Deck 2: American Society in the Making

Question 1

According to your text, the answer to the question, "What is an American?" is that Americans

A) were mostly Europeans whose institutions easily fit American conditions.
B) have shared a common religious devotion.
C) have had faith in democracy and freedom.
D) have an identity deeply rooted in their history, but still incomplete and evolving.

Answer 1

have an identity deeply rooted in their history, but still incomplete and evolving.

Question 2

Spain's northern frontier of New Mexico and Texas was characterized by

A) creation of a strong Hispanic colony in California by the end of the eighteenth century.
B) complete domination of Plains Indians by Spain's military outposts.
C) a total and effective enslavement of the Indians.
D) powerful Comanche resistance to the Spanish aided by their use of horses and guns.

Answer 2

powerful Comanche resistance to the Spanish aided by their use of horses and guns.

Question 3

The map, "Spain's North American Frontier, c. 1750" shows the northernmost point of Spanish settlement on the Pacific coast was at

A) San Francisco.
B) Tucson.
C) Monterrey.
D) San Diego.

Answer 3

San Francisco.

Question 4

Until late in the eighteenth century, the Chesapeake Bay area was characterized by a

A) surplus of women settlers.
B) well-ordered, church-dominated society.
C) remarkably high death rate.
D) large number of unmarried widows.

Question 5

The map, "English Colonies on the Atlantic Seaboard," shows that the present state of Vermont was at one time claimed by both

A) New York and New Hampshire.
B) Maine and Massachusetts.
C) France and England.
D) England and the Netherlands.

Question 6

The "headright" was commonly used in the southern colonies and some of the middle colonies to

A) encourage the development of urban settlements.
B) determine the eligibility of a settler for voting and holding office.
C) award tracts of land to new arrivals in the colonies.
D) provide land for churches.

Question 7

________ servants agreed to work for a stated period in return for their transportation to America.

A) Journeymen
B) Foundling
C) Headright
D) Indentured

Question 8

In 1619 the first African blacks brought to English North America were probably sold in

A) Boston.
B) Jamestown.
C) Plymouth.
D) Baltimore.

Question 9

Slavery of blacks in the British colonies was

A) unique, since no other colonial nation had ever enslaved blacks.
B) simply copied from the institution of slavery already existing in England.
C) restricted to the southern colonies.
D) firmly established by laws in Virginia and Maryland at least as early as 1660.

Question 10

One inducement for the shift toward slave labor in the late 1600s was that

A) slaves were considerably cheaper than indentured servants.
B) indentured servitude was prohibited by Parliament.
C) slaves proved to be immune to the diseases which afflicted white indentured servants.
D) fewer indentured servants were arriving at the same time that it became easier to import slaves.

Question 11

The great staple of the Virginia colonial economy was

A) cotton.
B) tobacco.
C) indigo.
D) sugar cane.

Question 12

The most accurate statement about tobacco during the seventeenth century is that it

A) was immediately encouraged by both King James I and the London Company.
B) grew on semicleared land, but required a lot of human labor.
C) sold so poorly that there was little interest in growing it.
D) was initially grown on large, well-manicured fields.

Question 13

The primary economic problem for Virginia in the late seventeenth century was

A) over-production of tobacco.
B) the triangular trade.
C) unemployed laborers.
D) high cost of slaves.

Question 14

Bacon's Rebellion occurred in

A) Pennsylvania.
B) Massachusetts.
C) South Carolina.
D) Virginia.

Question 15

The main supporters of Virginia's royal governor, Sir William Berkeley, during Bacon's Rebellion were the

A) Virginia Regulators.
B) well-established, powerful planters.
C) landless freemen.
D) western frontier planters.

Question 16

Which of the following brought an end to Bacon's Rebellion?

A) the trial of Nathaniel Bacon
B) the execution of Sir William Berkeley
C) massive Indian raids on several large plantations
D) the arrival of an English naval squadron

Question 17

The South Carolina cash crop of indigo

A) could be grown side by side with rice in the paddies along the seacoast.
B) was resisted by the British woolens industry, which sought to prohibit its production.
C) displaced tobacco, which had been an earlier cash crop of the colony.
D) was introduced by plantation owner Eliza Lucas.

Question 18

Throughout the colonial era, small-scale manufacturing in the southern colonies was

A) more important than agriculture.
B) almost nonexistent.
C) comparable to that in the northern colonies.
D) instrumental in promoting rapid urban growth.

Question 19

Slave labor so dominated the rice plantations of ________ from its founding that by 1730 a majority of its population was black.

A) Georgia
B) Florida
C) Virginia
D) South Carolina

Question 20

Colonial regulations governing the behavior of blacks

A) were forced on the colonies by the British.
B) were part of each colony's basic constitution.
C) allowed free blacks to vote and serve on juries.
D) gave blacks no civil rights and had severe punishments.

Question 21

Which statement about black resistance to slavery is true?

A) There was little to no personal violence between blacks and whites because of the deterrent effects of harsh punishments.
B) Most runaway slaves were field hands.
C) Slaves with valuable skills were treated better and were less likely to run away.
D) Organized slave rebellions were infrequent.

Question 22

Formal education for average children in the southern colonies was

A) almost nonexistent in their rural society.
B) highly developed, with public funding of primary, secondary, and college levels.
C) patterned after the village system used in New England.
D) not valued, even by the wealthy planter elite.

Question 23

The Anglican Church was "established" in certain colonies, which meant that

A) every citizen had to pay 10 percent of his or her income to the Anglican Church.
B) all laws had to be approved by the church.
C) it had the same legal status and privilege as any other religious group.
D) its ministers were supported by public funds.

