History of Colonial America
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Course Introduction
This course explores the development of colonial societies in North America from the late 15th century through the mid-18th century. Students examine the encounters between European settlers and Indigenous peoples, the motivations behind colonization, and the establishment of European colonies by Spain, France, the Netherlands, and England. The course investigates the economic, social, and political structures that shaped daily life, as well as the profound impacts of transatlantic trade, slavery, religious movements, and conflicts on the evolution of colonial communities. Through primary sources and historical analysis, students gain a nuanced understanding of the diverse and complex origins of what would become the United States.
Recommended Textbook
The Unfinished Nation A Concise History of the American People Volume I To 1877 5th Edition by
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Chapter 1: The Meeting of Cultures
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the late fifteenth century, the desire in Europe to look for new lands was spurred by
A)significant population growth.
B)the absence of a merchant class.
C)the declining political power of many monarchs.
D)the expansion of feudalism.
E)a desire to escape the Black Death.
Answer: A
Q2) Christopher Columbus called the native people he encountered on his voyages "Indians" because
A)he believed they came from the East Indies in the Pacific.
B)it is what the natives called themselves.
C)he mispronounced their actual name.
D)Norse seamen had first used the term.
E)he wanted to hide his discovery from rival explorers.
Answer: E
Q3) Puritans were the first English colonizers.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Transplantations and Borderland
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Sample Questions
Q1) William Penn
A)was a man of great wealth who converted to Quakerism.
B)established a moderately successful but never cosmopolitan colony.
C)suppressed the local Indians in Pennsylvania with a strong military presence.
D)never visited Pennsylvania.
E)used unscrupulous and deceptive advertising to attract settlers.
Answer: A
Q2) The "starving time" in Jamestown during the winter of 1609-1610 was partly the result of
A)colonists being kept barricaded in their palisade by local Indians.
B)the extermination of the Indians who used to grow crops.
C)an influx of rats from settlers' ships that ate much of the stored grains.
D)a drought that led to crop failures.
E)the sinking of the colonists' supply ship in the Atlantic.
Answer: A
Q3) The New Jersey colony developed no significant class of large landowners.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Society and Culture in Provincial America
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Sample Questions
Q1) Over time, tensions in Puritan New England communities developed as a result of A)population growth.
B)the practices of land inheritance.
C)calls for gender equality.
D)both population growth and the practices of land inheritance.
E)both population growth and calls for gender equality.
Answer: C
Q2) French Calvinists were referred to as ____________________.
Answer: Huguenots
Q3) Which statement regarding colonial higher education is TRUE?
A)Most colleges were founded by religious groups.
B)Colonists placed a low value on any formal education.
C)Parliament regulated the establishment of American colleges.
D)Most colonial colleges accepted female students.
E)Most colonial leaders after 1700 went abroad to study.
Answer: A
Q4) The first American college, established in 1636, was _______________.
Answer: Harvard
Q5) The journey of Africans to the Americas was called the ________________.
Answer: middle passage
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Chapter 4: The Empire in Transition
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Q1) In 1770 Prime Minister Lord North repealed all of the _____________________ except the tax on tea.
Q2) The British Parliament operated on a theory of representation called __________ representation.
Q3) Trace the course and nature of colonial objections to British policies between 1763 and 1775.
Q4) In 1772, colonists on Rhode Island set afire and sank the British schooner
Q5) Was the American Revolution avoidable? What did the British government do which inadvertently encouraged colonial rebellion?
Q6) Under the English constitution during the eighteenth century,
A)only American colonists were denied direct representation in Parliament.
B)large areas of England had no direct political representation.
C)all seats in American colonial assemblies were appointed.
D)each member of Parliament represented a particular geographic area.
E)the empire was made up of a federation of commonwealths.
Q7) The Tea Act of 1773 angered colonial consumers, but not colonial merchants.
A)True
B)False
Page 6
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Chapter 5: The American Revolution
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Q1) To Tom Paine it made "common sense" to break from Parliament, but not from the king.
A)True B)False
Q2) Why did the Articles of Confederation fail?
Q3) The Revolutionary War increased already deep internal divisions among Native American tribes.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Under English common law, a single woman had greater legal rights than a married woman.
A)True B)False
Q5) The Northwest Ordinance guaranteed freedom of religion and banned slavery. A)True B)False
Q6) The Articles of Confederation provided for a separate judiciary, but had no separate executive.
A)True B)False
Page 7
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Chapter 6: The Constitution and the New Republic
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Q1) The United States and England negotiated a commercial treaty in 1794 called __________.
Q2) The first state to ratify the Constitution in 1787 was
A)New Hampshire.
