What Students Know About the American Revolution

Uma Venkateswaran, Warren Hierl, and Louisa Moffitt

The following document-based question appeared on last year’s exam:

To what extent did the American Revolution fundamentally change American society? In your answer be sure to address the political, social, and economic effects of the revolution in the period 1775–1800.

The question consisted of two parts: First, students identify and discuss the political, social, and economic effects of the revolution. Second, they assess the extent to which changes were fundamental. We found that overall, students did well on this question. Most essays discussed the political and social effects of the revolution, made good use of the documents, and provided considerable outside information to situate the documents in historical context. However, the discussion on economic change was limited, and only the top-notch essays displayed a clear understanding of fundamental change.

The documents are listed chronologically in the question, but we arrange them here in two groups for ease of discussion. The first group of documents supports the argument that the revolution resulted in fundamental change and includes the following:

• An excerpt from the Pennsylvania Packet discussing the banishment of Tories
• An excerpt from James Madison’s Federalist papers
• An excerpt from a Virginia statute discussing religious freedom
• An excerpt from the Northwest Ordinance banning slavery in the territories
• A visual of a woodcut of a patriot woman
• A visual (below) depicting a farmer with a plow followed by a lady with a halo on her head. The caption in the visual reads, "Venerate the plough."

Students demonstrated a good understanding of the Federalist document. As expected, this document prompted discussion of the powers of the government and the framing of the Constitution and in some cases the Bill of Rights. The Virginia statute, the Northwest Ordinance, and the woodcut were also used very effectively. A number of students used the Virginia Statute as evidence of lack of change, citing separation of state and church in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. However, most essays had some difficulty with the Pennsylvania Packet and had little to say other than that the Tories were despised. Surprisingly, the "Venerate the plough" document was rarely used. A few essays had a solid discussion of Jefferson’s agrarian republicanism and tied the document to fundamental economic and political change. Some students used this document to argue that America had been primarily agricultural prior to the revolution and remained so after the revolution.

The second group of documents could be used to demonstrate that the effects of the revolution were not fundamental or far-reaching. They included:

• An excerpt from a letter written by Abigail Adams that expresses alarm at the mass upheaval following Shay’s Rebellion
• Two documents written by Native Americans: one expressing optimism for peace after the revolution and another expressing disappointment at the lack of inclusion of Native Americans in the peace process
• An excerpt from Molly Wallace on women’s rights

Students were facile in their use of these documents and in relating them to the lack of fundamental change. The two documents on Native Americans, the visual of a woodcut of a patriot woman, and the Molly Wallace document were frequently juxtaposed to cite the gap between the expectation and reality of fundamental change for Native Americans and women during the revolutionary era. The excerpt by Abigail Adams was used to discuss the desire for stability and order and the fear of radical change.

To summarize, overall students did fairly well on the document-based question in comparison to DBQ’s from past years. The mean score on this question was 3.72 points out of a maximum score of 9 points (the average mean for the DBQ is around 3.5 points). The question seemed to distinguish well among students. While the top-scoring essay contained a sophisticated thesis and well-crafted arguments, the majority of the essays seemed to lack the ability to use the  documents to effectively support an argument.

Several years ago the exam had an essay question on the American Revolution that was not document-based.  This standard essay question read as follows:

Analyze the impact of the American Revolution on both slavery and the status of women in the period 1775–1800.

The question tested students’ understanding of how the revolution affected two major groups that lacked political power. The hope was that such a question would critically evaluate students’ familiarity with social history issues during the last quarter of the eighteenth century and assess their ability to deal with continuity and change during the postrevolutionary era. A top-ranking essay argued:

The effects of the American Revolution were far-reaching. Slavery was abolished in the north, and women were valued more because of their aid in the war and also as the mothers for the new nation. Despite the fact that slavery was not totally abolished and women were not equal to men, the American Revolution instilled a spirit in the American people that would eventually lead to greater improvement in both slavery and the status of women.

Overall, however, the responses to this question were relatively weak. The mean score on this essay was 2.6 out of a possible 9 points. Students only occasionally used relevant facts to support their arguments. Some students mentioned New Jersey’s provision for voting by women, while others discussed the concept of republican motherhood. Beyond that, most essays simply observed that women were more highly respected because of their expanded roles during the war. Our scoring leaders noted that students had trouble with the use of the term status, and this resulted in vague and imprecise responses. Moreover, the time period of the essay was also a problem. Students by and large are more familiar with women’s history issues and slavery debates in the early nineteenth century. Thus, a longer time frame may have resulted in stronger essays.

To conclude, this brief analysis of student responses to essay questions on the AP United States History exam seems to indicate that students are familiar with and have a reasonable grasp of some of the major issues of the revolutionary era, such as political rights, governance, and religious freedom. The top-scoring essays demonstrated the ability to use primary-source material and to weave this information into a meaningful essay. Most other essays used the documents descriptively and often paraphrased. Students have difficulty inferring complex concepts—such as agrarian republicanism—from visuals and discussing fundamental change. Performances on the document-based question were generally stronger than responses to standard essay question without documents.

Endnotes

 1. See History, Democracy, and Citizenship The Debate over History’s Role in Teaching Citizenship and Patriotism at <http://www.oah.org/reports/tradhist.html>.

 2. The AP United States History exam assesses knowledge gained in an introductory survey course and is offered every spring. It was taken by more than 270,000 students last year. For more information about the course and the exam, visit <http://www.apcentral.collegeboard.com/ushist>.

 3. The AP exam has two parts: a multiple-choice section and an essay section. The essay section has two parts: a mandatory document-based question, which is answered by all students, and a standard essay section, in which students answer two out of four questions. In the document-based question, students are presented with a series of written and visual documents and asked a question that requires both the use of the documents and outside knowledge.