Deck 5: The Mosaic of Eighteenth-Century America 1689-1768

Question 1

________ was the Spanish Empire's last major colonial project in North America.

A) New Mexico
B) California
C) The Texas mission project
D) The Pueblos

Answer 1

California

Question 2

Why were the French less likely than the British to use military force when dealing with the native peoples of North America?

A) The French population was relatively low.
B) French soldiers were much less effective fighters than their British counterparts.
C) As Catholics they naturally were more benevolent when dealing with the native peoples.
D) They had superior diplomatic skills.

Answer 2

The French population was relatively low.

Question 3

The three largest groups of non-English immigrants coming to the American colonies in the 1700s were

A) Africans, Scots-Irish, and Germans.
B) Africans, Germans, and Dutch.
C) Scots-Irish, Dutch, and Africans.
D) Scots-Irish, Germans, and Dutch.

Answer 3

Africans, Scots-Irish, and Germans.

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT one of the reasons the American population grew dramatically in the 1700s?

A) high birth rate
B) importation of slaves
C) absorption of French and Spanish colonials as the British Empire expanded
D) large numbers of non-English immigrants

Question 5

Which of the following was among the highest-paying occupations for women in the port cities of the colonies?

A) dressmaker
B) nurse
C) seamstress
D) maid

Question 6

By the beginning of the eighteenth century land scarcity pushed both native-born and newly arrived families to look westward. Why did new immigrants from Europe have better luck obtaining land south of New York?

A) Yankee westward expansion
B) German land grants
C) the Great Wagon Road
D) the Homestead Act

Question 7

Where in the South did most black Americans live and work?

A) inland plantations
B) along the seaboard
C) in the backcountry
D) the piedmont

Question 8

In what time frame was the greatest number of African slaves imported into the Chesapeake and Carolina regions?

A) the first half of the seventeenth century
B) the second half of the seventeenth century
C) the first half of the eighteenth century
D) the second half of the eighteenth century

Question 9

Which of the following characterized the society of the eighteenth-century backcountry?

A) influx of English manufactured goods
B) political equality
C) isolation
D) stability

Question 10

What was the primary reason so many families migrated into the backcountry?

A) to escape governmental authority
B) to worship in freedom
C) to find a healthier environment
D) to obtain cheap land

Question 11

Which group dominated the political and economic life of the seaport towns?

A) descendants of the original founding families
B) the numerous middle-class artisans
C) merchants
D) aristocratic crown officials

Question 12

The colonial seaports were not only the centers for overseas trade; they were also the places where

A) enterprising merchants worked to organize and control the commerce of the surrounding region.
B) religious revivals had their greatest effect.
C) British imperial authority remained visible and strong.
D) slavery was first outlawed.

Question 13

Conflicts in the seaport towns of the early- to mid-1700s included

A) strikes by the working class.
B) clashes between citizens and British redcoats.
C) gender clashes among groups of men and groups of women.
D) impressment.

Question 14

In the mid-1700s, slaves in the seaport cities

A) often gained their freedom.
B) were practically nonexistent.
C) were likely to be recent arrivals from Africa.
D) frequently fought for their freedom.

Question 15

In the mid-1700s, slaves on southern plantations

A) were about as likely to have been born in America as in Africa.
B) found little opportunity to create an African American culture.
C) had mostly all gained their freedom.
D) were more likely to be recent arrivals from Africa.

Question 16

Unlike slaves on Carolina plantations, those in the Chesapeake

A) had less contact with whites.
B) enjoyed greater autonomy because of the "task system."
C) lived on smaller plantations with fewer slaves.
D) were mostly African-born.

Question 17

Which of the following statements is true about slave communities on southern plantations?

A) With few slaves imported directly from Africa, African folkways soon disappeared.
B) Slave marriages were legally recognized.
C) Resistance to slavery led to a drop in the slave trade.
D) Black family life was sustained despite the high possibility that a family member would have to be sold due to a master's death or indebtedness.

Question 18

Which of the following was most likely true of Americans who were influenced by the Enlightenment?

A) They would have faith that society could be improved through human slavery.
B) They would be from the educated upper class.
C) They would hold to a religion that believed human beings could find salvation in the Catholic Church.
D) They would understand knowledge as valuable for its own sake, independent of any practical usefulness.

Question 19

The doctrine known as "rational Christianity"stressed which of the following beliefs?

A) predestination
B) conversion
C) the benevolence of God
D) the reasons for innate human sinfulness

Question 20

Regarding the effects of the Great Awakening, all the following are correctly stated, EXCEPT that

A) Americans became more sharply polarized along religious lines.
B) many westerners embraced evangelical Protestantism and swelled the denominations of the Baptists and the Presbyterians.
C) many urban easterners embraced evangelical Protestantism and thus swelled such denominations as Quakers and Anglicans.
D) though divisive, it also had a unifying effect, since it was the only experience that many people throughout all the colonies had in common.

