TEST BANK
Learning Objectives
1. Explain how equality became a stronger component of American freedom after the Revolution.
2. Describe how the expansion of religious liberty after the Revolution reflected the new American ideal of freedom.
3. Explain how the definition of economic freedom changed after the Revolution and identify who benefited from the changes.
4. Explain how the Revolution diminished the freedoms of both Loyalists and Native Americans.
5. Describe the impact the Revolution had on slavery.
6. Explain how the Revolution affected the status of women.
Multiple Choice
1. In regard to rights for women, Abigail Adams
a. insisted that women accept their lower status in society.
b. feared education would distract women from domestic chores.
c. wanted women to be eligible to be president.
d. believed laws should not ignore women.
e. thought women should be tyrannical in demanding more rights.
2. Abigail Adams
a. fought in the Continental army disguised as a man.
b. criticized the absolute power that husbands exercised over wives.
c. rejected the prevailing belief that a woman’s primary responsibility was to her family.
d. believed that women should not be concerned with politics.
e. petitioned for women’s right to vote.
3. As a result of the American Revolution, Americans rejected
a. the idea that males should be the unchallenged heads of household.
b. the principle of hereditary aristocracy.
c. the establishment of a republic.
d. the definition of liberty as a universal entitlement.
e. all kinds of organized religion.
4. How did the Revolutionary War change the meaning of freedom?
a. It meant that all men now had a legal claim to an equal distribution of property.
b. It challenged the inequality that had been fundamental to the colonial social order.
c. It ended colonial society’s legally established hereditary aristocracy.
d. It ended coverture, under which husbands exercised full legal authority over their wives.
e. It meant that, for the first time, men were free to pursue whatever occupations they wished.
5. Which of the following statements accurately describes class stratification in the United States following the War for
Independence?
a. Due to British economic policies, there were virtually no wealthy people in America in the 1780s, and thus, the new nation
already had many of the conditions that were ideal for bringing about true equality.
b. The majority of the owners of large estates in America still resided in England, so most Americans after the Revolution were on
equal footing economically and could identify with one another.
c. The Revolution opened up opportunities in America for public debates and political and social struggles that enlarged the
scope of freedom and challenged inherited structures of power.
d. Because the Revolution had been so destructive and controversial, for several decades the new nation had fewer opportunities
for freedom and equality than the American colonies originally had.
e. Because the Revolution had been led predominantly by the lower classes with members of the upper classes remaining
uninvolved, the ideas of Thomas Paine only went so far in the new nation.
6. Following the Revolution, what word became forever linked with freedom?
a. power
b. leadership
c. obedience
d. peace
e. equality
7. Which of the following definitions of democracy matches the ideal that dominated American thought following the American
Revolution?
a. a system in which the entire population was automatically granted a direct say in political decisions
b. the principle that men and women served as equal heads of the household and should both have a role in government
c. an aspiration for greater social equality and expanded political knowledge and political participation
d. a return to the purity and simplicity of premodern societies in which there were fewer laws
e. a system nearly identical to the British governing structure, but with the new states now enjoying representation
8. What served as a sort of “school of political democracy” for the members of the “lower orders” in the colonies –turned-
states?
a. the Protestant churches
b. the lower houses of the state legislatures
c. the taverns
d. the militia
e. the first public schools
9. How did the Revolutionary War’s radical potential play out in Pennsylvania?
a. Benjamin Franklin’s departure for France left control of the state up for grabs, and the lower classes took over.
b. The prewar elite had supported independence, then tried to negotiate with Great Britain, costing themselves the respect of the
lower classes, who took power from them.
c. Philadelphia’s artisan and lower-class communities took control and put a new emphasis on freedom and on more democratic
politics.
d. The Second Continental Congress had to take over the state when the people voted to abolish the position of governor,
thereby showing how the new nation’s power dynamic would differ greatly from the old system.
e. Just through the population retaining the old style of government, they demonstrated that major change was possible without
uprooting the whole system.
10. How did the prewar elite in Pennsylvania differ from that in other colonies?
a. The prewar elite in Pennsylvania was equally split between support for Britain and support for American independence.
b. The entire prewar elite in Pennsylvania was sympathetic to the revolutionary cause.
c. Almost all prewar Pennsylvania elites supported the revolutionary cause in name only, while secretly passing information to
the British.
d. Prewar Pennsylvania elites were drastically more outspoken about their political position (patriotism) than other elite
colonists.
e. Nearly the entire prewar elite in Pennsylvania opposed independence.
