Deck 6: The Revolution Within

Question 1

Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams (1776)
I wish you would write me a letter half as long as I write you, and tell me if you may where your fleet have gone? What sort of defense Virginia can make against our common enemy? Whether it is so situated as to make an able defense? . . . I have sometimes been ready to think that the passion for Liberty cannot be equally strong in the breasts of those who have been accustomed to deprive their fellow creatures of theirs. Of this I am certain, that it is not founded upon that generous and Christian principle of doing to others as we would that others should do unto us . . .
I long to hear that you have declared as independency, and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any such laws in which we have no voice or representation.
The ideals expressed by Abigail Adams were undermined by

A) a cautious approach to granting any group excessive rights that could not be rescinded.
B) a lack of participation and support by women during the Revolutionary War.
C) a social order that prevented early American leaders from extending rights beyond white male property holders.
D) greater concern for democratic equality for groups such as westerners and immigrants.

Answer 1

a social order that prevented early American leaders from extending rights beyond white male property holders.

Question 2

An example of anti-Catholicism during the 1770s was the:

A) barring of Catholics from southern state militias.
B) Second Continental Congress's refusal to accept aid from Catholic France.
C) First Continental Congress's denunciation of the Quebec Act.
D) famous attack on a Boston convent by Massachusetts minutemen.

Answer 2

First Continental Congress's denunciation of the Quebec Act.

Question 3

Thoughts Upon Female Education (1787)
Benjamin Rush
There are several circumstances in the situation, employments, and duties of women in America which require a peculiar mode of education.
I. The early marriages of our women . . . renders it necessary to contract its plan and to confine it chiefly to the more useful branches of literature.
II. The state of property in America renders it necessary for the greatest part of our citizens to employ themselves in different occupations for the advancement of their fortunes. This cannot be done without the assistance of the female members of the community. They must be the stewards and guardians of their husbands' property. That education, therefore, will be most proper for our women which teaches them to discharge the duties of those offices with the most success and reputation.
III. From the numerous avocations to which a professional life exposes gentlemen in America from their families, a principal share of the instruction of children naturally devolves upon the women. It becomes us therefore to prepare them, by a suitable education, for the discharge of this most important duty of mothers.
IV. The equal share that every citizen has in the liberty and the possible share he may have in the government of our country make it necessary that our ladies should be qualified to a certain degree . . . suitable education, to concur in instructing their sons in the principles of liberty and government.
Benjamin Rush's ideas about the education of women best exemplify the intellectual influences of

A) Deism.
B) the French Revolution.
C) the Enlightenment.
D) the First Great Awakening.

Answer 3

the Enlightenment.

Question 4

What served as a sort of "school of political democracy" for the members of the "lower orders" in the colonies-turned-states?

A) The Protestant Church.
B) The lower house of the state legislatures.
C) The taverns.
D) The militia.

Question 5

Which state's constitution granted suffrage to all "inhabitants" who met a property qualification, allowing property-owning women to vote until an 1807 amendment limited suffrage to males?

A) New York.
B) Virginia.
C) New Jersey.
D) Massachusetts.

Question 6

Why did the United States not develop a noble class?

A) There were virtually no wealthy people in the 1780s.
B) Most of the landowners still resided in England.
C) The ideals of Thomas Paine criticized the notion of nobility.
D) The planter class in the South criticized nobility.

Question 7

Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams (1776)
I wish you would write me a letter half as long as I write you, and tell me if you may where your fleet have gone? What sort of defense Virginia can make against our common enemy? Whether it is so situated as to make an able defense? . . . I have sometimes been ready to think that the passion for Liberty cannot be equally strong in the breasts of those who have been accustomed to deprive their fellow creatures of theirs. Of this I am certain, that it is not founded upon that generous and Christian principle of doing to others as we would that others should do unto us . . .
I long to hear that you have declared as independency, and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any such laws in which we have no voice or representation.
This excerpt best represents which of the following developments during the time of the American Revolution?

A) The ideal of "republican motherhood" gained popularity.
B) Women were able to expand their roles in the workplace.
C) Women advanced in the leadership of many churches.
D) The movement for women's suffrage gained momentum.

Question 8

In regard to voting for the states, what was a contentious issue?

A) Being a Native American.
B) Being an Anglican.
C) Owning property.
D) Not owning slaves.

Question 9

What was one factor that did not prevent a person from voting before the American Revolution?

A) Owning a business.
B) Paying taxes.
C) Owning property.
D) Being educated.

