American History

Question 1

What is one reason colonists came to America?

Answer 1

▪ freedom
▪ political liberty
▪ religious freedom
▪ economic opportunity
▪ practice their religion
▪ escape persecution

Question 2

Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?

Answer 2

▪ American Indians
▪ Native Americans

Question 3

What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves?

Answer 3

▪ Africans
▪ people from Africa

Question 4

Why did the colonists fight the British?

Answer 4

▪ because of high taxes (taxation without representation)
▪ because the British army stayed in their houses (boarding, quartering)
▪ because they didn’t have self-government

Question 5

Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

Answer 5

▪ (Thomas) Jefferson

Question 6

When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?

Answer 6

July 4, 1776

Question 7

There were 13 original states. Name three.

Answer 7

New Hampshire
▪ Massachusetts
▪ Rhode Island
▪ Connecticut
▪ New York
▪ New Jersey
▪ Pennsylvania
▪ Delaware
▪ Maryland
▪ Virginia
▪ North Carolina
▪ South Carolina
▪ Georgia

Question 8

What happened at the Constitutional Convention?

Answer 8

▪ The Constitution was written.
▪ The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.

Question 9

When was the Constitution written?

Answer 9

1787

Question 10

The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.

Answer 10

▪ (James) Madison
▪ (Alexander) Hamilton
▪ (John) Jay
▪ Publius

Question 11

What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?

Answer 11

▪ U.S. diplomat
▪ oldest member of the Constitutional Convention
▪ first Postmaster General of the United States
▪ writer of “Poor Richard’s Almanac”
▪ started the first free libraries

Question 12

Who is the “Father of Our Country”?

Answer 12

(George) Washington

Question 13

Who was the first President?*

Question 14

What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?

Answer 14

▪ the Louisiana Territory
▪ Louisiana

Question 15

Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s.

Answer 15

▪ War of 1812
▪ Mexican-American War
▪ Civil War
▪ Spanish-American War

Question 16

Name the U.S. war between the North and the South.

Answer 16

the Civil War
▪ the War between the States

Question 17

Name one problem that led to the Civil War

Answer 17

▪ slavery
▪ economic reasons
▪ states’ rights

Question 18

What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?*

Answer 18

▪ freed the slaves (Emancipation Proclamation)
▪ saved (or preserved) the Union
▪ led the United States during the Civil War

Question 19

What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

Answer 19

▪ freed the slaves
▪ freed slaves in the Confederacy
▪ freed slaves in the Confederate states
▪ freed slaves in most Southern states

Question 20

What did Susan B. Anthony do?

Answer 20

▪ fought for women’s rights
▪ fought for civil rights