11. What development in Pennsylvania made it possible for men of modest wealth to gain significant political influence following
the Revolution?
f. the settlement of Philadelphia and smaller cities by Quaker dissidents
g. a series of “whiskey rebellions” in the state in the 1770s
h. the establishment of free public education for all males in 1745
i. the fact that almost the entire prewar elite there had opposed independence
j. the ethnic diversity of the Pennsylvania population
12. In Pennsylvania, new leaders like Thomas Paine and Benjamin Rush wanted to see what occur with regard to voting rights?
a. They realized angry mobs could get out of hand, so voting had to be limited.
b. They wanted every proposed law to be voted on by all citizens.
c. Voting requirements needed to eliminate property qualifications.
d. The votes of merchants should count double those of citizens who did not own property.
e. They criticized the idea of equality in regard to voting.
13. In his Thoughts on Government (1776), John Adams advocated state constitutions that provided for
a. a powerful governor and a two-house legislature that reflected the division of society between wealthy and ordinary men.
b. a legislature elected and controlled entirely by the wealthy, with a weak governor elected by the people so that they would
feel that they had a role.
c. voting rights for all men at least twenty-one years old regardless of property ownership.
d. centralizing political power in a one-house legislature and dispensing with the office of governor.
e. allowing women who owned a certain amount of property to vote but preventing them from holding political office.
14. Which of the following did the majority of the new postwar state constitutions tend to establish?
a. a two-house legislature and a relatively weak governor
b. a two-house legislature subordinate to a strong governor
c. a one-house legislature and a relatively weak governor
d. a one-house legislature subordinate to a strong governor
e. a two-house legislature with no governor
15. Which qualification for voting was most widely discussed following the Revolution and resulted in the most variations across the
new state constitutions?
a. the ability to read
b. gender
c. property qualifications
d. educational attainment
e. knowledge of more than one language besides English
16. In the 1770s and 1780s, what was a characteristic of voting rights?
a. They were not uniform, as each state’s constitution had different stipulations.
b. A person of any religious faith could vote.
c. No African-Americans were allowed to vote.
d. Women could vote in the New England states.
e. In every state, a person had to demonstrate his wealth by showing a land deed or bank account.
17. The new state constitutions created during the Revolutionary War
a. completely eliminated property qualifications for voting.
b. became far more democratic in the southern states than in the northern states.
c. greatly expanded the right to vote in almost every state.
d. did nothing to change the composition of elite-dominated state legislatures.
e. all retained tax-supported churches as a way of ensuring a virtuous citizenry.
18. The constitution ________ put the fewest restrictions on voting rights.
a. Pennsylvania
b. Vermont
c. New York
d. South Carolina
e. Maryland
19. Which statement is accurate about voting rights in new states during the 1780s?
a. All adult white men could vote in every state.
b. A large majority of the adult white male population could meet voting requirements, except in Virginia, Maryland, and New
York.
c. Adult women with property could vote in every state except New Jersey.
d. Vermont had the highest property requirements for voting.
e. Free black men who met general tax and property requirements could vote in Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia.
20. Which state’s constitution granted suffrage to all “inhabitants” who met a property qualification, allowing property-owning
women to vote until an 1807 amendment limited suffrage to males?
a. New York
b. Virginia
c. New Jersey
d. Massachusetts
e. Pennsylvania
21. An example of anti–Catholicism during the 1770s was the
a. barring of Catholics from southern state militias.
b. Second Continental Congress’s refusal to accept aid from Catholic France.
c. widespread arrests of Catholics as potential British spies by Pennsylvania authorities.
d. famous attack on a Boston convent by Massachusetts minutemen.
e. First Continental Congress’s denunciation of the Quebec Act.
22. How did the War for Independence affect anti-Catholicism in America?
a. Anti-Catholicism increased when Quebec Catholics volunteered in large numbers for the British army.
b. Because Americans resented Catholic France negotiating a separate peace with Great Britain, anti-Catholicism became more
prevalent.
c. Independence led the states to impose anti-Catholic laws that they had been unable to adopt when they were under British
control.
d. The alliance with France, a predominantly Catholic country, helped diminish American anti-Catholicism.
e. Spain’s wartime aid to Britain led Georgia colonists to attack Catholic missions in Florida.
