US History Quizzes

Columbian Exchange

1. From the article "Columbian Exchange" which definition from the list below best describes the Columbian Exchange?

1. spread of Christianity among the Native Americans in the Americas
2. the spread of trade throughout the Americas
3. the transfer of gold from the Americas to Europe
4. the spread of European diseases to the Americas
5. the exchange of diseases, ideas, food crops, and populations
   2. Define the word "phylogenetic"

1. people who have more than one genetic track
2. the study of genetic relatedness to different populations
3. the study of genetic diseases among Native American populations
4. the study of genetic diseases among European societies
   3. Which disease from the list below did not devastate Native American populations?

1. whooping cough
2. smallpox
3. measles
4. black lung disease
   4. Chili peppers, cacao, and pineapples were transplants from the OLD world to the NEW world.  T or F

1. True
2. False
   5. All scientists agreed that venereal syphilis was a New World disease.  T or F

1. True
2. False

 \n Cortes Letter

1. Who was the leader of the Aztec?

1. Hernando de Soto
2. Francisco Pizarro
3. Montezuma
4. Cahokia Quetzalcoatl
   2. In 1519, the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes invaded ________.

1. Peru
2. Florida
3. Mexico
4. Hawaii
   3. Most Spanish immigrants to the New World were ________________.

1. unmarried women
2. unmarried men
3. married women
4. older children
   4. Why did France and England look to North America for colonial development?

1. The Spanish had found few resources in the Caribbean, Central and South America.
2. The Spanish had already settled the Caribbean, Central and South America.
3. France and England lacked information about the Caribbean, Central and South America.
4. France and England had learned that the natives were easier to conquer in North America.
   5. The transatlantic exchange of people and goods later became known as the ___________ exchange.

1. Spanish
2. Columbian
3. Asian
4. Louisiana
   6. Which of the following native crops did the Spanish bring back to Europe?

1. Corn
2. Wheat
3. Rice
4. Oats
   7. What Native American disease did Europeans bring with them back to Europe?

1. Smallpox
2. AIDS
3. Cholera
4. Syphilis
   8. What was the lesson that the Spanish example in the Americas taught to the rest of Europe?

1. The importance of treating Native American tribes with respect
2. That disease played a minimal role in encounters with native people
3. That there were riches in the New World worth taking
4. That the New World offered very little promise in terms of capitalism

 \n Scalping

1. Which of the following answers reflects BEST the traditional view of the story of scalping in American history (1980s).

1. The savage Indians scalped "civilized" whites to stop their advancement west
2. Europeans merely adopted the Indian practice of scalping
3. The Europeans may have adopted the practice, but it was the Indians who invented and perfected the art of scalping
4. All of the above were arguments around 1980
   2. In 1820, Cornplanter, the Allegany Seneca chief, said that before the whites came, the Indians had "lived in peace" but then the French and English drew the Iroquois into their wars by trading "instruments of every kind and sharp knives" to skin the enemy.  In other words, the whites did it!

1. True
2. False
   3. By 1968, which media outlet perpetrated these two suppositions (in 1820 and in 1879) that whites and not the Indians were the originators of scalping.

1. the "dime novel" of the old west
2. Hollywood
3. Edgar Cahn and the Citizens' Advocate Center
4. The College of William and Mary
   4. In 1879, Susette La Flesche, advocate of justice for Indians, agreed with Cornplanter and argued that whites were "more barbarous in war" and it was the white man who taught the Indian to scalp.

1. True
2. False
   5. Name the academic work which could have quickly ended the 1970s-1980s activism.

1. George Friederici and "Scalping in America" 1907
2. Vine Deloria, Jr. and "Custer Died for Your Sin" 1973
3. Reader's Digest article "Scalping" 1978
4. Heck Ramsey in a NBC-TV documentary 1972
   6. Much of the NEW EVIDENCE used in this article to placed the origins of scalping was produced by which type of evidence?

1. etymology
2. art work from the period
3. archaeological information
4. lesions on skulls

 \n What is a Primary

1. Did you read thee PRIMARY EXAMPLE on indenture?

1. True
2. False
   2. Which of the following would not be a primary source.

1. Photograph
2. Letter
3. Diary
4. Your text book
   3. The example of a primary document requires a title page?

1. True
2. False
   4. Which of the following are not a requirement?

1. document page
2. source page
3. retyping of the primary document to be discussed (12 font double spaced)
4. a secondary source
5. all of the above
   5. Does the Kaufman Library have a portal called 'primary' documents?

