source

Imagine a food pantry that counts its visitors each week. A volunteer at the door makes tally marks in columns: adults, children, first visits. At the end of the month, a coordinator copies every volunteer's sheet onto one summary table. If you want to know who came, that table is your evidence. But you would also want to know who made the marks, and which visitors had no column at all.

The new source this week works the same way. A census is an official count of the people who live in a place, reported by area and by category. The first federal census is the count of the people of the United States that began in 1790. The Constitution, signed 1790 − 1787 = 3 years earlier, required it so that House seats could be divided by population.

Congress gave the job to the U.S. marshals, federal officers of the judicial districts, and their assistants went from household to household, as the Census Bureau describes. Each district's report was its census return. Jefferson, then Secretary of State, gathered the returns into a census schedule: a table that reports a count district by district and category by category.

Worked example — the four moves on the census schedule. You take the moves in order.

Sourcing: the Report on Census (D19) is a statistical return from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, certified in 1791. Founders Online keeps the text. It is a numeric primary source: a primary source whose main evidence is numbers.
Contextualization: the new government needed the count to divide House seats, the rule Week 6 read in the Constitution.
Close reading: each district row gives one state, district, or territory across the columns. The columns count free white males of sixteen and over, free white males under sixteen, free white females, all other free persons, and enslaved people. The schedule's own heading for that last column uses the legal word of its time. Its certification reads:

"Truly stated from the original Returns deposited in the Office of the Secretary of State."

Close reading, continued: no column counts Native nations. The Constitution's rule left out Native people who were not taxed, so most Native people are not in this table at all.
Corroboration: the Census Bureau and Founders Online both describe the same columns. Mount Vernon's encyclopedia entry adds a detail. It explains that the column called all other free persons included free Black people, people of mixed ancestry, and Native people living among white settlers.

In words: the schedule counted free people and enslaved people in separate columns. Each number in the enslaved column is a count of people held in slavery, recorded by the government of a country that had recently declared that all men are created equal. Contextualization explains why the column exists; it never excuses it.

Misconception check. Students often think a census total is a plain fact about how many people lived somewhere. That is tempting, because numbers look exact. But every census number has a maker, a method, and categories someone chose, and people outside those categories are missing. The cure is to source a table the way you source a letter.

Honesty note: the schedule gives categories, not names. The names of the people in each household sit in the returns, and many of those papers did not survive.

8. Explain two totals and one gap

Think about a club treasurer who adds up the receipts from each event and gets one number, while the bank statement shows a slightly different number. Nobody panics. The treasurer asks which figure is final and why the two differ.

The 1790 census has the same kind of puzzle. The schedule lists 17 rows, but it leaves South Carolina's row blank and prints no grand total. South Carolina's return came later, dated 1792, with 249,073 persons.

Worked example — the printed rows and the Bureau's figure. You add the rows, then compare.

The 15 rows other than South Carolina and the Southwest Territory sum to 3,644,562.
Add South Carolina's 249,073 and the Southwest Territory's 35,691: 3,644,562 + 249,073 + 35,691 = 3,929,326.
The Census Bureau total, from the final report of 1793, is 3,929,214, about 3.9 million.
The gap between totals: 3,929,326 − 3,929,214 = 112.

In words: the printed rows run 112 above the Census Bureau's figure. The course uses 3,929,214, the Bureau's total, and it treats the gap as a record of a figure revised after the first returns.

The table below lists the 17 rows as the schedule prints them, in its order and spelling, with South Carolina's later return filled in.

Total persons in each of the 17 rows of the 1790 census schedule, as printed, with South Carolina's later return added
Row	Total persons
Vermont	85,539
New-Hampshire	141,885
Maine	96,540
Massachusetts	378,787
Rhode-Island	68,825
Connecticut	237,946
New-York	340,120
New-Jersey	184,139
Pennsylvania	434,373
Delaware	59,094
Maryland	319,728
Virginia	747,610
Kentuckey	73,677
North-Carolina	393,751
South-Carolina (return dated 1792)	249,073
Georgia	82,548
S. Western Territory	35,691

Notice that the schedule counts Maine and Kentucky in their own rows, though they were then parts of Massachusetts and Virginia. That is a choice the makers of the table made.

Misconception check. Students often think the gap between two totals is a mistake someone should hide. That is tempting, because we want one clean number. But the gap is evidence of how the count was made and revised. The cure is to name both figures, say where each comes from, and say which one you use.

Pause and choose one. (a) Write two sentences on why a historian might prefer the Census Bureau's 3,929,214 to the sum of the printed rows. (b) Write two sentences on what the late South Carolina return tells you about how hard the count was to make.

9. Read a pattern without claiming a cause

Picture a street where the houses with the most umbrellas by the door also have the wettest sidewalks. The two things go together. But umbrellas do not make sidewalks wet; rain does both. Seeing two things together is not the same as knowing what caused them.

A pattern in a source is two facts that appear together in a source's evidence. A pattern shows that they occurred together. It does not show that one caused the other.

Worked example — two claims about Virginia. You sort items 1 and 2 of the evidence-claims set (illustrative).

