Obscure U.S. History #2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Philadelphia

They were called the "Bible riots" and started when Catholics asked the public school board for equal rights for Catholic students, mainly using the Douay bible as well as the King James. Philadelphia had the worst of the violence as churches were burnt down and fire teams were kept away by the crowds who cheered each time a Catholic steeple came down.

As word spread about the events in Philadelphia, other cities became potentially hostile toward Catholics.

Answer: Leavenworth Kansas

The Conscription Act allowed anyone with three hundred dollars to hire a substitute for them if drafted. Most people at the time did not make three hundred dollars a year. Many felt this was unjust. The majority of the targets in New York were blacks who were hanged from city lamp posts.

Answer: 1857

During a fire, volunteer fire fighters joined with street gang members and looted the building. The gang members were arrested but the firefighters were left alone. The state then established a new police department, the Metropolitan and ordered the Mayor of New York to disband the old department, which he refused to do.

The state ordered his arrest but when the new police chief arrived at city hall he found the mayor surrounded by members of the old department who threw him out onto the street. He called for reinforcements and the riot began.

It was broken up by Federal troops.

Answer: Theodore Roosevelt

Roosevelt was city police commissioner for New York in 1895. He was known to do night checks on patrols to make sure the officers were not sleeping and he created a written test to make sure recruits could read and write. Before this they could pay money for promotions and hiring.

Answer: CSS Alabama

The Alabama had been raiding northern shipping for two years and making a huge dent. The U.S.S. Kearsage found the Alabama inport and waited for her in open water off the coast.
http://kms.kapalama.ksbe.edu/projects/2002/civilwar/battle28/historian.html

Answer: All of these

While stationed at Fort Wallace, Kansas, Custer ordered his troops to abandon the post and march to Fort Harker (without any orders from anyone else) where Indian fights were common place (and so was absent without leave from his post). He took horses and mules belonging to the United States Government (theft of government property).

While marching he suspected three members of his column of deserting and ordered them shot dead. They initially survived their wounds but Custer ordered the doctor not to tend to them and one died on the way back.

Answer: Three men were hanged at sea for plotting a mutiny

Phillip Spencer was one of the suspected mutineers. He was the son of the Secretary of War at the time. After his arrest he was clamped in irons and chained to the quarter deck. A search of his personal belongings implicated two more men, Samuel Cromwell and Elisha Small who were also arrested and treated the same way.

The Captain pronounced them guilty and ordered their hanging. The Captain was court martialed upon return to the United States and cleared of all charges.

Answer: The wreck of the Essex

She was rammed by a whale and sunk. Only eight men survived and it took them three months to return home - some of the way by land, some by small boat.

Answer: The Mexican-American War

When Texas was annexed by the United States the border between Texas and Mexico was still in dispute. The Mexicans said it was the Nueces River, thirty miles north of the Rio Grande. The United States sent troops to defend and protect the Rio Grande but Mexico already had troops entrenched at the Nueces River and the two clashed starting the Mexican-American War.

Answer: Oneida

John Noyes founded the town after his religious movement, the Perfectionists, had experienced persecution from others. There was only one house in the town and everyone lived there. Everyone worked for the wealth of the community and shared in its profits.

He introduced the idea of "complex marriage", that is: if you were married to one person in the group then you were married to everyone in the group.