Ch. 1

Question 1

Why did Sir Walter Ralegh give the name “Virginia” to the land he was granted for a colony in North America?

Answer 1

He was a court favorite of Elizabeth I of England and wanted to honor his Virgin Queen.

Question 2

Compared to the intra-African slave trade that preceded it, the transatlantic slave trade was more

Answer 2

brutal and more deadly, as African slaves shipped to the Americas were often worked to death.

Question 3

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Native American societies

Answer 3

regularly engaged in trade with each other.

Question 4

Many of the Native women who had intimate relationships with the Spanish in the sixteenth century also served as

Answer 4

diplomatic aids.

Question 5

Pueblo peoples were matrilocal, meaning that

Answer 5

men left their mothers’ homes upon marriage to live with their wives’ families.

Question 6

What type of political power did Native American women hold in most tribes?

Answer 6

Women, particularly older women, were allowed to voice their opinions and participate in decision making.

Question 7

How were colonial French marriages to Native Americans different from Spanish interactions with Native American women?

Answer 7

French men integrated themselves into Native American culture, whereas Spanish men forced their Native wives to integrate into European culture.

Question 8

What aspect of Native Americans’ sexuality shocked many Europeans?

Answer 8

Some Native Americans crossed gender lines and lived lives as the opposite sex.

Question 9

At the time of European contact, West African women were

Answer 9

powerful, particularly in agricultural and trading roles.

Question 10

How did Europeans’ impact on Native Americans affect their relations with Africans in the sixteenth century?

Answer 10

The near eradication of Native populations from European disease contributed to the decision to import African slaves to work on sugar plantations in the Americas.

Question 11

In contrast to Catholic settlers, the Protestant English had few structures for converting Natives to Christianity and were

Answer 11

less likely to marry Native women, choosing instead to import white women early on.

Question 12

Early Spanish exploration by Christopher Columbus was partly shaped by

Answer 12

Isabella’s passion to spread Catholicism throughout the world.

Question 13

Why did England’s Queen Elizabeth show interest in colonizing North America in the late sixteenth century?

Answer 13

She wanted to challenge Spain’s Queen Isabella.

Question 14

Which group created “frontiers of exclusion” by pushing Native Americans off their lands to establish colonial settlements?

Answer 14

The English

Question 15

According to legend, what crop was introduced to North America by enslaved African women who brought the seeds over hidden in their hair?

Answer 15

Rice

Question 16

European observers misunderstood Native American culture and tended to view most Native American women as

Answer 16

immoral and sexually promiscuous.

Question 17

The English at Jamestown felt that Native women’s labor in the fields made them

Answer 17

drudges and showed that their Native husbands were lazy and uncivilized.

Question 18

Why did many Spanish women see emigration to New Spain as a great opportunity during the middle of the sixteenth century?

Answer 18

They could better their position through advantageous marriages and easy inheritances.

Question 19

Before Europeans came to the Americas, Native American women living in agricultural communities

Answer 19

performed crucial tasks such as planting, harvesting, and processing food.

Question 20

How did European slave traders first obtain slaves in Africa in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries?

Answer 20

They cooperated with African slave traders, who traded some of their captives to them.