The pattern: Virginia's 747,610 is the largest of the 17 totals on the schedule, and its column of enslaved people is also the largest.
Item 1 says the 1790 schedule lists more enslaved people in Virginia than in any other district. That claim shows what the source says.
Item 2 says Virginia's large enslaved population caused it to dominate the early republic. That claim goes beyond the source, because the table gives counts, not causes.
Count: 1 claim that shows and 1 that goes beyond, so 1 + 1 = 2.

In words: the schedule can show you where the largest numbers of enslaved people were held in 1790. To argue what that meant for power in the new republic, you would need many other kinds of evidence.

The reading in one plain sentence: the 1790 schedule shows how the new government reported its first count, certified in 1791, with free and enslaved people in separate columns; it is evidence of that count and its categories, not proof of what caused any state's power.

Misconception check. Students often think a pattern in a table proves its cause. That is tempting, because the biggest numbers seem to explain themselves. But a table records what was counted, not why. The cure is the evidence-claims habit: ask whether a claim shows what the source says or goes beyond it.

Caveat: the two claims in this example are illustrative statements written for the course, not quotations from any historian.

Key terms

First federal census — the count of the people of the United States that began in 1790, the first of the counts the Constitution requires every ten years for dividing House seats. (first used: 7. Read the first census: a numeric primary source)
Numeric primary source — a primary source whose main evidence is numbers, such as a census schedule, a tax list, or an account book. (first used: 7. Read the first census: a numeric primary source)
Census — an official count of the people who live in a place, taken by a government at a set time and reported by area and by category. (first used: 7. Read the first census: a numeric primary source)
U.S. marshals — the federal officers of the judicial districts whom Congress made responsible for the first federal census, with assistants who went from household to household. (first used: 7. Read the first census: a numeric primary source)
Census return — the report of a count that the officer for one district sent to the government. (first used: 7. Read the first census: a numeric primary source)
Census schedule — a table that reports a count's results district by district and category by category. (first used: 7. Read the first census: a numeric primary source)
District row — one line of a census schedule, giving one state, district, or territory's counts across the columns. (first used: 7. Read the first census: a numeric primary source)
All other free persons — the 1790 schedule's column for free people not counted as white, including free Black people. (first used: 7. Read the first census: a numeric primary source)
Census Bureau total — the figure of 3,929,214 that the Census Bureau gives as the population counted in 1790. (first used: 8. Explain two totals and one gap)
Gap between totals — the difference of 112 between the printed district totals added together and the Census Bureau's total. (first used: 8. Explain two totals and one gap)
Pattern in a source — two facts that appear together in a source's evidence, which shows they occurred together but not that one caused the other. (first used: 9. Read a pattern without claiming a cause)

Summary

A primary source was made in the period you study; a secondary source is a later account.
Contact is not conquest, the exchange ran both ways, and St. Augustine (1565) is older than Jamestown (1607).
Servitude had an end date; hereditary racial slavery was for life and passed down.
The Stamp Act Congress (1765) is not the First Continental Congress (1774).
The Declaration (1776), the Articles (in force 1781), and the Constitution (1787) are three different documents.
"entangling alliances with none" is Jefferson's phrase of 1801, not Washington's.
The 1790 census schedule is a numeric primary source with a maker, a method, and categories.
The Census Bureau's total is 3,929,214; the printed rows sum to 3,929,326, a gap of 112.
A pattern in a table shows what occurred together, not what caused it.

Check your understanding

Work these before looking at the answers — they are ungraded, and the answers (with reasoning) are at the bottom of the page.

An illustrative food pantry keeps a sign-in sheet at the door. A year later, its newsletter prints a story summarizing that week. For a question about who came that week, sort each as primary or secondary.
An illustrative library's monthly door counts add up to 4,815 visits for the year, but its annual report says 4,790. Compute the gap and say what you would write down about the two figures.
An illustrative city table shows that the neighborhood with the most bus stops also has the most stores. Write one claim that shows what the table says and one that goes beyond it.
An illustrative student club writes a statement of purpose, then bylaws that give each chapter one vote and no power to collect dues, then new bylaws that replace them. Which of the club's papers is most like the Articles of Confederation, and why?

Answers (worked reasoning — read after attempting)

The sign-in sheet is primary, because it was made that week by the pantry. The newsletter story is secondary for that question, because it is a later summary. This is the made-when, about-when test from section 1.
The gap is 4,815 − 4,790 = 25 visits. You would write down both figures, say where each came from, and say which one you use and why, as the course does with 3,929,326 and 3,929,214. A gap is a record to explain, not an error to hide.
A claim that shows: the neighborhood with the most bus stops also has the most stores. A claim that goes beyond: the bus stops caused the stores to open there. The table records what occurred together, not why.
The first bylaws are most like the Articles, because each chapter has one vote and the central body cannot collect money on its own. The statement of purpose is more like the Declaration, and the new bylaws are more like the Constitution that replaced the Articles.

Next up in this module: the lecture, the slide deck, the Readings & Resources page, the practice set, the discussion, and then the midterm study guide and the midterm. Next week the same method of reading a source for what it shows, and not more, carries into Jeffersonian and Jacksonian America.

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