23. Which of the following statements accurately describes the religious views expressed by founding fathers such as Thomas
Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton?
a. They attributed the American victory in the Revolutionary War almost entirely to divine intervention and, thus, wished for
religion to play a prominent role in the new government.
b. They wanted to implement some form of separation between church and state but argued that states in the new nation must
keep their established, publicly funded churches.
c. They rejected the idea of a benevolent Creator and sought to convince early Americans to treat atheism as the belief system
underlying the separation of church and state.
d. They sought to avoid religious conflicts in the new nation and viewed religious doctrines through the Enlightenment lens of
rationalism and skepticism.
e. They promoted the expansion of religions such as Judaism within the new nation to increase diversity and successfully kept
the new states from barring Jews from voting.
24. What was the response to the idea of the separation of church and state in America after the Revolution?
a. Catholics filled the majority of leadership positions in the new nation because the Catholic Church had long enjoyed a
privileged status in the colonies.
b. Because religion had played such a small role in the American colonies, very little changed after the Revolution, and few
Americans acknowledged any sort of shift between church and state.
c. The Anglican Church quickly became the dominant religion in the new nation because the idea of separating church and
state had so little popular support.
d. Both deists and evangelical leaders supported this idea and believed there to be freeing aspects of having a government that
functioned outside of religious control.
e. Religious leaders completely abandoned the traditional definition of Christian liberty to no longer involve submitting to God’s
will and leading a moral life.
25. Which of the following is true of how the new state constitutions in the Revolutionary era dealt with the issue of religious
liberty?
a. Several states finally allowed Jews to vote and to hold public office.
b. States increased public funding of religion because they no longer had to win British approval to do so.
c. Seven state constitutions began with a declaration of rights that included a commitment to “the free exercise of religion.”
d. Thomas Jefferson wrote a “Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom” in Virginia, but the House of Burgesses never adopted it.
e. Deists and evangelicals fought with one another over whether church and state should be separate.
26. Which statement is accurate about religious freedom in the United States during the early republic period?
a. Deists sought to separate church and state in order to free politics from religious control.
b. Jews gained the right to vote and hold public office in most states.
c. Seven states limited officeholding to Catholics.
d. Throughout the country, Muslims gained the right to vote.
e. Throughout the country, states established new nondenominational churches.
27. Based on Jefferson’s writings regarding “tyranny over the mind of man,” which of the following was most troubling to him?
a. Enlightenment ideals
b. public financing of religious institutions
c. the lack of a king to take on certain responsibilities
d. the principle of coverture
e. John Locke’s ideas
28. For which three accomplishments did Thomas Jefferson wish to be remembered?
a. presidency, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution
b. Louisiana Purchase, presidency, the Declaration of Independence
c. the Constitution, the University of Virginia, presidency
d. the “Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom,” the Declaration of Independence, Louisiana Purchase
e. the Declaration of Independence, the University of Virginia, the “Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom”
29. Which statement best represents how the founders viewed the United States’ role in the world?
a. as a model of peaceful relations between indigenous people and settlers
b. as a refuge for persecuted and oppressed people of every nation
c. as a model of gender equality
d. as a model of a post-slavery society
e. as a model of a socialist economy
30. As a result of the religious freedom created by the Revolution,
a. organized religion became less important in American life over the next thirty years.
b. upstart churches began challenging the well-established churches.
c. the number of religious denominations in the United States declined.
d. violent struggles between religious groups were not uncommon in the backcountry.
e. tax-supported churches flourished in every state in the new nation.
31. As a result of greater religious freedom, the number of religious denominations in the early republic
a. decreased dramatically.
b. decreased somewhat.
c. increased dramatically.
d. stayed about the same.
e. is not known.
32. Which of the following describes what Samuel Adams meant when he described America as a “Christian Sparta”?
a. a nation focused mainly on spreading Christianity to Native Americans and slaves now that the war was over
b. a nation in which Christian morality and personal self-discipline created an exemplary citizenry
c. a nation committed to the separation of church and state such that religious values were absent from the conversation
d. a nation that had the moral obligation of all Christians to dedicate themselves to abolishing slavery
e. a nation that required all Christians to commit their lives to political service in the new republic
33. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Rush, and John Adams advocated for the creation of free, state-supported schools primarily because
a. they believed the schools should train Americans in trades and farmwork.
b. they believed all citizens should have military training in case another war broke out with Britain.
c. they believed the schools should teach citizens about the Puritan faith.
d. they believed educating citizens was necessary if a government based on liberty and the will of the people was to survive.
e. they believed the best way to get citizens to comply with the laws of the land was to have students memorize laws from an
early age.