Question 10

Letter from Abigail Adams to John Adams (1776)
I wish you would write me a letter half as long as I write you, and tell me if you may where your fleet have gone? What sort of defense Virginia can make against our common enemy? Whether it is so situated as to make an able defense? . . . I have sometimes been ready to think that the passion for Liberty cannot be equally strong in the breasts of those who have been accustomed to deprive their fellow creatures of theirs. Of this I am certain, that it is not founded upon that generous and Christian principle of doing to others as we would that others should do unto us . . .
I long to hear that you have declared as independency, and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any such laws in which we have no voice or representation.
The ideas espoused by Abigail Adams during the time the Constitution was crafted reveal the

A) tensions surrounding the expanded role of the federal government.
B) increasing scope of rights being given to women.
C) growing opposition to the expansion of slavery.
D) struggle to define the conditions of citizenship and equality.

Question 11

How did the Revolutionary War change the meaning of freedom?

A) It meant that all men now had a legal claim to an equal distribution of property.
B) It challenged the inequality that had been fundamental to the colonial social order.
C) It ended colonial society's legally established hereditary aristocracy.
D) It ended coverture, under which husbands exercised full legal authority over their wives.

Question 12

In Pennsylvania, new leaders like Thomas Paine and Benjamin Rush wanted to see what occur with regard to voting rights?

A) They realized angry mobs could get out of hand, so voting had to be limited.
B) They wanted every proposed law to be voted on by all citizens.
C) Voting requirements needed to eliminate property qualifications.
D) The votes of merchants should count double those of citizens who did not own property.

Question 13

In his Thoughts on Government (1776), John Adams advocated state constitutions that provided for:

A) a powerful governor and a two-house legislature that reflected the division of society between wealthy and ordinary men.
B) a legislature elected and controlled entirely by the wealthy, with a weak governor elected by the people so that they would feel that they had a role.
C) voting rights for all men at least twenty-one years old.
D) centralizing political power in a one-house legislature and dispensing with the office of governor.

Question 14

In regard to rights for women, Abigail Adams:

A) insisted that women accept their lower status in society.
B) feared that women would be distracted from doing domestic chores if they read books.
C) wanted women to be eligible to be president.
D) believed laws should not ignore women.

Question 15

The notion that women should receive a formal education is most consistent with

A) the democratic ideas of the revolutionary era that encouraged individualism.
B) practical economic concerns of families in the new republic requiring two earners.
C) the disruptions of the war for independence that displaced women from their jobs.
D) an increasing appreciation for the humanities in the life of the republic.

Question 16

How did Pennsylvania display the Revolutionary War's radical potential?

A) Benjamin Franklin's departure for France left control of the state up for grabs, and the lower classes took over.
B) The prewar elite had supported independence, then tried to negotiate with Great Britain, costing themselves the respect of the lower classes, who took power from them.
C) Philadelphia's artisan and lower-class communities took control and put a new emphasis on freedom and on more democratic politics.
D) The Second Continental Congress had to take over the state when the people voted to abolish the position of governor, thereby showing how the new nation's power dynamic would differ greatly from the old system.

Question 17

In the 1770s and 1780s, what was a characteristic of voting rights?

A) They were not uniform, as each state's constitution had different stipulations.
B) A person of any religious faith could vote.
C) No African-Americans were allowed to vote.
D) Women could vote in the New England states.

Question 18

The new state constitutions created during the Revolutionary War:

A) completely eliminated property qualifications for voting.
B) became far more democratic in the southern states than in the northern states.
C) greatly expanded the right to vote in almost every state.
D) did nothing to change the composition of elite-dominated state legislatures.

Question 19

Thoughts Upon Female Education (1787)
Benjamin Rush
There are several circumstances in the situation, employments, and duties of women in America which require a peculiar mode of education.
I. The early marriages of our women . . . renders it necessary to contract its plan and to confine it chiefly to the more useful branches of literature.
II. The state of property in America renders it necessary for the greatest part of our citizens to employ themselves in different occupations for the advancement of their fortunes. This cannot be done without the assistance of the female members of the community. They must be the stewards and guardians of their husbands' property. That education, therefore, will be most proper for our women which teaches them to discharge the duties of those offices with the most success and reputation.
III. From the numerous avocations to which a professional life exposes gentlemen in America from their families, a principal share of the instruction of children naturally devolves upon the women. It becomes us therefore to prepare them, by a suitable education, for the discharge of this most important duty of mothers.
IV. The equal share that every citizen has in the liberty and the possible share he may have in the government of our country make it necessary that our ladies should be qualified to a certain degree . . . suitable education, to concur in instructing their sons in the principles of liberty and government.
Benjamin Rush's ideas regarding the education of women best exemplify the concept of

A) the cult of domesticity.
B) feminism.
C) libertarianism.
D) republican motherhood.

