Colonial North America, 1690-1754

Question 1

Benjamin Franklin

Answer 1

Printer, author, inventor, diplomat, statesman, and Founding Father. One of the few Americans who was highly respected in Europe, primarily due to his discoveries in the field of electricity.

Question 2

John Bartram (1699-1777)

Answer 2

America’s first botanist; traveled through the frontier collecting specimens.

Question 3

Pennsylvania, Maryland, Rhode Island - founders established churches

Answer 3

Pennsylvania: Founded by William Penn, a Quaker, to provide protection for Quakers. Maryland: Formed as a colony where Catholics would be free from persecution. Rhode Island: Formed to provide a haven for all persecuted religions, including all Christian denominations and Jews.

Question 4

Great Awakening (1739-1744)

Answer 4

Puritanism had declined by the 1730s, and people were upset about the decline in religious piety. The Great Awakening was a sudden outbreak of religious fervor that swept through the colonies. One of the first events to unify the colonies.

Question 5

Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, a Careful and Strict Inquiry Into…That Freedom of Will

Answer 5

Part of the Great Awakening, Edwards gave gripping sermons about sin and the torments of Hell.

Question 6

George Whitefield

Answer 6

Credited with starting the Great Awakening, also a leader of the “New Lights.”

Question 7

William Tennant

Answer 7

A strong Presbyterian minister and leader during the Great Awakening. Founded a college for the training of Presbyterian ministers in 1726.

Question 8

Gilbert Tennant

Answer 8

William Tennant’s son. Developed a theology of revivalism.

Question 9

Old Lights, New Lights

Answer 9

The “New Lights” were new religious movements formed during the Great Awakening and broke away from the congregational church in New England. The “Old Lights” were the established congregational church.

Question 10

Lord Baltimore

Answer 10

Founded the colony of Maryland and offered religious freedom to all Christian colonists. He did so because he knew that members of his own religion (Catholicism) would be a minority in the colony.

Question 11

Maryland Act of Toleration (Act of Religious Toleration)

Answer 11

1649 - Ordered by Lord Baltimore after a Protestant was made governor of Maryland at the demand of the colony’s large Protestant population. The act guaranteed religious freedom to all Christians.

Question 12

Deism

Answer 12

The religion of the Enlightenment (1700s). Followers believed that God existed and had created the world, but that afterwards He left it to run by its own natural laws. Denied that God communicated to man or in any way influenced his life.

Question 13

Huguenots

Answer 13

French Protestants. The Edict of Nantes (1598) freed them from persecution in France, but when that was revoked in the late 1700s, hundreds of thousands of Huguenots fled to other countries, including America.

Question 14

SPG - Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (in Foreign Parts)

Answer 14

Founded in 1701, a group which worked to spread Christianity to other parts of the world through missionaries through the late 1800s.

Question 15

Mercantilism: features, rationale, impact on Great Britain, impact on the colonies

Answer 15

Mercantilism was the economic policy of Europe in the 1500s through 1700s. The government exercised control over industry and trade with the idea that national strength and economic security comes from exporting more than is imported. Possession of colonies provided countries both with sources of raw materials and markets for their manufactured goods. Great Britain exported goods and forced the colonies to buy them.

Question 16

Navigation Acts of 1650, 1660, 1663, and 1696

Answer 16

British regulations designed to protect British shipping from competition. Said that British colonies could only import goods if they were shipped on British-owned vessels and at least 3/4 of the crew of the ship were British.

Question 17

Admiralty courts

Answer 17

British courts originally established to try cases involving smuggling or violations of the Navigation Acts which the British government sometimes used to try American criminals in the colonies. Trials in Admiralty Courts were heard by judges without a jury.

Question 18

Triangular Trade

Answer 18

The backbone of New England’s economy during the colonial period. Ships from New England sailed first to Africa, exchanging New England rum for slaves. The slaves were shipped from Africa to the Caribbean (this was known as the Middle Passage, when many slaves died on the ships). In the Caribbean, the slaves were traded for sugar and molasses. Then the ships returned to New England, where the molasses were used to make rum.