34. Patriot leaders worried about how difficult it would be to encourage the quality of “virtue” in the new society. Which of the
following describes what they meant by “virtue”?
a. the ability of citizens to value the public good over self-interest
b. the guarantee that Native Americans would keep their lands
c. the promise that women would be able to own their own property
d. the voluntary freeing of slaves by slave owners
e. the requirement that education remain untouched by government
35. To encourage virtue in future citizens, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
a. asked for the Declaration of Independence to be read every month at the town square.
b. proposed free public education.
c. wanted church attendance to be mandatory.
d. proposed that ministers become teachers in public schools.
e. wanted a second revolution.
36. What was Thomas Jefferson’s primary motivation for advocating for public education?
a. to make religion a prominent part of schooling
b. to increase ignorance so that government leaders could get away with more
c. to increase the number of merchants
d. to make the people more informed voters
e. to improve relations with the native Americans
37. Why did apprenticeship and indentured servitude decline after the Revolution?
a. King George III had supported those ideas, and anything associated with the king was unpopular in the United States.
b. Many apprentices and indentures had refused to fight in the Revolution, and their bosses, resenting them for it, got rid of
them.
c. Thomas Paine’s criticism of them in Common Sense greatly influenced the many who had read his pamphlet.
d. Northerners were outlawing slavery in their state constitutions and began to eliminate apprenticeship and indentured servitude
as well amid southern charges of hypocrisy.
e. The lack of freedom inherent in apprenticeship and indentured servitude struck growing numbers of Americans as
incompatible with republican citizenship.
38. Why did John Adams believe that land ownership was vital to society?
a. He opposed slavery and felt that if small farmers owned land, they would have the power to outvote slaveowners.
b. If more people owned land, it would be less likely that fixed and unequal social classes would emerge.
c. Land ownership would make people more conservative, and that would counteract any democratic impulses.
d. Government would have to encourage it, and Adams believed in an activist federal government.
e. Adams had lost his land when he took the unpopular position of representing British soldiers who participated in the Boston
Massacre, and he knew how important the issue was.
39. By 1800, which type of labor had all but disappeared from the United States?
a. indentured servitude
b. wage labor
c. slavery
d. paid domestic service
e. child labor
40. What condition did both Noah Webster and John Adams identify as being vital for social equality?
a. the freeing of the slaves
b. effective wage and price controls
c. the absence of religion from public morality
d. women’s suffrage
e. widespread land ownership
41. Most free Americans in the early republic believed that “equality” required
a. equal opportunity.
b. limits to the amount of land an individual could own.
c. communal landownership.
d. returning Indian lands to the tribes.
e. abolishing slavery.
42. Which of the following economic developments occurred in the years immediately following the American Revolution?
a. The nation experienced record levels of deflation.
b. Agriculture and trade were thriving, with the number of goods on the market at an all-time high.
c. Some merchants hoarded goods, hoping to profit from shortages.
d. Congress kept the states from fixing wages and prices under any circumstances.
e. The concept of free trade was rejected under the new government, essentially without any debate.
43. Which of the following contributed to the success of free trade advocates during the Revolutionary War?
a. the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations
b. Isaac Newton’s explanation of the law of gravity as applied to economics
c. the failure of wartime tariffs to solve the problem of the national debt
d. riots over inflation in the streets of Boston
e. memories of the despised Intolerable Acts
44. The British Navigation Acts contradicted the ideas
a. of Abigail Adams in her letter to her husband about women’s rights.
b. in The Wealth of Nations.
c. in Circle of the Social and Benevolent Affections.
d. of the freedom petitions by slaves.
e. in Thomas Jefferson’s “Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom.”
45. What did Adam Smith argue in The Wealth of Nations?
a. Regulation of trade was the cornerstone of government.
b. The “invisible hand” of the free market directed economic life more effectively and fairly than governmental intervention.
c. Sacrificing for the public good was necessary for a thriving economy.
d. Unregulated economic freedom would lead to the destruction of social harmony.
e. A free market would concentrate wealth in the hands of very few elites.
46. Approximately how many free Americans remained loyal to the British during the war?
a. 5 to 10 percent
b. 10 to 15 percent
c. 20 to 25 percent
d. 30 to 35 percent
e. 45 to 50 percent
47. Which of the following individuals would have been most likely to be loyal to the British during the American Revolution?
a. a coastal South Carolina planter who was dependent on slave labor
b. a Boston craftsman who was also a militia member
c. a Massachusetts merchant who was losing business because of the British East India monopoly on tea
d. an Anglican minister in New York seeking to expand his congregation
e. a Virginia landowner hoping to increase his holdings west of the Appalachian Mountains
48. Which of the following is true regarding the treatment of those who remained loyal to Britain during the American Revolution?
a. Patriots welcomed Loyalists back as a key part of the new nation, emphatically establishing forgiveness as the foundation of
the country.
b. There had been so few Loyalists in the Revolution in the first place that the presence of Loyalists largely went unnoticed after
the war.
c. Loyalists always kept their property but sometimes had to share a percentage of their earnings as part of their repentance.
d. A number of captured Loyalists were sold into slavery in Canada because the number of African-American slaves had hit an
all-time low.
e. Many Loyalists were physically assaulted for expressing their views, as the war was, in many ways, a civil war.
