Humanities-The American Experiment
Final Exam (Key)
Name: ___________________________________________________
1. Which of the following turned Jamestown into a profitable enterprise?
a) gold
b) corn
c) timber
d) tobacco
2. In the early years of the Virginia Colony, a field labor was most likely to be
a) slave.
b) a Powhatan.
c) a landholder.
d) an indentured servant or a former indentured servant.
3. Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion of
a) native Americans against the English.
b) indentured servants against their masters.
c) frontier colonists against the Virginia government.
d) African field laborers against English landowners.
4. The first English colonies in North American were set up in the hope of achieving
a) financial gain for investors.
b) political freedom for settlers.
c) religious freedom for settlers.
d) military supremacy for England.
5. What was the first permanent English settlement in North America?
a) Plymouth
b) Jamestown
c) Roanoke
d) Boston
6. Puritans’ views and attitudes led them to promote the idea of
a) social equality.
b) religious tolerance.
c) hard work for common goals.
d) separation of church and state.
7. The Crucible was written by
a) Arthur Miller.
b) Nathaniel Bacon.
c) John Smith.
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Humanities-The American Experiment
Final Exam (Key)
d) Anne Hutchinson.
8. Which of the following was not associated with the movement known as the Enlightenment?
a) Respect for the individual
b) Scientific experimentation
c) Questioning of traditional authority
d) Political and legal rights for women
9. Who wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence?
a) Thomas Jefferson
b) Samuel Adams
c) John Adams
d) John Locke
10. On what Enlightenment principle is the Declaration of Independence based?
a) The consent of the governed
b) Taxation without representation is tyranny
c) Give me liberty or give me death!
d) I regret that I have only one life to give for my country
11. Who was an American statesman, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, 4th President of the United States,
author of some of the Federalist Papers, and is called the “Father of the Constitution” for his proposals at the
Constitutional Convention.
a) George Washington
b) John Adams
c) James Madison
d) Thomas Jefferson
12. Which of the following is considered by most historians to be the turning point in the French & Indian War?
a) The French capture of Pittsburgh
b) The British capture of Fort Necessity
c) The British capture of Quebec
d) The French capture of Fort Duquesne
13. During which event did the first fighting between redcoats and minutemen occur?
a) Boston Massacre
b) Battle of Lexington
c) Battle of Monmouth
d) Battle of Bunker Hill
14. Who wrote Common Sense?
a) Patrick Henry
b) John Adams
c) Thomas Paine
d) George Washington
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Humanities-The American Experiment
Final Exam (Key)
14. Which European country supported the American colonies during the Revolutionary War?
a) Italy
b) Spain
c) Germany
d) France
15. How did the colonists react to the Intolerable Acts?
a) Housewives began to boycott British tea.
b) An angry mob in Boston harassed British soldiers.
c) Assemblies in the colonies set up committees of correspondence.
d) The First Continental Congress drew up a declaration of colonial rights.
16. How did the United States win the battle of Yorktown without a naval presence?
a) Ships were not involved in the battle.
b) The British surrendered without a fight.
c) The U.S. troops had superior muskets.
d) The United States relied on French ships.
17. Which of the following did the Federalist promise to add to the Constitution if it was ratified?
a) A bill of rights
b) A system of checks and balances
c) Provisions for the division of powers
d) Provisions for the separation of powers
18. All of the following are guaranteed by the First Amendment except
a) Freedom from illegal searches
b) Freedom of speech
c) Freedom of religion
d) Freedom of the press
19. Who was the president when the United States acquired and began to explore the Louisiana Territory?
a) George Washington
b) John Adams
c) James Madison
d) Thomas Jefferson
20. Which group was forcefully relocated by means of the “Trail of Tears”?
a) Mexicans
b) Cherokee
c) African slaves
d) Shoshone
21. What event was most responsible for creating a diverse population in California?
a) The gold rush
b) The Treaty of Fort Laramie
c) The invention of the steel plow
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Humanities-The American Experiment
Final Exam (Key)
d) The war with Mexico
22. The formal withdrawal of a state from the Union is known as
a) confederacy.
b) compromise.
c) secession.
d) popular sovereignty.
23. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written by
a) Horace Greeley.
b) John Brown.
c) Harriet Beecher Stowe.
d) Charlotte Forten.
24. One of the most active conductors of the Underground railroad was
a) Harriet Beecher Stowe.
b) Harriet Tubman.
c) Abraham Lincoln.
d) Horace Greeley.
25. The confederacy included all of the following except
a) Virginia.
b) Texas.
c) South Carolina.
d) Maryland.
26. The Dred Scott decision did all of the following except
a) please Southerners.
b) rule that slaves did not have rights.
c) declare the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.
d) guarantee that slavery would not be allowed in future states.