Question 19

Merchants / Markets

Answer 19

A market is the area or group of people which needs a product. Colonial merchants took goods produced in the colonies to areas of the world that needed those goods. Also, the colonies served as a market for other countries’ goods.

Question 20

Consignment system

Answer 20

One company sells another company’s products, and then gives the producing company most of the profits, but keeps a percentage (a commission) for itself.

Question 21

Molasses Act, 1733

Answer 21

British legislation which taxed all molasses, rum, and sugar which the colonies imported from countries other than Britain and her colonies. The act angered the New England colonies, which imported a lot of molasses from the Caribbean as part of the Triangular Trade. The British had difficulty enforcing the tax; most colonial merchants ignored it.

Question 22

Woolens Act, 1699

Answer 22

Declared that wool produced in the colonies could only be exported to Britain.

Question 23

Hat Act, 1732

Answer 23

Declared that hats made in the colonies could not be exported.

Question 24

Iron Act, 1750

Answer 24

Declared that no new iron forges or mills could be created in the colonies.

Question 25

Currency Act, 1751

Answer 25

This act applied only to Massachusetts. It was an attempt to ban the production of paper money in Massachusetts, but it was defeated in Parliament.

Question 26

Currency Act, 1764

Answer 26

This act applied to all of the colonies. It banned the production of paper money in the colonies in an effort to combat the inflation caused by Virginia’s decision to get itself out of debt by issuing more paper money.

Question 27

Salem witch trials

Answer 27

Several accusations of witchcraft led to sensational trials in Salem, Massachusetts at which Cotton Mather presided as the chief judge. 18 people were hanged as witches. Afterwards, most of the people involved admitted that the trials and executions had been a terrible mistake.

Question 28

Primogeniture, entail

Answer 28

These were the two British legal doctrines governing the inheritance of property. Primogeniture required that a man’s real property pass in its entirety to his oldest son. Entail required that property could only be left to direct descendants (usually sons), and not to persons outside of the family.

Question 29

Quitrents

Answer 29

Nominal taxes collected by the crown in crown colonies, or by the proprietor(s) of proprietary colonies.

Question 30

Indentured servants

Answer 30

People who could not afford passage to the colonies could become indentured servants. Another person would pay their passage, and in exchange, the indentured servant would serve that person for a set length of time (usually seven years) and then would be free.

Question 31

Poor Richard’s Almanack, first published 1732

Answer 31

Written by Benjamin Franklin, it was filled with witty, insightful, and funny bits of observation and common sense advice (the saying, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” first appeared in this almanac). It was the most popular almanac in the colonies.

Question 32

Phillis Wheatly (1754-1784)

Answer 32

An African domestic in the colonies, and a well-known colonial poet. Her poetry was ornate and elaborate.

Question 33

Ann Bradstreet (1612-1692)

Answer 33

A Puritan and the first colonial poet to be published. The main subjects of her poetry were family, home, and religion.

Question 34

Magna Carta, 1215

Answer 34

An English document draw up by nobles under King John which limited the power of the king. It has influenced later constitutional documents in Britain and America.

Question 35

Habeas Corpus Act, 1679

Answer 35

British law had traditionally provided a procedure that allowed a person who had been arrested to challenge the legality of his arrest or confinement, called the Writ of Habeus Corpus, or the Great Writ. The Act imposed strict penalties on judges who refused to issue a writ of habeus corpus when there was good cause, and on officers who refused to comply with the writ.

Question 36

Bill of Rights, 1689

Answer 36

Drawn up by Parliament and presented to King William II and Queen Mary, it listed certain rights of the British people. It also limited the king’s powers in taxing and prohibited the maintenance of a standing army in peacetime.

Question 37

Board of Trade (of the Privy Council)

Answer 37

Advisers to the king who regulated British trade during the 1600s and 1700s.

