U.S. History Practice Test: Colonial America
- Colonial America
- 10 questions
- 12 minutes
These 10 questions cover the English colonies from the founding of Jamestown to the middle of the 1700s. When two colonies seem to fit, ask who founded each one and why.
Tap an option to mark your answer. You can change your mind, or tap the same option again to leave the question blank. The correct answers and explanations appear when you finish the test.Tap an option to answer; tap it again to leave the question blank.
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Question 1
In 1607, English settlers founded the first permanent English settlement in North America. Where was it located?
Correct answer: B
Jamestown was founded in 1607 on the James River in Virginia. The earlier Roanoke colony in present-day North Carolina disappeared, so it was not permanent.
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Question 2
Which crop gave the Jamestown colony a profitable export and kept it alive economically?
Correct answer: D
John Rolfe began growing a sweeter tobacco around 1612, and its sale in England made the colony profitable. Cotton became a major Southern crop much later, after the cotton gin of 1793.
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Question 3
Before going ashore in 1620, the Pilgrims on the Mayflower signed an agreement. What was it?
Correct answer: A
The Mayflower Compact was an early agreement for self-government: the signers agreed to make and follow just laws for the common good. The Pilgrims had separated from the Church of England, so they would not make it official.
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Question 4
What was the main reason the Puritans founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s?
Correct answer: C
The Puritans wanted to reform their faith and build a model Christian society, a "city upon a hill." A refuge for Catholics describes Maryland, not Massachusetts.
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Question 5
Which colony did William Penn found as a place where Quakers and other groups could worship freely?
Correct answer: B
Penn, a Quaker, received a charter in 1681 and called his colony a "holy experiment" in religious tolerance. Maryland was founded by the Calverts mainly as a haven for Catholics.
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Question 6
After he was banished from Massachusetts for his religious views, Roger Williams founded a settlement that became which colony?
Correct answer: A
Williams founded Providence in 1636, and Rhode Island became known for separating church and state. Connecticut was founded mainly by Thomas Hooker and his followers.
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Question 7
What was the Virginia House of Burgesses, first meeting in 1619?
Correct answer: D
The House of Burgesses was made up of representatives chosen by colonists, which made it the first elected legislature in English America. The first colonial college was Harvard, founded in 1636 in Massachusetts.
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Question 8
What does the term "Middle Passage" describe?
Correct answer: C
In the Atlantic trade, the Middle Passage was the leg from West Africa to the Americas, where enslaved people were packed into ships under deadly conditions. The other options describe real routes, but none of them is called the Middle Passage.
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Question 9
Under the economic system of mercantilism, England expected its colonies mainly to
Correct answer: A
Mercantilism held that colonies existed to make the home country richer, so laws such as the Navigation Acts limited colonial trade to England. Building competing factories was the opposite of what England wanted.
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Question 10
Preachers Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield are best known for their role in which event?
Correct answer: B
In the 1730s and 1740s, Edwards and Whitefield led a wave of emotional religious revivals known as the First Great Awakening. The Salem witch trials took place earlier, in 1692.
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