1. True
2. False
   6. Would a newspaper article on the battle of Gettysburg be considered a primary?

1. True
2. False
   7. Which of the following are requirements for a good grade on this project?

1. find a primary document
2. use MLA to type the source page
3. present your research in class to others
4. drop the completed document in a Assignment box for grading
5. all of the above are required
   8. For more information on primary documents students should read under ASSIGNMENTS … the article What is a Primary Document.

1. True
2. False

 \n Power of Print

1. This article set the stage for the “winning of the continent” for the imperial rivals (English, French) for North America. Was stage one of the war to hold the continent taken on by troops of “hardened soldiers”?

1. True
2. False
   2. Regarding the contest between the Catholic "Jesuits" and their "Protestant" religious counterparts:  Is it true that the success of the Jesuits was due to their ability to "insinuate themselves" into native life?

1. True
2. False
   3. The French Catholic "Black Robes" or Jesuits were able to get a foot in the Native American doorway "faster" than the Protestants because of their ability to read  books.

1. True
2. False
   4. The author asked why were the Indians of the eastern woodlands so impressed by European books and literacy? Was one answer to this question that the Indians respected the wearing of the "black robe?"

1. True
2. False
   5. The Jesuits adopted a philosophy which subordinated cultural change to religious conversion in order to win the confidence of Native Americans.

1. True
2. False
   6. Which religious sect failed in the initial French move to gain control of the Woodland Indians in North America?

1. Lutherans
2. Anglicans
3. Jesuits
4. Recollects
   7. In North America, all Nations failed to embrace Christianity because of their cultural beliefs.

1. True
2. False
   8. Is it true that the "Protestants" failed in their conversion endeavor because they relied on translations of scripture and thus demystified the "magic" of the book?

1. True
2. False
   9. Talking papers" represented which of the following to Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands?

1. power over nature
2. fear of the paper (illness/bad luck associations)
3. white men were "shamans" and could bring down calamities on other tribes
4. all of the above answers represent the Indian view

Three Documents

1. THE  CONSTITUTION:  Answer these questions in a short essay form.  What did it say? How did it happen. How was it made.
2. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: Write about SECTION 9.  What did it say?  How did it happen?
3. BILL of RIGHTS … Amendments. Explain Amendment #I , III, IV. What did each say.  Why were these amendments made?

Indent to Slavery

1. What were the central economic factors underlying the appearance and disappearance of indentured servitude in North America?
2. What problems did the early English arrivals solve in order to make servitude a useful institution?
3. List the reasons how and why servitude declined in importance and eventually disappeared in the North American colonies like Virginia in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Create two columns.  List the reasons for decline.  List the reasons the colonists embraced slavery.

Ben Franklin

1. The Ben Franklin house (London) was renovated and restored in 1998 by The Friends of Benjamin Franklin House in order for the house to be turned into a museum. During the excavation, more than numerous human bones and fragments of skeleton were found consisting of the remains of around 10 bodies; six of them children. Tests conducted on the remains showed that they were around 200 years old, which means that they may have been buried in the basement at the same time that Franklin was living there. ASSIGNMENT: Write a short essay on FRANKLIN AND HIS ENLIGHTMENT ideas regarding his interest in science. Why did his life style tell us about Franklin as an advocate ‘stop living for heaven’ and start ‘improving the world in which we all live in.”

Wives for Virginia

1. After reading this article, is it true that because of 'primary documents'  the 57 women who went to Virginia in 1621 to become wives for the settlers are no longer age-less and nameless.

     1. True 2. False

2. The 'primary documents' indicated that there were efforts made by the Virginia Company to provide "younge, handsome, and honestly educated Maides" for the unhappy male settlers.

     1. True 2. False

3. In the first years the colony was run on military lines so mostly young men entered Virginia.

     1. True 2. False

4. Under Sir Thomas Smith the Virginia company made an effort to remedy the lack of women around 1620 in Virginia.  Which of the following is incorrect/false regarding his efforts.