49. What key role did Loyalist exiles serve in Canada?
a. They helped inspire future rebellions in Canada.
b. Most wanted to ban slavery in Canada.
c. They hoped to mount an attack on the United States in order to restore it as a British colony.
d. They pushed for an alliance with France.
e. They refused to trade goods with the United States.
50. The Loyalists’ exile had a profound impact on
a. Spain.
b. France.
c. Canada.
d. Mexico.
e. Brazil.
51. What approach did the new American government take toward Native Americans in the years following the Revolution?
a. forcing them to convert to Christianity or face mass extermination
b. attempting to “Americanize” their children in special private schools
c. moving them to reservations on vastly reduced portions of their traditional territories
d. dispossessing them of their land and forcing them west of the Mississippi River
e. relocating nearly all of them to British colonies in the West Indies
52. Which statement is accurate regarding the impact of American independence on Native Americans?
a. Indian tribes were given formal recognition by the Treaty of Paris, which established them as an independent nation.
b. Indians stood firm in their support of the British, who reciprocated by creating an Indian confederacy between Canada and the
United States.
c. Independence resulted in efforts to complete the process of dispossessing Indians of their lands in the new nation.
d. Native Americans were largely unaffected by American independence, because they had already fled to Canada during the
Seven Years’ War.
e. The Declaration of Independence asserted that Native Americans’ property rights must be respected in the United States.
53. Joseph Brant, a young Mohawk,
a. wanted to create an Indian confederacy between Canada and the United States.
b. allied with the Continental Congress and led troops against the British in the Great Lakes region.
c. represented Indian interests at the negotiations of the Treaty of Paris.
d. urged all Indians to move west of the Mississippi River to preserve their cultures from “contamination” by whites.
e. was appointed first governor-general of Upper Canada in 1781.
54. In 1776, when the colonists declared their independence and formed the United States,
a. 500,000 enslaved people lived in the new nation, comprising one-fifth of the total population of the United States.
b. the enslaved population was at its peak in American history and would decline rapidly in the decades ahead.
c. 10,000 of the new nation’s inhabitants were enslaved people, which was 4 percent of the total population.
d. all enslaved people became free.
e. slavery only existed in the southern colonies.
55. After the American Revolution, who held the balance of power between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River?
a. Iroquois
b. Shawnee
c. British
d. French
e. Americans
56. Who said, “What man is or ever was born free if every man is not?”
a. Thomas Jefferson
b. Abigail Adams
c. James Otis
d. Dr. Samuel Johnson
e. James Madison
57. In a famous speech to Parliament, the British statesman Edmund Burke said what regarding a link between slavery and liberty for
American colonists?
a. He argued that the colonists were sensitive to threats to their liberties because they were so familiar with slavery.
b. He said the colonists were hypocrites for claiming to be pro-liberty while they themselves owned slaves.
c. He said John Locke’s ideas about property rights meant colonists were justified in claiming that their liberty included slave
ownership rights.
d. He praised liberty-loving Pennsylvanians for organizing the world’s first antislavery society.
e. He stated that a threat to liberty anywhere is a threat to liberty everywhere, so American slavery threatened British freedom.
58. Virtually every founding father owned at least one slave at some point in his life. Who was a notable exception?
a. George Washington
b. John Adams
c. Thomas Jefferson
d. Benjamin Franklin
e. James Madison
59. What did South Carolina and Georgia promise every white volunteer at the war’s end?
a. a musket of his own
b. two acres of land
c. the right to vote
d. one hundred shillings
e. a slave
60. How did the ideas of John Locke influence the question of abolition?
a. Protecting property in the form of slaves was invoked as a natural right.
b. His belief that all people possessed a divine “inner light” was used to condemn slavery.
c. The economic rights of slave holders over others were discussed as sacred and inalienable.
d. The conversion of slaves to Christianity was presented as “God’s plan for the world.”
e. His publicized freeing of his own slaves inspired others to do the same.
61. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence,
a. he had not owned any slaves for several years.
b. he was inspired to set all his slaves free.
c. he was one of just two founding fathers who had never owned slaves.