27. When the Civil War began, what was Abraham Lincoln’s main goal?
a) to abolish slavery
b) to punish the South
c) to restore the Union
d) to bring an end to the war
28. What was the stated aim of the Emancipation Proclamation?
a) to free all slaves in the United States
b) to free slaves behind Confederate lines
c) to free slaves in Union slave states
d) to enlist slaves in the union army
29. The Battle of Gettysburg was not ______________.
a) The last time the South invaded the North
b) A battle with heavy casualties on both sides
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Humanities-The American Experiment
Final Exam (Key)
c) The battle that cut the Confederacy in two
d) A devastating defeat for the Confederates
30. During Reconstruction all of the following increased in the South except
a) taxes.
b) per capita income.
c) public works programs.
d) populations of towns and cities.
31. Which of the following most allowed manufacturers to build their factories away from rivers?
a) electricity
b) steel beams
c) railroads
d) the telephone
32. Which of the following resulted in the investigation of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire?
a) The imprisonment of company officials.
b) The passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
c) The adoption of equal wages for men and women.
d) Changes in local labor laws for women and children.
33. Andrew Carnegie gained control of a large percentage of the steel industry by doing all of the following except
a) buying out his suppliers.
b) cutting the quality of his products.
c) buying out his competitors.
d) underselling his competitors.
34. The progressive movement regarded all of the following as worthy goals except
a) protecting social welfare.
b) promoting business monopolies.
c) creating economic reform.
d) fostering efficiency in the workplace.
35. In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair exposed
a) dangers faced by coal miners.
b) corrupt business practices of the Standard Oil Company.
c) unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry.
d) illegal deals between special interests and the government.
36. Which of the following was not a cause of World War I?
a) American isolationism
b) Imperialist competition
c) The stockpiling of weapons
d) European nationalism
37. Because militarism had been a major cause of the war, the framers of the Treaty of Versailles
a) Required Germany to pay reparations for war damages
b) Barred Germany from maintaining an army
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Humanities-The American Experiment
Final Exam (Key)
c) Stripped Germany of its colonies in the Pacific
d) Forced Germany to accept full responsibility for the war.
38. The Treaty of Versailles overlooked the importance of
a) identifying the guilty party in a war.
b) treating all nations justly, including the losers of a war.
c) including powerful nations like the United States in international peace-keeping organizations.
d) crippling any nations that might prove dangerous in the future.
39. Which of the following was a goal of the New Deal?
a) Regulate the stock market
b) Deregulate the nation’s banking system
c) Decrease prices of farm goods
d) Increase crop production
40. Which of the following was most directly responsible for creating new jobs and putting people to work?
a) Social Security Act
b) Fair Labor Standards Act
c) National Labor Relations Act
d) Works Progress Administration
41. Who wrote the novel The Grapes of Wrath about the grim lives of Oklahomans fleeing the Dust Bowl during the
Depression?
a) Grant Wood
b) John Steinbeck
c) Richard Wright
d) Dorthea Lange
42. What was the Lend-Lease Act?
a) A statement of war aims compiled by Roosevelt and Churchill
b) A nonaggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union
c) A policy of allowing the president to provide arms to certain foreign countries
d) An order to shoot German U-boats on sight
43. The Allied Invasion of __________ was given the code name D-Day.
a) Japan
b) Italy
c) Nazi-occupied Europe
d) North Africa
44. Truman’s aim in deciding to drop the atomic bomb was to ______________.
a) find out how destructive the bomb really was.
b) teach the Japanese a lesson.
c) end the war and save American lives.
d) show how powerful the United States was.
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Humanities-The American Experiment
Final Exam (Key)
th
45. The 38
a)
b)
c)
d)
parallel became an important dividing line between
Korea & China.
North & South China.
North & South Korea.
China & Taiwan. (Formosa)
46. The main goal of the ______________ was to stop the spread of communism.
a) Truman Doctrine
b) Marshall Plan
c) Iron curtain
d) Warsaw Pact
47. _____________ was the United States’ main goal in Vietnam
a) Reunifying Vietnam
b) Containing the spread of communism
c) Upholding the Geneva Accords
d) Negotiating a cease-fire agreement in North Vietnam
48. Why did Congress pass the War Powers Act?
a) To allow military leaders more independence
b) To prevent tragedies like the My Lai massacre
c) To limit the president’s authority to wage war
d) To increase the president’s authority to wage war
49. In Brown v. Board of Education, the doctrine of _______________ relating to public education was finally
overturned.
a) Due process of law
b) “separate but equal”
c) “all deliberate speed’
d) Equal protection under the law
50. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made segregation illegal in which of the following?
a) housing
b) churches
c) private universities
d) public accommodations
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