Question 20

As a result of the American Revolution, Americans rejected:

A) obedience to the male heads of household.
B) the principle of hereditary aristocracy.
C) the establishment of a republic.
D) the definition of liberty as a universal entitlement.

Question 21

What key role did Loyalist exiles serve in Canada?

A) They helped inspire future rebellions in Canada.
B) Most wanted to ban slavery in Canada.
C) They hoped to mount an attack on the United States in order to restore it as a British colony.
D) They pushed for an alliance with France.

Question 22

The British Navigation Acts contradicted the ideas:

A) of Abigail Adams in her letter to her husband about women's rights.
B) in Wealth of Nations.
C) in Circle of the Social and Benevolent Affections.
D) of the freedom petitions by slaves.

Question 23

As a result of the religious freedom created by the Revolution:

A) organized religion became less important in American life over the next thirty years.
B) upstart churches began challenging the well-established churches.
C) the number of religious denominations in the United States declined.
D) violent struggles between religious groups were not uncommon in the backcountry.

Question 24

To encourage virtue in future citizens, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams:

A) asked for the Declaration of Independence to be read every month at the town square.
B) proposed free public education.
C) wanted church attendance to be mandatory.
D) proposed that ministers become teachers in public schools.

Question 25

Why did John Adams believe that land ownership was vital to society?

A) He opposed slavery and felt that if small farmers owned land, they would have the power to outvote slaveowners.
B) If more people owned land, it would be less likely that fixed and unequal social classes would emerge.
C) Land ownership would make people more conservative, and that would counteract any democratic impulses.
D) Government would have to encourage it, and Adams believed in an activist federal government.

Question 26

In regard to Loyalists during the American Revolution:

A) State governments encouraged free press, including opposition to American independence.
B) Freedom of expression was curbed during the American Revolution.
C) Congress discouraged the idea of oaths of allegiance.
D) Loyalists were sold into slavery in Canada.

Question 27

Support for the separation of church and state resulted in what?

A) It curtailed the influence of Christianity on American society.
B) The colonists nearly lost the American Revolution because of separation of church and state.
C) In the aftermath of the war, it led to the Anglican Church being unchallenged.
D) It brought together two dichotomous groups: Deists and evangelicals.

Question 28

What was the most significant reason why Thomas Jefferson wanted public education and the creation of the University of Virginia?

A) It would help religion flourish in America and increase toleration.
B) Education would spark technological development.
C) The size of the merchant class would increase.
D) It would raise up the general populace, making the people more informed voters.

Question 29

Why did apprenticeship and indentured servitude decline after the Revolution?

A) King George III had supported them, and anything associated with the king was unpopular in the United States.
B) Many apprentices and indentures had refused to fight in the Revolution, and their bosses, resenting them for it, got rid of them.
C) Thomas Paine's criticism of them in Common Sense greatly influenced the many who had read his pamphlet.
D) The lack of freedom inherent in apprenticeship and indentured servitude struck growing numbers of Americans as incompatible with republican citizenship.

Question 30

How did the War for Independence affect anti-Catholicism in America?

A) Anti-Catholicism increased when Quebec Catholics volunteered in large numbers for the British army.
B) Because Americans resented Catholic France negotiating a separate peace with Great Britain, anti-Catholicism became more prevalent.
C) Independence led the states to impose anti-Catholic laws that they had been unable to adopt when they were under British control.
D) The alliance with France, a predominantly Catholic country, helped diminish American anti-Catholicism.

Question 31

Which of the following contributed to the success of free trade advocates during the Revolutionary War?

A) The publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations.
B) Isaac Newton's explanation of the law of gravity as applied to economics.
C) The failure of wartime tariffs to solve the problem of the national debt.
D) Riots over inflation in the streets of Boston.

Question 32

If Thomas Jefferson lived in the seventeenth century, what would he have feared most?

A) Scientific discoveries that helped lead to the Enlightenment.
B) Wars and corruption caused by organized religion.
C) Native American techniques with farming.
D) Parliament gaining more rights after the Glorious Revolution.

Question 33

Thomas Jefferson's views on religion and Christian doctrines:

A) were very similar to those expressed by Isaac Backus, a Baptist leader.
B) show that he actively sought to stamp out religious worship.
C) indicate he did not believe in a benevolent Creator.
D) demonstrated his rejection of the divinity of Jesus.

Question 34

What situation would have most likely led a person to maintain his or her loyalty to the British crown during the American Revolution?

