CLEP College Level Examination Program Sample Test

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Sample Questions

Question 1

What 1820 agreement admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while prohibiting slavery north of the 36°30' line?

Answer: The Missouri Compromise. It temporarily resolved the sectional crisis over slavery's expansion but was later repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

Question 2

What did the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 establish as the mechanism for deciding whether a territory would allow slavery?

Answer: Popular sovereignty — settlers in each territory would vote to decide the slavery question themselves, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise.

Question 3

What was the significance of the 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court decision in escalating sectional tensions?

Answer: Chief Justice Taney ruled that enslaved people were property, not citizens, and that Congress had no power to ban slavery in any territory, invalidating all slavery restrictions.

Question 4

How did John Brown's 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry intensify the sectional crisis?

Answer: Brown attempted to seize the federal arsenal to arm an enslaved people's revolt. His execution made him a martyr to Northern abolitionists while deepening Southern fears of Northern aggression.

Question 5

Which Southern state was the first to secede from the Union, and when did it do so?

Answer: South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, shortly after Abraham Lincoln's election as president, citing threats to slavery and states' rights.