Question 24

James Oglethorpe received a charter to establish ________, the final English colony, as a refuge for honest people imprisoned for debt.

A) Georgia
B) Massachusetts
C) Pennsylvania
D) South Carolina

Question 25

The British government's primary concern in establishing Georgia was

A) gaining commercial profit through royal monopolies.
B) allowing prisoners a fresh start in life.
C) placing a buffer between South Carolina and Spanish Florida.
D) creating a base for raids on Spanish shipping.

Question 26

In 1771, frontier Regulators from ________, protesting their lack of representation in their colonial assembly, were defeated in a pitched battle with government troops.

A) New York
B) North Carolina
C) Virginia
D) Georgia

Question 27

Compared to the early colonists in the Chesapeake, those in colonial New England had

A) undependable water supplies.
B) a far healthier habitat.
C) scattered and isolated settlements.
D) many more deaths due to malaria.

Question 28

Under the terms of the Halfway Covenant,

A) unbaptized church members could receive communion but could not present their own children for baptism.
B) only those who could give evidence of God's grace could become even halfway members of the church.
C) halfway members of the church and their children could be baptized, but could not receive communion.
D) churches and merchants agreed to meet each other halfway in their dispute over excess profits.

Question 29

The Puritans justified laws requiring church attendance and establishing the death penalty for blaspheming a parent on the grounds that they

A) followed the early Christian practices described in the New Testament.
B) were based on government's role as a civil covenant designed to police and maintain social order.
C) were intended to create a society which promoted individual religious liberty.
D) needed to restore order because of the rampant crime in the colony.

Question 30

As a result of the Glorious Revolution in 1688, ________ became a royal colony in the early 1690s.

A) Georgia
B) Pennsylvania
C) Virginia
D) Massachusetts

Question 31

The main evidence presented against the accused witches in Salem Village was the

A) sudden increase in birth deformities among livestock.
B) frightening total solar eclipse of that year.
C) recent and devastating typhoid fever epidemic.
D) raving testimony of young girls.

Question 32

Which of the following called for the end of the executions of Salem's "witches" because "it were better that ten witches should escape, than that one innocent person should be condemned"?

A) William Phips
B) Mary Phips
C) Increase Mather
D) Cotton Mather

Question 33

The American crop which was easily cultivated, and in the form of liquor was easy to transport and to store, was

A) potatoes.
B) wheat.
C) corn.
D) pumpkins.

Question 34

The driving force of the colonial New England economy became

A) small textile factories and their workers.
B) maritime trade and those engaged in it.
C) banking and financial services.
D) fishing and whaling.

Question 35

Because of their ethnic and religious heterogeneity, the colonies which possessed traits that later would be seen as distinctly "American" were

A) the Middle Colonies.
B) North and South Carolina.
C) Virginia and Maryland.
D) the New England colonies.

Question 36

In the early eighteenth century, large numbers of ________ Presbyterians immigrated to backcountry Pennsylvania.

A) Scots-Irish
B) Swedish
C) Welsh
D) French

Question 37

According to the map, "Ethnic Groups of Eastern North America, 1750," the group most likely to settle in the backcountry of Pennsylvania were the

A) Welsh.
B) French.
C) Scots-Irish.
D) English.

Question 38

Both Leisler's Rebellion and the "Paxton Boys" uprising

A) successfully overthrew existing colonial governments.
B) challenged the traditional authority of masters over their slaves.
C) led to more women assuming public authority.
D) were challenges by outsiders to those who traditionally had power in colonial governments.

Question 39

The New York printer whose trial for seditious libel became one of the most celebrated tests of freedom of the press in the history of journalism was

A) James Hamilton.
B) John Peter Zenger.
C) Benjamin Franklin.
D) Jacob Leisler.

Question 40

The "Paxton Boys" revolt in Pennsylvania

A) revealed western dissatisfaction with England.
B) was led by German tradesmen.
C) revealed western dissatisfaction with the state assembly.
D) was led by Benjamin Franklin.

Question 41

Throughout most of the seventeenth century, few indentured servants eventually became landowners.

Question 42

According to the map, "Atlantic Slave Trade, 1451-1870," the vast majority of enslaved West Africans were brought to Brazil.

Question 43

By 1740, the economy of South Carolina was based on the cash crop of cotton.

Question 44

By present standards, life for most families in the colonial South was uncomfortable.

Question 45

As a result of the English Civil War and the execution of Charles I, Edmund Andros ruled England as Lord Protector.

Question 46

According to your text, the only clergyman who effectively opposed the witchcraft trials in Salem Village was Increase Mather.

Question 47

The pattern of overseas trade developed by New England merchants is known as the "triangular trade."

Question 48

The Middle Colonies experienced frequent conflicts because of the major ethnic differences among the settlers and the lack of economic opportunity.

Question 49

In discussing The Crucible, your text notes that the extraordinarily high rate of premarital pregnancy in puritan New England supports the film's suggestion of an affair between the elderly John Proctor and young Abigail Williams.

Question 50

Chapter Two of your text describes "American Society in the Making." Describe three specific examples of how the colonies began to emerge as distinctively American in this era.

Question 51

Explain the economic, social, and psychological factors that caused Europeans and Americans to enslave Africans.

Question 52

Compare and contrast the climate, terrain, and native populations encountered by settlers to the various colonies.

Question 53

Explain how the Middle Colonies were populated. Discuss how the various ethnic groups related and why there were so few English colonists among the population.

Question 54

What is the definition of the following key term:
-headright :