B)Delaware.
C)Connecticut.
D)New Jersey.
E)Rhode Island.
Q3) The "XYZ Affair" took place during the administration of President John Adams. A)True B)False
Q4) The Federalists fell victim to fierce factional rivalries after Washington's retirement. A)True B)False
Q5) A number of major compromises were made at the Philadelphia convention.Discuss three of them in some detail.
Q6) After the election of 1800, the ___________ branch of government was the only branch controlled by the Federalists.
Q7) What was the long-term significance of the elections in 1800?
Page 8
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Chapter 7: The Jeffersonian ERA
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Q1) In what ways was American nationalism strengthened in the early nineteenth century? In what ways was it challenged?
Q2) Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston are both to be associated with ____________________.
Q3) What was the significance of Eli Whitney to the development of the American economy during the first decades of the nineteenth century?
Q4) The writer Judith Sargent Murray argued that women
A)should have the same educational opportunities as men.
B)were equal to men in intellect and potential.
C)should have a role in society apart from their husbands.
D)should have opportunities to earn their own livings.
E)All the answers are correct.
Q5) The first state to be created from the Louisiana Purchase and admitted into the Union was
A)Louisiana.
B)Arkansas.
C)Missouri.
D)Iowa.
E)Kentucky.
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Chapter 8: Varieties of American Nationalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) Between 1800 and 1820 the population of America was slowly rising.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The Supreme Court ruling in Dartmouth College v.Woodward (1819) was a victory for
A)corporate contracts.
B)the Republican Party.
C)state government.
D)public education.
E)state courts.
Q3) Western Americans tended to blame the national bank for the Panic of 1819.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Chief Justice John Marshall strengthened the ___________ branch of government at the expense of the _____________ and ___________ branches.
Q5) Describe the "era of good feelings" and explain what happened to it.
Q6) In 1824 Andrew Jackson received the most popular votes and electoral votes.
A)True
B)False
Q7) Compare life in the Old Northwest with life in the Old Southwest.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Jacksonian America
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Q1) What evidence supports the claim that Andrew Jackson was a "man of his times"?
Q2) During the Tyler administration, the United States established diplomatic relations with China.
A)True
B)False
Q3) President Martin Van Buren's "subtreasury" system
A)was a financial system to replace the Bank of the United States.
B)created a new national bank.
C)never became law.
D)quickly failed.
E)did not pass until his successor's administration.
Q4) The Panic of 1837 began the worst American depression to that point.
A)True
B)False
Q5) In 1840, efforts to expand voting rights in Rhode Island resulted in
A)new laws that actually further restricted voting rights.
B)federal troops occupying the state capital for two years.
C)an effort within the state to secede from the Union.
D)two governments claiming control of the state.
E)female and black male suffrage for a brief period of time.
Page 11
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Chapter 10: Americas Economic Revolution
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Q1) In 1844, Samuel Morse showed off his invention by telegraphing news of Zachary Taylor's nomination for the presidency over the wires from Baltimore to Washington.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In comparing turnpike transportation to canal transportation,
A)canal transportation was generally developed before turnpike transportation.
B)canal construction was less expensive than turnpike construction.
C)canal boats could haul vastly larger loads than could road transports.
D)state governments gave little financial support to canal transportation.
E)New York was the first to finance turnpike construction.
Q3) The process for vulcanizing rubber was discovered by __________________.
Q4) The Northwest was the most self-consciously democratic section of the United States, but it was also a relatively conservative part of the country.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Examine technological developments in America between 1800 and 1860.What are the characteristic features in the advances made throughout this period?
Q6) Samuel Morse invented the ________________.
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Chapter 11: Cotton, Slavery, and the Old South
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Q1) The historian who wrote "The South grew, but did not develop" prior to the Civil War meant
A)the Southern population increased but new technology had bypassed the region.
B)agriculture remained the leading industry of the south but the plantation system was declining.
C)the South had failed to move from an agrarian to an industrial economy.
D)the South had expanded as a geographic region but had developed little prosperity.
E)the South had created a prosperous plantation system but had not expanded its borders.
Q2) In the American slave family
A)most couples did not formally marry.
B)black women typically began bearing children later than white women.
C)premarital pregnancy was uncommon.
D)extended kinship networks were strong and important.
E)premarital cohabitation was frowned upon.
Q3) The Southern planter class exercised power far in excess of its numbers.
A)True
B)False
Q4) It is said that the South "grew, but it did not ____________."
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Chapter 12: Antebellum Culture and Reform
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Q1) The Supreme Court ruling in Prigg v.Pennsylvania (1842)
A)prohibited the interstate slave trade.