Question 38

Rise of the Lower House

Answer 38

Most of the colonial legislatures had two houses: a lower house elected by the people of the colony and an upper house appointed by the governor. Over time, the lower house became more powerful because it reflected the needs and desires of the people, while the upper house was merely a figurehead.

Question 39

Proprietary, charter, and royal colonies

Answer 39

Proprietary colonies were founded by a proprietary company or individual and were controlled by the proprietor. Charter colonies were founded by a government charter granted to a company or a group of people. The British government had some control over charter colonies. Royal (or crown) colonies were formed by the king, so the government had total control over them.

Question 40

Colonial agents

Answer 40

These were representatives sent to England by the colonies during the 1600s and 1700s. They served as a link between England and the colonies.

Question 41

Town meetings

Answer 41

A purely democratic form of government common in the colonies, and the most prevalent form of local government in New England. In general, the town’s voting population would meet once a year to elect officers, levy taxes, and pass laws.

Question 42

John Peter Zenger trial

Answer 42

Zenger published articles critical of British governor William Cosby. He was taken to trial, but found not guilty. The trial set a precedent for freedom of the press in the colonies.

Question 43

Glorious Revolution, 1688

Answer 43

King James II’s policies, such as converting to Catholicism, conducting a series of repressive trials known as the “Bloody Assizes,” and maintaining a standing army, so outraged the people of England that Parliament asked him to resign and invited King William of the Netherlands (who became known as William II in England), to take over the throne. King James II left peacefully (after his troops deserted him) and King William II and his wife Queen Mary II took the throne without any war or bloodshed, hence the revolution was termed “glorious.”

Question 44

John Locke (1632-1704), his theories

Answer 44

Locke was an English political philosopher whose ideas inspired the American revolution. He wrote that all human beings have a right to life, liberty, and property, and that governments exist to protect those rights. He believed that government was based upon an unwritten “social contract” between the rulers and their people, and if the government failed to uphold its end of the contract, the people had a right to rebel and institute a new government.

Question 45

A democratic society or not?

Answer 45

The Founding Fathers were not sure that democracy was the right form of government for America. They feared anarchy and the rise of factions whose policies would not represent the true will of the people. Hence, the government which they designed contains many aspects of a republic; that is, an indirect democracy in which the people do not vote directly on the laws, but instead elect representatives who vote for them.

Question 46

Land claims and squabbles in North America

Answer 46

The British controlled the colonies on the east coast, and the French held the land around the Mississippi and west of it. Both the British and the French laid claim to Canada and the Ohio Valley region.

Question 47

Differences between French and British colonization

Answer 47

The British settled mainly along the coast, where they started farms, towns, and governments. As a general rule, whole families emigrated. The British colonies had little interaction with the local Indians (aside from occasional fighting). The French colonized the interior, where they controlled the fur trade. Most of the French immigrants were single men, and there were few towns and only loose governmental authority. The French lived closely with the Indians, trading with them for furs and sometimes taking Indian wives.

Question 48

Queen Anne’s War, 1702-1713

Answer 48

The second of the four wars known generally as the French and Indian Wars, it arose out of issues left unresolved by King Williams’ War (1689-1697) and was part of a larger European conflict known as the War of the Spanish Succession. Britain, allied with the Netherlands, defeated France and Spain to gain territory in Canada, even though the British had suffered defeats in most of their military operations in North America.

Question 49

Peace of Utrecht, 1713

Answer 49

Ended Queen Anne’s War. Undermined France’s power in North America by giving Britain the Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia.

Question 50

War of Jenkin’s Ear (1739-1743)

Answer 50

Land squabble between Britain and Spain over Georgia and trading rights. Battles took place in the Caribbean and on the Florida/Georgia border. The name comes from a British captain named Jenkin, whose ear was cut off by the Spanish.

Question 51

King George’s War (1744-1748)

Answer 51

Land squabble between France and Britain. France tried to retake Nova Scotia (which it had lost to Britain in Queen Anne’s War). The war ended with a treaty restoring the status quo, so that Britain kept Nova Scotia).