Colonial America & the Founding

26 questions · Answers revealed below each question · Print this set

1.Who became the first Chief Justice of the United States?
- A. John Jay
- B. Oliver Ellsworth
- C. James Wilson
- D. John Marshall
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John Jay
Did you know? Jay resigned as Chief Justice in 1795 to govern New York.
2.Which 1798 laws restricted immigration and criticism of the government?
- A. the Intolerable Acts
- B. the Homestead Act
- C. the Alien and Sedition Acts
- D. the Judiciary Act of 1789
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the Alien and Sedition Acts
Did you know? Jefferson and Madison answered the acts with the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.
3.Which young French nobleman volunteered for the Continental Army and became Washington's aide?
- A. Baron von Steuben
- B. the Marquis de Lafayette
- C. the Comte de Rochambeau
- D. the Comte de Grasse
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the Marquis de Lafayette
Did you know? Lafayette served without pay and named his son George Washington Lafayette.
4.Which 1619 arrival at Jamestown began over two centuries of enslavement in English America?
- A. the first Irish indentured workers
- B. the first Chinese laborers
- C. the first enslaved Africans
- D. the first German immigrants
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the first enslaved Africans
Did you know? In 1619 a ship carrying enslaved Africans reached Point Comfort, Virginia.
5.Which plan, offered by Edmund Randolph, proposed representation proportional to population?
- A. the Virginia Plan
- B. the Albany Plan
- C. the Connecticut Compromise
- D. the New Jersey Plan
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the Virginia Plan
Did you know? The Virginia Plan favored the large states with population-based representation.
6.Which eagle-borne seal motto, meaning "out of many, one," was adopted in 1782?
- A. Novus ordo seclorum
- B. E pluribus unum
- C. In God we trust
- D. Annuit coeptis
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E pluribus unum
Did you know? "E pluribus unum" first appeared on the Great Seal of 1782.
7.Which Prussian officer drilled the Continental Army at Valley Forge?
- A. Baron von Steuben
- B. Casimir Pulaski
- C. the Marquis de Lafayette
- D. Thaddeus Kosciuszko
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Baron von Steuben
Did you know? Von Steuben's drill manual standardized the Continental Army's training.
8.Which crop became the foundation of South Carolina's colonial economy alongside rice?
- A. corn
- B. indigo
- C. wheat
- D. tobacco
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indigo
Did you know? Indigo dye became a major export of colonial South Carolina.
9.How many states had to ratify the Constitution for it to take effect?
- A. seven
- B. nine
- C. eleven
- D. thirteen
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nine
Did you know? Article VII required ratification by nine of the thirteen states.
10.In which year were the first ten amendments to the Constitution ratified?
- A. 1791
- B. 1789
- C. 1787
- D. 1793
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1791
Did you know? Virginia's ratification in December 1791 completed the Bill of Rights.
11.Which river became the new western boundary of the United States under the 1783 Treaty of Paris?
- A. the Potomac River
- B. the Ohio River
- C. the Mississippi River
- D. the Missouri River
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the Mississippi River
Did you know? The 1783 treaty set the Mississippi as the nation's western border.
12.Which colony did James Oglethorpe found in 1732 as a home for debtors?
- A. Georgia
- B. the Carolinas
- C. Virginia
- D. Florida
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Georgia
Did you know? Georgia, founded in 1732, was the last of the thirteen colonies.
13.Which naval commander, aboard the Bonhomme Richard, answered "I have not yet begun to fight!"?
- A. John Paul Jones
- B. John Barry
- C. Oliver Hazard Perry
- D. Benedict Arnold
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John Paul Jones
Did you know? Jones's victory over HMS Serapis in 1779 made him the father of the US Navy.
14.Which young officer was executed by the British in 1776 after saying he regretted having but one life to give?
- A. Nathan Hale
- B. Francis Marion
- C. Paul Revere
- D. John Paul Jones
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Nathan Hale