A) A coastal South Carolina planter getting angry because of a Regulator's call for more representation in the colonial government.
B) The news that John Wilkes lost his seat in Parliament.
C) A Massachusetts merchant losing business because of the British East India monopoly on tea.
D) An Anglican minister in New York wanting to expand his congregation.

Question 35

Which of the following is true of how the new state constitutions in the Revolutionary era dealt with the issue of religious liberty?

A) Several states finally allowed Jews to vote and to hold public office.
B) States increased public funding of religion because they no longer had to win British approval to do so.
C) Seven state constitutions began with a declaration of rights that included a commitment to "the free exercise of religion."
D) Thomas Jefferson wrote a "Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom" in Virginia, but the House of Burgesses never adopted it.

Question 36

What role did Native Americans play in the Revolutionary War?

A) They all allied themselves with the British, who promised to protect them against American encroachment.
B) They all allied themselves with the Americans, since the British had failed to protect them against American encroachment.
C) Most tribes officially maintained neutrality but secretly aided one side or the other.
D) They divided their allegiance, just as white Americans did.

Question 37

Approximately how many free Americans remained loyal to the British during the war?

A) 5 to 10 percent.
B) 10 to 15 percent.
C) 20 to 25 percent.
D) 30 to 35 percent.

Question 38

After the American Revolution, who held the balance of power between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River?

A) Americans.
B) Shawnee.
C) British.
D) French.

Question 39

To deal with a wartime economic crisis in 1779, Congress urged states to:

A) allow the free market to operate without regulation.
B) adopt measures to fix wages and prices.
C) establish food banks to distribute food to the needy.
D) raise taxes on the wealthy.

Question 40

For which three accomplishments did Thomas Jefferson wish to be remembered?

A) Presidency, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution.
B) Louisiana Purchase, presidency, the Declaration of Independence.
C) The Constitution, the University of Virginia, presidency.
D) The Declaration of Independence, the University of Virginia, the "Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom."

Question 41

How did John Locke influence slave holders?

A) He promoted the concept that protecting property was a natural right.
B) He discussed a gradual abolition of slavery.
C) He condemned the slave trade as an evil practice.
D) He wanted to convert all slaves to Christianity.

Question 42

In a famous speech to Parliament, the British statesman Edmund Burke said what regarding a link between slavery and liberty for American colonists?

A) He argued that the colonists were sensitive to threats to their liberties because they were so familiar with slavery.
B) He said the colonists were hypocrites for claiming to be pro-liberty while they themselves owned slaves.
C) He said John Locke's ideas about property rights meant colonists were justified in claiming that their liberty included slave ownership rights.
D) He praised liberty-loving Pennsylvanians for organizing the world's first antislavery society.

Question 43

Which argument in the petitions of slaves to the Massachusetts legislature employed the principles of the American Revolution?

A) Natural rights were universal.
B) Taxing the poor created an economic burden.
C) British soldiers did not belong in the homes of Bostonians.
D) One of the people killed during the Boston Massacre was of African heritage.

Question 44

Ultimately, the American Revolution did what to slavery?

A) It began the process of ending it permanently.
B) It saw an actual increase of slavery by 1790.
C) It resulted in the British putting an immediate end to slavery throughout their empire.
D) It led to more Indians being enslaved than people of African heritage.

Question 45

From a legal perspective, the first step in ending slavery in New England resulted in:

A) Gradual abolition.
B) Banning the slave trade.
C) Ending slave marriages.
D) Stopping marriages between whites and slaves.

Question 46

The efforts to emancipate slaves in the 1770s and 1780s:

A) occurred only in the New England states.
B) resulted entirely from voluntary work by slaveholders.
C) included all slaves north of South Carolina.
D) reflected the importance of property rights.

Question 47

When criticizing men, who did Abigail Adams sound like in her letter to her husband John?

A) She reminded people of Neolin.
B) She invoked Thomas Paine's criticism of the British monarchy.
C) She sounded like a Quaker condemning slavery.
D) She took on the role of a church minister, critiquing the government.

Question 48

After the Revolution, African-Americans in the North:

A) often wound up in a state similar to that of indentured servitude.
B) began fleeing to the South when they saw that the new states would not approve emancipation.
C) benefited greatly from the popularity of manumission (or voluntary emancipation of slaves by whites).
D) were happy that the process of abolition under the new state constitutions meant that all current slaves would be free during their lifetimes.

Question 49

Who was Phillis Wheatley?

A) A poet who wrote about how African-Americans felt about freedom.
B) A fund-raiser for the Ladies' Association, whose efforts fed nearly starving men at Valley Forge.
C) A pamphleteer whose ringing protests reminded Bostonians that women, too, cared about liberty.
D) A woman who, disguised as a man, died while fighting during the Yorktown campaign.

