ACE Practice Test

Chapter 4: American Life in the Seventeenth Century.

 

1.      Life expectancy among the seventeenth-century settlers of Maryland and Virginia was about sixty years.

A. True      B. False

 

2.      Because men greatly outnumbered women in the Chesapeake region, a fierce competition arose among men for scarce females.

A. True      B. False

 

3.      By the eighteenth century, the Chesapeake population was growing on the basis of natural increase.

A. True      B. False

 

4.      Chesapeake Bay tobacco planters responded to falling prices by cutting back production.

A. True      B. False

 

5.      The "headright" system of land grants to those who brought laborers to America primarily benefited wealthy planters rather than the poor indentured servants.

A. True      B. False

 

6.      Most of the European immigrants who came to Virginia and Maryland in the seventeenth century were indentured servants.

A. True      B. False

 

7.      Bacon's Rebellion involved an alliance of white indentured servants and Indians who attacked the elite planter class.

A. True      B. False

 

8.      African slaves began to replace white indentured servants as the primary labor supply in the plantation colonies in the 1680s.

A. True      B. False

 

9.      Slaves brought to North America developed a culture that mixed African and American elements.

A. True      B. False

 

10.  Directly beneath the wealthy slaveowning planters in the southern social structure were the white indentured servants.

A. True      B. False

 

11.  On average, married women in New England bore about ten children, of whom eight typically survived.

A. True      B. False

 

12.  New England expansion was carried out primarily by independent pioneers and land speculators who bought up large plots and then sold them to individual farmers.

A. True      B. False

 

13.  New England women enjoyed fewer rights to inherit and own property than women in the South.

A. True      B. False

 

14.  New England's commercial wealth was based on overseas shipment of the agricultural products of its rich soil.

A. True      B. False

 

15.  Seventeenth-century American life was generally simple and lacking in displays of wealth or elaborate class distinctions.

A. True      B. False

 

16.  For most of their early history, the colonies of Maryland and Virginia

A. provided a healthy environment for child rearing.

B. contained far more men than women.

C. had harsh laws punishing premarital sexual relations.

D. encouraged the formation of stable and long-lasting marriages.

 

17.  The primary beneficiaries of the "headright" system were

A. landowners who paid the transatlanic passage for indentured servants.

B. widows who acquired new husbands from England.

C. indentured servants who were able to acquire their own land.

D. English ship owners who transported new laborers across the Atlantic.

 

18.  The primary cause of Bacon's Rebellion was

A. Governor Berkeley’s harsh treatment of the Indians.

B. the refusal of landlords to grant indentured servants their freedom.

C. the poverty and discontent of many single young men unable to acquire land.

D. the persecution of the colinists by King Charles II.

 

19.  African slavery became the prevalent form of labor in the 1680s when

A. planters were no longer able to rely on white indentured servants as a labor force.

B. the first captives were brought from Africa to the New World.

C. blacks could be brought to the New World in safer and healthier condition.

D. the once-clear legal difference between a servant and a slave began to be blurred.

 

20.  The culture that developed among the slaves in the English colonies of North America was

A. derived primarily from that of the white masters.

B. based mainly on the traditions of southern Africa.

C. a combination of several African and American cultures.

D. originally developed in the West Indies and spread northward.

 

21.  Political and economic power in the southern colonies was dominated by

A. urban professional classes such as lawyers and bankers.

B. small landowners.

C. wealthy planters.

D. the English royal governors.

 

22.  Because there were few urban centers in the colonial South,

A. good roads between the isolated plantations were constructed early on.

B. a professional class of lawyers and financiers was slow to develop.

C. the rural church became the central focus of southern social and economic life.

D. there were almost no people of wealth and culture in the region.

 

23.  Puritan lawmakers in New England prevented married women from having property rights because

A. they believed that property should be held by towns, not private citizens.

B. they feared that too much property would fail into the control of the numerous widows.

C. they feared that separate property rights for women would undercut the unity of married couples.

D. the bible plainly prohibited women from owning property.

 

24.  In New England, elementary education

A. was mandatory for any town with more than fifty families.

B. failed to provide even basic literacy to most citizens.

C. was less widespread than in the South.

D. was oriented to preparing students for entering college.

 

25.  The Congregational Church of the Puritans contributed to

A. the development of basic democracy in the New England town meeting.

B. the extremely hierarchical character of New England life.

C. the social harmony and unity displayed throughout the seventeenth century in New England towns.

D. the growing movement toward women’s rights in New England.

 

26.  In contrast to the Chesapeake Bay colonists, those in New England

A. had fewer women and more men in their population.
B. had shorter life expectancies.

C. practiced birth control as a means of preventing overpopulation.

D. enjoyed longer lives and more stable families.

 

27.  The focus of much of New England's politics, religion, and education was the institution of

A. the colonial legislature.

B. the town.

C. the militia company.

D. the college.

 

28.  The "Half-Way Covenant" provided

A. baptism but not "full communion" to people who had not had a conversion experience.

B. partial participation in politics to people who were not church members.

C. admission to communion but not to voting membership in the church.

D. partial participation in church affairs for women.

 

29.  Those people accused of being witches in Salem were generally

A. from the poorer and more uneducated segments of the town.

B. notorious for their deviation from the moral norms of the community.

C. outspoken opponents of the Puritan clergy.

D. from families associated with Salem's burgeoning market economy.

 

30.  English settlers greatly changed the character of the New England environment by

A. raising wheat and oats rather than the corn grown by Indians.

B. their extensive introduction of livestock.

C. beating trails through the woods as they pursued seasonal hunting fishing.

D. building an extensive system of roads and canals.