Did you know? Hale was caught spying in New York; his last words entered American memory.
15.Which preacher of the First Great Awakening delivered "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"?
- A. George Whitefield
- B. Cotton Mather
- C. Jonathan Edwards
- D. John Winthrop
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Jonathan Edwards
Did you know? Jonathan Edwards's 1741 sermon became the emblem of the Great Awakening.
16.Which delegate polished the final wording of the Constitution, including the Preamble?
- A. Alexander Hamilton
- B. Roger Sherman
- C. James Madison
- D. Gouverneur Morris
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Gouverneur Morris
Did you know? Morris, of Pennsylvania, actually penned the "We the People" opening.
17.Which enslaved woman, freed by New Hampshire courts in 1781, sued for her liberty and won?
- A. Sojourner Truth
- B. Harriet Tubman
- C. Elizabeth Freeman
- D. Phillis Wheatley
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Elizabeth Freeman
Did you know? "Mum Bett" argued the new state constitution made all men free and equal.
18.Which French admiral's fleet sealed off the Chesapeake before the siege of Yorktown?
- A. the Comte d'Estaing
- B. Pierre L'Enfant
- C. the Comte de Grasse
- D. the Comte de Rochambeau
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the Comte de Grasse
Did you know? De Grasse's victory at the Battle of the Chesapeake trapped Cornwallis.
19.Which act of 1649 in Maryland guaranteed freedom of worship to Trinitarian Christians?
- A. the Quartering Act
- B. the Stamp Act
- C. the Maryland Toleration Act
- D. the Declaratory Act
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the Maryland Toleration Act
Did you know? Maryland's Toleration Act of 1649 protected Christian worship in the colony.
20.Which 1795 treaty with Spain gave the US navigation rights on the Mississippi?
- A. Pinckney's Treaty
- B. the Louisiana Purchase treaty
- C. the Treaty of Paris of 1783
- D. Jay's Treaty
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Pinckney's Treaty
Did you know? Pinckney's Treaty, also called Treaty of San Lorenzo, opened the Mississippi to American trade.
21.Which partisan leader of South Carolina was nicknamed the "Swamp Fox"?
- A. Francis Marion
- B. Thomas Sumter
- C. Nathanael Greene
- D. Daniel Morgan
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Francis Marion
Did you know? Marion's fast-moving raids earned him the nickname Swamp Fox.
22.Which document of 1639 is called the first written constitution in the American colonies?
- A. the Maryland Toleration Act
- B. the Fundamental Orders
- C. the Mayflower Compact
- D. the Albany Plan
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the Fundamental Orders
Did you know? Connecticut's Fundamental Orders of 1639 framed a government by written charter.
23.Which state's statute, drafted by Jefferson in 1786, first separated church and state by law?
- A. Virginia's Statute for Religious Freedom
- B. the Massachusetts Body of Liberties
- C. the Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges
- D. the Maryland Toleration Act
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Virginia's Statute for Religious Freedom
Did you know? Virginia's 1786 statute became the model for the First Amendment.
24.Which October 1780 battle in the Carolina backcountry crushed a Loyalist militia force?
- A. the Battle of Eutaw Springs
- B. the Siege of Charleston
- C. the Battle of Cowpens
- D. the Battle of Kings Mountain
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the Battle of Kings Mountain
Did you know? Kings Mountain, fought entirely by Americans, boosted the patriot southern cause.
25.Which treaty of 1795, negotiated by John Jay, averted war with Britain for a decade?
- A. the Treaty of Paris
- B. Pinckney's Treaty
- C. the Treaty of Ghent
- D. Jay's Treaty
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Jay's Treaty
Did you know? Jay's Treaty cleared British forts from the Northwest Territory.
26.Which January 1781 battle in South Carolina saw Daniel Morgan crush Banastre Tarleton's legion?
- A. the Battle of Guilford Court House
- B. the Battle of Cowpens
- C. the Battle of Camden
- D. the Battle of Kings Mountain
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the Battle of Cowpens
Did you know? Cowpens was a model double envelopment that shattered Tarleton's Legion.

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