Question 21

The Great Awakening can best be described by which of the following statements?

A) It was a multifaceted, intellectual movement, based primarily on new discoveries in science.
B) It was a secular, humanitarian movement, which sought to improve the quality of life for the poor.
C) It was a rationalist religious movement, which had its greatest impact among the well-educated in eastern seaboard cities.
D) It was an emotional revivalist movement that appealed to a diverse cross section of Americans.

Question 22

The direct influence of the Enlightenment in America was

A) widespread, affecting all classes and regions.
B) widespread, affecting all except the poorest backcountry farmers.
C) confined mainly to the clergy.
D) confined mainly to some skilled artisans and elite planters and merchants.

Question 23

One of the important distinctions between eighteenth-century English and American social structure was that

A) while England had a large lower class, there were no poor people in America.
B) while England had a large lower class, their more industrialized economy created more opportunities for upward mobility than did agrarian America.
C) while England's aristocrats claimed titles and legal privileges by hereditary right, only a few American elites inherited titles and political power.
D) while less than one-third of England's inhabitants belonged to the "middling sort," three-quarters of white Americans could be described as "middle class."

Question 24

Americans harbored some reservations about English society. These included

A) anxieties about what England's extreme inequality might do to liberty.
B) rejection of the concept of social hierarchy that undergirded the English class structure.
C) the extravagance and manners of England's upper class.
D) English promotion and toleration of the corrupt workings of politics.

Question 25

The theory of the "balanced constitution"refers to

A) separating government powers into executive, legislative, and judicial functions.
B) giving every order of society some voice in the workings of government.
C) the use of "influence" or patronage by the executive officials to win support for its policies among legislators.
D) restricting the franchise to adult males owning a certain amount of property.

Question 26

Which of the following was NOT one of the ways that English and American politics differed?

A) Unlike England, most colonies had unicameral legislatures.
B) The electorate in America encompassed a much larger proportion of white, adult males than did England's electorate.
C) Representation was apportioned more fairly and directly in America.
D) The royal governor lacked the patronage resources of English monarchs and their ministers.

Question 27

Nowhere did the French seem more menacing than in ________, one of the most important blank spots on Spanish maps.

Question 28

The Native American people that integrated European horses into their lives and became formidable equestrian warriors were known by their enemies as the ________.

Question 29

Despite grand colonial claims, most eighteenth-century French Americans lived along the ________ River.

Question 30

Authorities in Paris hoped to establish a colony on the Gulf Coast that could be more profitable and more ________ than their colonial efforts in Canada.

Question 31

The ________ was an intellectual movement in both Europe and America that celebrated the power of human reason.

Question 32

The "boy preacher"from England who stirred revival fires up and down the colonial seaboard was ________.

Question 33

The English Parliament's unofficial policy of benign ________ allowed economic growth and political autonomy in the American colonies.

Question 34

What "forces of division"were operating in the British colonies during the first half of the eighteenth century? Discuss with specific reference to at least two of the following areas: immigration, the backcountry, boundary disputes, and seaport towns.

Question 35

Compare and contrast the character of backcountry settlements with that of older rural communities in eighteenth-century America.

Question 36

Compare and contrast the lives of eighteenth-century American women in established rural communities, on the frontier, and in major seaports.

Question 37

Discuss male and female black slaves' experiences in South Carolina, the Chesapeake, and major seaports.

Question 38

Compare and contrast the economy, social structure, and politics of England and America in the eighteenth century.

Question 39

Describe the basic outlook of the intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment.

Question 40

Why did some American visitors to England feel ambivalent about life and society in their "parent country"?

Question 41

Comment on the following statement: "That America evolved in ways distinct from that of England was a direct result of British colonial policy."

Question 42

In what ways were major American seaports of the eighteenth century similar to cities today? In what ways were they different? How has urban life changed in the last 300 years?

Question 43

Consider the following: "To any person in bondage, the condition of slavery must be fundamentally unacceptable, no matter how benevolent a slave's master. Yet the realities of power forced enslaved people every day to confront these inequalities."Discuss the ways in which enslaved African Americans dealt, in different ways, with their situation.

Question 44

Why was the Great Awakening disruptive socially as well as religiously? Explain the causes of disruption in both cases.

Question 45

Colonial religious practices underwent several changes during the Great Awakening. Explain how different groups adjusted to these changes. What was the aftermath of the Great Awakening?