     1. Smith's attempt was neither well-planned nor welcomed 2. Finally, 90 women were sent over in the ship Jonathan and the ship Merchant of London 3. When the company's treasury went bankrupt another method of paying for shipping women had to be devised 4. In reality, Smith initial estimates of timetables for colonizing activity were always over-optimistic. 5. All of the statements are true

5. The military men in Virginia were not subject to ordinances modeled on the martial laws imposed on English troops

     1. True 2. False

6. The promoters of the Virginia company were well aware that the venture could be misrepresented as human auction, so they tried to avoid speculation that they were running a 'marriage market'

     1. True 2. False

7. Which one of the following statements is not one of the noted 3 failures of the Virginia company scheme of brides for colonials

     1. there was unhappiness on both sides of the Atlantic regarding the arrangement 2. all the women were too young and un-educated 3. the adventurers/investors failed to recoup their investment in scheme 4. poorer planters complained that they were not able to bid (pay)successfully for a wife

8. The 'primary documents' called the "FERRAR Papers" included annotated lists of the maids (by name)--- ship by ship

     1. True 2. False

9. The total of women sent in 1621 is indicated by the Virginia company's publicity released in mid-1622 and numbered "300 Younge maides sent to make wives for the Planters.

     1. True 2. False

10. The record of birthplaces of the maids offered a very relevant fact.  The great majority of the Virginia wives/women were residents in or about Cornwall and had close relatives in Cornwall who would recommend them.

     1. True 2. False

Slavery and Industry

1. The 1860 the federal census counted nearly fifteen million enslaved men, women, and children across the American South

     1. True 2. False

2. House Servants were better clothed than field hands

     1. True 2. False

3. Slave owners who lived away from towns and close neighbors felt less social pressure to dress their house servants any better than their field workers.

     1. True 2. False

4. Cloth sold for distribution to slaves was also known as “osnaburg” or “osnabrig” … close to a burlap type of cloth

     1. True 2. False

5. In the 1820s, Rhode Island slave cloth manufacturer Isaac Peace Hazard spent much time in the South selling cloth and investigating the needs of the market.  Were a number of the manufacturers of slave cloth mentioned in this article like HAZARD?  Men from the northern  manufacturing states?

     1. True 2. False

6. The commerce of slave cloth held many ironies including:

     1. enslaved cotton plantation workers raised, harvested, ginned, and baled raw cotton to send to local, northern, and European spinning, knitting, and weaving mills. 2. the manufacturers then received back the finished cloth and clothing that marked them as slaves. 3. many northern  individuals ignored or suppressed their consciences or principles in the pursuit of profit. 4. all of the above served as the irony of the ‘peculiar institution’ known as African slavery

7. The first domestic manufacturer of slave cloth on an industrial scale may have been the Matteawan Company of Fishkill, New York which began operations in 1814 and was well established in the southern market by 1823.

     1. True 2. False

8. British mills exported large quantities of blankets and slave cloth to the American South

     1. True 2. False

9. The term “homespun” was often applied indiscriminately in the South (especially just before and during the Civil War) to describe cloth woven.  Which of the answers below completes this description of homespun?

     1. in plantation weave rooms by slave artisans; 2. in homes or small workshops by skilled weavers supplementing their income from farming or another profession; 3. in southern factories and mills by a mix of wage-earning and enslaved, skilled and unskilled men, women, and children; and 4. during the Civil War, in homes by white inhabitants who either re-learned forgotten skills or learned to weave for the emergency. 5. all of the above

10. Several southern penitentiaries used inmate labor to compete in the coarse cloth market, first to clothe the inmates and then to make money by selling surpluses locally.

     1. True 2. False

 \n

Enlightenment

1. One of the great intellectual movements of the late 1700swas known as the Age of ___________.

1. Aquarius
2. Reason/Enlightenment
3. The Gods
4. Armageddon
   2. Americans saw the universe as governed by natural laws that were discernible through human (___________).

1. crime
2. emotions
3. reason
4. interactions with the Devil
   3. Americans believed that all problems would respond to _______________.

1. medical attention
2. scientific investigation
3. verbal discussion
4. government solutions
   4. The Colonies had been settled in the scientific age of Galileo and __________.

1. Newton
2. Einstein
3. Erickson
4. Oppenheimer
   5. The intellectual impact of the Enlightenment on the U.S. manifested itself most clearly in the advancement of ___________.

1. dance
2. tourism
3. fashion
4. science
   6. What American scientist earned a worldwide reputation?

1. George Washington
2. Thomas Paine
3. Benjamin Franklin
4. Richard Nemoy
   7. What denominations controlled most churches in the U.S. in 1780?

1. Lutherans and Moravians
2. Catholics and Jews
3. Presbyterians and Congregationalists
4. Muslims and Buddhists
   8. Which of the following churches provided the most Loyalists in the American Revolution?

1. The Anglican Church
2. The Catholic Church
3. The Shaker Church
4. The Pentecostal Church
   9. Most state constitutions contained clauses or bills of rights guaranteeing freedom of ________.

1. violence
2. helping slaves escape
3. worship
4. giving land to Indians