B)led to the passage of "personal liberty laws."
C)angered abolitionists.
D)abolished slavery in the District of Columbia.
E)forced state officials to assist in the capture of runaways.
Q2) The Mormons were forced to abandon their settlement at Nauvoo due to persecution from neighbors.
A)True
B)False
Q3) William Lloyd Garrison believed the abolitionist movement should
A)stress the damage that slavery did to blacks rather than to whites.
B)seek the gradual elimination of slavery.
C)demand freedom for slaves, but deny them citizenship.
D)organize slave rebellions throughout the American South.
E)join forces with the more established American Colonization Society.
Q4) Henry David Thoreau advocated ___________________.
Q5) The Supreme Court case of Prigg v.Pennsylvania concerned the issue of
Page 14
Q6) The term "penitentiary" comes from the word _________________.
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Chapter 13: The Impending Crisis
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Q1) Abolitionism and free soil were essentially the same thing.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Assess the ideology known as Manifest Destiny.Looking back, was it more helpful or hurtful?
Q3) The Missouri Compromise was declared unconstitutional in the _______________ Supreme Court decision.
Q4) The United States and Great Britain agreed on the "joint occupation" of _____________.
Q5) Mexico City was captured in 1847 by General ___________________.
Q6) In the 1840s, critics of territorial expansion by the United States
A)enjoyed considerable political support.
B)found their greatest support in the "penny press."
C)warned it would increase the controversy over slavery.
D)warned that further expansion would cause rifts with Indian tribes.
E)All the answers are correct.
Q7) The "Young America" movement sought to unite the nation.
A)True
B)False
Q8) Could the Civil War have been avoided?
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Chapter 14: The Civil War
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Q1) General McClellan was a great trainer of soldiers, but his excessive caution often exasperated Lincoln.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Why did the North have to effectively destroy much of the South in order to the win the Civil War?
Q3) In the early part of the Civil War, the sympathies of the ruling classes in France and England lay with the South.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The North financed the Civil War primarily by borrowing money.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Which of the following statements about George B.McClellan is FALSE?
A)He ran against Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1864.
B)He originally served as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
C)He was found to have, in Lincoln's opinion, a wholly inadequate grasp of strategy.
D)He returned to the field in March 1862.
E)He was eventually replaced by General Henry W.Halleck.
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Chapter 15: Reconstruction and the New South
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Q1) Even at the end of his life, Lincoln continued to insist that the Confederate government had no legal right to exist.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What was "new" and what was "old" in the "New South"?
Q3) In the 1890s, the black journalist Ida B.Wells devoted her writing to attacking
A)the legality of segregation.
B)the restrictions on black education.
C)the loss of black voting rights.
D)the crime of lynching.
E)the arguments of Booker T.Washington.
Q4) Virginia, Texas, and Mississippi were among the first states to comply with congressional Reconstruction.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Describe "Jim Crow."
Q6) Assess the presidency of Ulysses S.Grant.
Q7) Democrats restored to power in the South were called ____________.
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Q8) Compare and describe the status of Southern African Americans in 1861 with their status in 1876.
Chapter 16: The Conquest of the Far West
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Q1) The western farmers' first and most burning grievance was directed against __________________.
Q2) The Timber Culture Act and the Desert Land Act were both designed to limit individual homesteaders in the American West.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Chinese tongs were
A)secret societies.
B)prostitutes.
C)Chinese community officials.
D)merchants.
E)indentured servants.
Q4) What economic factors would motivate someone to move to the West during the second half of the nineteenth century?
Q5) Commercial farmers in the Midwest and West were forced to become self-sufficient. A)True
B)False
Q6) The first economic boom in the Far West came in the __________ industry.
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Chapter 17: Industrial Supremacy
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Q1) The Haymarket Square Riot, which occurred in the city of _______________, raised American fears of _________________.
Q2) In the late nineteenth century, Daniel De Leon
A)created the ideas of laissez-faire.
B)founded the Socialist Labor Party in the United States.
C)argued that large corporations were ultimately of benefit to American workers.
D)led the American Federation of Labor.
E)became a strong advocate of Taylorism.
Q3) During the late nineteenth century, anarchists in the United States
A)were relatively peaceful.
B)were linked with violence and terrorism in the public mind.
C)became tied to the labor movement in the public mind.
D)All the answers are correct.
E)None of the answers are correct.
Q4) Until its repeal in 1885, the Labor Contract Law
A)discouraged immigration from non-European countries.
B)prevented the formation of labor unions.
C)put many new immigrants in debt to American businessmen.
D)was an attempt to reform American business practices.
E)mandated that each worker sign an individual contract with a company.
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