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APUSHR Period 4 LEQ Sample CCOT Prompt and Response
PROMPT:
To what extent did western expansion maintain continuity and foster change
in American democracy during the period between 1800 and 1850?
LONG ESSAY RUBRIC AND COLOR-CODED SCORING
THESIS:
1 POINT – Presents a thesis that makes a historically defensible claim and responds to all parts of the question. The
thesis must consist of one or more sentences located in the introduction.
ARGUMENT DEVELOPMENT: USING THE TARGETED HISTORICAL THINKING SKILL (CCOT):
1 POINT – Describes historical continuity AND change over time.
1 POINT – Explains the reasons for historical continuity AND change over time.
ARGUMENT DEVELOPMENT: USING EVIDENCE:
1 POINT – Addresses the topic of the question with specific examples of relevant evidence.
1 POINT – Utilizes specific examples of evidence to fully and effectively substantiate the stated thesis or a relevant
argument.
Historical Evidence/Specific Factual Information – any underlined words or phrases
SYNTHESIS:
1 POINT – Extends the argument by explaining the connections between the argument and ONE of the following:
A. A development in a different historical period.
B. A course theme and/or approach to history that not the focus of the essay (such as political, economic,
social, cultural, or intellectual history).
**CONTEXTUALIZATION:
Situates the argument by explaining the broader historical events, developments, or processes immediately relevant
to the question.
**Contextualization is not a component of the LEQ rubric. However, to remain consistent with historical essay
development and the DBQ rubric, students are required to provide historical context in the introductory paragraph.
APUSHR Period 4 LEQ Sample CCOT Prompt and Response
During the early 19th century, a wave of cultural reform swept through American society.
The Second Great Awakening expanded Protestant church membership and inspired millennialbased American reformers to improve society’s ills, such as temperance societies. These
reformist ideals even fueled western expansion in the United States. The nation promoted
Manifest Destiny to preserve American individualism. However, western expansion of the mid19th century further entrenched the institution of slavery and exacerbated sectional conflicts in
Congress.
The United States, under Thomas Jefferson, acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Jefferson believed the territory could preserve the ideal citizen of the yeoman farmer. The
yeoman farmer embodied the independent citizen beholden to no one and therefore could vote
with a clear conscience. With the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory, Jefferson provided an
opportunity to preserve his dream of an agrarian-based democracy. Jackson Democrats, selfappointed successors of Jeffersonian democratic principles, encouraged settlement in western
portions of states and into federal territories thus preserving the idea of the yeoman farmer. As
opportunities, such as land ownership, continued to dwindle in Atlantic regions and more
Americans depended on wage earnings in factories, Jackson Democrats demanded the expansion
of voting rights and promoted the concept of universal male suffrage for all white male citizens.
Between 1815 and 1850 the United States experienced the First Industrial Revolution.
Major northern cities birthed factory systems, such as textiles, and Southern plantations
increasingly applied technological innovations, such as the cotton gin, into cotton harvesting.
The increased harvesting of cotton fueled the expansion of Northern textile industrialism.
Increased production of textiles lowered prices of textile goods, expanding and establishing an
affordable textile market. Northern economic opportunities flourished and fostered a more fluid
society. Increased industrial and commercial demand for cotton prompted more raw cotton farms
and plantations. Cotton farmers hoped to expand their reach into western territories as the soil in
Eastern Deep South states became overused. Unfortunately, more establishment of cotton farms
and plantations led to an increased demand for slave labor. The growing slave population in the
Southern region during the early 19th century prompted concerns among Southern governments
and plantation owners about slave insurrections and rebellions. Growing abolition movements in
Northern states and Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1830) in Virginia further raised Southern concerns.
Southern states enacted more restrictive slave codes, limiting slave movements and education.
Southern states and society further attempted to preserve its rigid society of concentrated wealth
among few plantation owners and continued subjugation of slaves.
As more Americans and immigrants settled in the northern region and in western
territories, representation increased in Congress. The House of Representatives further favored
Northern states and their interests while Southern states population growth remained relatively
stagnant. Since the Revolution, Northern states abolished or gradually abolished slavery and by
1820 the number of free states equaled slave states. The territory of Missouri applied for
statehood in 1820, but as a slave state. Northerners hesitated as Missouri would upset the balance
between free and slave states in the United States Senate. The sectional conflict necessitated a
political compromise with the admission of Maine as a free state and prohibiting slavery in the
Louisiana Territory north of 36’ 30. As America embraced Manifest Destiny, the United States
annexed Texas, a slave state, and the Oregon Territory, a free territory, and continued to preserve
the balance in the Senate between slave and free states. President James K. Polk, an ardent
expansionist, acquired the Mexican Cession after the Mexican-American War. Conscience
Whigs and abolitionists accused Polk of acquiescing to Democratic Slave Power in acquiring the
APUSHR Period 4 LEQ Sample CCOT Prompt and Response
new territory from Mexico by war. Americans migrated to California for gold and the territory
immediately applied for statehood. The sectional conflict over Senate balance prompted another
political compromise with the Compromise of 1850. California would be a free state, but it
reinforced the fugitive slave law throughout the nation. While the Compromise enabled popular
sovereignty in the Mexican Cession, it opened the door for the expansion of slavery, inconsistent
with the parameters of the Missouri Compromise and upsetting Northern abolitionists and Free
Soilers. America’s rapid expansion toward the mid-19th century increasingly pressured Congress
to make concessions against democratic principles to avoid violent sectional conflict over
slavery.
The United States attempted to expand the Empire of Liberty throughout the continent
during the early 19th century. Despite expanding the American frontier to preserve American
ideal of independence and individualism, the United States continued to subjugate groups and
failed to universally adhere to democratic principles. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
America sought overseas territories to compete with European imperial powers, spread
democratic ideals, and acquire economic resources to fuel its massive industrialization. However,
it continued to legally prevent the guarantee of natural rights to native populations of new
territories. The Insular Cases determined the Constitution does not necessarily follow the flag
and Philippinos and Puerto Ricans could be subjugated as they experienced under Spanish rule.