Question 50

Who publicly referred to slavery as a "national crime" that would one day bring "national punishment"?

A) Thomas Jefferson.
B) Joseph Brant.
C) Benjamin Rush.
D) George Washington.

Question 51

Which settlement in Africa did the British establish for former slaves from the United States?

A) Liberia.
B) Sierra Leone.
C) Monrovia.
D) Ghana.

Question 52

Joseph Brant, a young Mohawk:

A) wanted to create an Indian confederacy between Canada and the United States.
B) allied with the Continental Congress and led troops against the British in the Great Lakes region.
C) represented Indian interests at the negotiations of the Treaty of Paris.
D) urged all Indians to move west of the Mississippi River to preserve their cultures from "contamination" by whites.

Question 53

What policy did the new United States pursue in its dealings with Native Americans?

A) The U.S. government generally left them alone because it was busy trying to restore order after the war.
B) The U.S. government tried to protect them from encroachment by backcountry farmers, as required by the Treaty of Paris.
C) The U.S. government set out to dispossess the Native Americans of their remaining rich lands and drive them westward.
D) The U.S. government pursued a policy of outright extermination.

Question 54

General John Sullivan:

A) led pro-American Cherokee troops in campaigns against Lord Cornwallis in North Carolina.
B) surrendered his forces to the Stockbridge Indians in a humiliating defeat.
C) destroyed forty Indian towns in a campaign against the Iroquois.
D) encouraged American forces to treat Indians and their lands "truly well and gently."

Question 55

Virtually every founding father owned at least one slave at some point in his life. Who was a notable exception?

A) George Washington.
B) John Adams.
C) Thomas Jefferson.
D) Benjamin Franklin.

Question 56

What did South Carolina and Georgia promise every white volunteer at the war's end?

A) A musket of his own.
B) A slave.
C) The right to vote.
D) One hundred shillings.

Question 57

What best characterizes slavery in the North during the Revolutionary era?

A) All slaves were freed by 1790.
B) Slavery ended quickly because there were no cash crops.
C) Ending slavery was a long, drawn-out process.
D) Slaves were emancipated only if they promised to leave the country.

Question 58

The free black population after the Revolution:

A) declined in number as newly freed slaves left the country whenever possible.
B) often enjoyed the right to vote if its male members met taxpaying or property qualifications.
C) all took the last names of their former masters.
D) refused to provide havens for fugitive slaves because doing so would have led to the revocation of their own emancipation.

Question 59

Despite many slaves being emancipated during and right after the American Revolution, why did the number of slaves increase by 200,000 from 1776 to 1790?

A) As compensation for the war, the British sent many slaves from the Caribbean to the United States.
B) The Quakers gave up on the idea of trying to abolish slavery.
C) Owning slaves in the South was seen as a key ingredient to economic autonomy.
D) The North increased its demand for slaves and surpassed the number of slaves residing in the South.

Question 60

During the 1780s, what would an American say was the best option for Native Americans in the United States?

A) To become farmers.
B) To fight.
C) To work with American settlers.
D) to leave the United States.

Question 61

Assess the importance of commercial interests in building desire for independence before 1776.

Question 62

Republican motherhood encouraged:

A) greater educational opportunities for women.
B) a radical change in the patriarchal structure of the family.
C) women to become public speakers for various social causes in the 1780s.
D) widespread resentment among women.

Question 63

"Republican motherhood" was an ideology that held that:

A) women should be granted suffrage rights.
B) women played an indispensable role in the new nation by training future citizens.
C) Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party represented maternal interests better than its opponents did.
D) education was wasted on women, who should worry only about having many children to populate the republic.

Question 64

In the United States today, which would best resemble an eighteenth-century companionate marriage?

A) An arranged marriage between immigrants.
B) A husband who is the primary breadwinner and has all of the assets in his name.
C) A spouse who makes all the decisions concerning the children's education.
D) A union based on love with equal say in running the household.

Question 65

Evaluate the extent to which the French and Indian War (1754-1763) helped maintain continuity and also fostered change in British North American colonies between 1754 and 1776.

Question 66

Who benefited the most from the American Revolution and its immediate aftermath?

A) A Native American in the Ohio River Valley.
B) An indentured servant in New York.
C) A slave in South Carolina.
D) A poor white farmer in Virginia.

Question 67

Who might be considered an ideal woman in late-eighteenth-century America?

A) An educated single woman.
B) An educated mother.
C) A farmer's widow.
D) A seamstress.