Chapter 2: England and Its American Colonies, 1607–1732
CORE OBJECTIVES
1. Identify the economic, political, and religious motivations for the establishment of England’s
TRUE/FALSE
1. Although English settlers along the American coast may have expected the area to be
uninhabited wilderness, the region was already well populated.
2. The most important organizational innovation of the Age of Exploration was the joint-stock
company.
3. Englishmen had a very well-developed sense of liberty as a result of the Magna Carta and
the establishment of Parliament.
4. As a result of the Glorious Revolution, England abolished the monarchy and became a
republic.
5. The Virginia Company was a joint-stock company.
6. English settlers arriving in Virginia in 1607 prospered quickly because of the abundance of
fertile lands and wild game.
7. Sir Edwin Sandys took over the Virginia Company in 1618 and instituted important changes
that stabilized the colony.
8. Due to its harsh winters, New England’s death rate was higher than that of Maryland or
Virginia.
9. After being banished from Massachusetts because of his strict interpretation of the Puritan
faith, Roger Williams founded Rhode Island.
10. The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina established a formal nobility and provided for
religious toleration.
11. New Netherland became a very ethnically diverse region of the American colonies.
12. An attack led by Indians in 1622 killed about one fourth of Virginia’s settlers along the
James River.
13. By the mid-1670s, many of Virginia’s free white adult men owned no land, and squatting,
wandering, and poaching became significant problems.
14. Puritan Roger Williams was considered dangerous by Puritan leaders because he insisted
that all faiths—including Native American faiths—should be treated equally.
15. The rapid growth of slavery in the Americas was driven by profits and racist attitudes that
viewed Africans as property rather than human beings.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Which of the following was a primary goal the English government had for the
American colonies?
a. To provide England with raw materials
b. To establish a global trade network with Native Americans
c. To establish a new nation
d. To establish a penal colony to ease overcrowding of English prisons
e. To create a space for religious freedom
2. By the time of the English colonization of the Americas, the monarchy shared power
with __________, a government body of both appointed and elected members.
a. the House of Burgesses
b. Parliament
c. Congress
d. the Assembly of Peers
e. the Peerage
3. Which religious movement in England desired to return to a more simple, basic type of
worship?
a. Dunkers
b. Puritans
c. Calvinists
d. Lutherans
e. Separatists
4. An example of the political turmoil that induced English citizens to consider moving to the
new British colonies during the 1600s was
a. frequent wars between the English and the Scots.
b. political intrigue amongst the nobles seeking to overthrow the Commonwealth.
c. the violence that erupted when the Long Parliament was disbanded and new elections
were demanded.
d. the struggle for authority between King Charles I and Parliament.
e. the execution of Queen Elizabeth for adultery.
5. A charge given to the Virginia Company by King James I, which was quickly abandoned,
was
a. that war be waged against the French.
b. that privateers attack and seize Spanish shipping from Central America.
c. the conversion of the godless Native Americans to Christianity.
d. the seizure of lands from the French in Quebec.
e. the destruction of the Huguenots in Florida for heresy.
6. One of the major problems affecting the Virginia colony when it was first settled was that
a. its supplies were lost at sea when the Mayflower sank.
b. its first settlers were either townsmen or gentlemen who didn’t know how to farm.
c. it was almost destroyed when the Spanish discovered the colony and set fire to it.
d. Native Americans raided its supplies to survive the winter, leaving the colonists without
sufficient food.
e. colonists were too busy finding gold to plant food to survive.
7. The Virginia colony began to grow and eventually prosper when John Rolfe
a. began growing tobacco for export to England.
b. discovered gold on the Yorktown Peninsula.
c. married Pocahontas and established an alliance with her father, ending the wars
between the colony and the Powhatans.
d. established the headright system in the colony to bring the population under his control.
e. introduced slavery to make up for the labor shortage.
8. Sir Edwin Sandys established __________ in the Virginia colony in an attempt to make it
more profitable.
a. slavery
b. headrights
c. trading posts
d. ports
e. naval bases
9. Maryland was different from the rest of the English colonies in that it was a __________
colony, owned by Lord Baltimore.
a. proprietary
b. royal
c. penal
d. secular
e. slave-owning
10. Why didn’t the colony of Maryland succeed as a Catholic colony?
a. Catholics were heavily persecuted by the natives of the region.
b. Parliament refused to fund a “popish” colony.
c. Too few Catholics settled there.
d. Settlers felt that they were too far from Rome.
e. Most Catholics knew little about farming.
11. What was one major way that the colonists settling in New England differed from those in
the original Jamestown colony?
a. They sought freedom of religion from the Catholicism of Great Britain.
b. They were more interested in making a profit off of the land than were those in
Jamestown.
c. They were of the middle class, and most could pay their own way.
d. They fled from the violence in Great Britain during the Glorious Revolution.
e. Many of them were elite plantation owners.
12. Pilgrim Separatists aboard the Mayflower signed a “democratic” document called the
__________ in which they agreed to abide by laws made by leaders of their own choosing.
a. Articles of Confederation
b. Pilgrim Contract
c. Bill of Concessions
d. Mayflower Compact
e. Anglican Confessional
13. By the late 1610s, what religious group had been persecuted, fled to Holland, then finally
established the colony of Plymouth?
a. Puritans
b. Separatists
c. Dunkers
d. Quakers
e. Calvinists
14. Settling with the Narragansett Indian tribe, this religious reformer established Rhode Island.
a. John Smith
b. Roger Williams
c. John Winthrop
d. Benjamin Franklin
e. Anne Hutchinson
15. Led by John Winthrop, this group of religious reformers desired to establish a new colony
that would be a model Christian community.
a. Puritans
b. Separatists
c. Dunkers
d. Quakers
e. Jesuits
16. Which colony came into existence due to the recruitment of planters from the already
established Caribbean colony of Barbados?
a. Massachusetts
b. Maryland
c. Pennsylvania
d. South Carolina
e. Connecticut
17. The proprietors of South Carolina recruited settlers from __________ to settle their colony
and avoid labor issues.
a. Barbados
b. Cuba
c. the Canary Islands
d. the Isle of Man
e. Virginia
18. The first Jewish colonists who arrived in the New World were primarily of __________
descent.
a. Iranian