Chapter 5: From Empire to Independence
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. The term Whig in British politics originally referred to:
a. those persons who had supported James II on the throne.
b. the champions of liberty and parliamentary supremacy.
c. small landholders who opposed the English aristocracy.
d. the people in Parliament who wanted to give independence to the
American colonies.
3. The Proclamation Line of 1763:
a. was along the crest of the Appalachian Mountains.
b. was designed in part to keep settlers out of the Indians’ land.
c. did not remain intact for long.
d. is correctly represented by all the above statements.
5. The Sugar Act:
a. was designed strictly to protect the English sugar industry.
b. doubled the existing tax.
c. halved the existing tax.
d. was designed to regulate trade rather than to raise revenue.
6. The Currency Act of 1764:
a. prohibited the colonies from printing money.
b. created terrible inflation in the colonies.
c. was designed to ease the shortage of hard money in the colonies.
d. said that lenders had to accept paper money in payment of debts.
8. A major problem that George Grenville’s policies were supposed to deal with was
a. the declining power of the king.
b. excessive immigration from England to the American colonies.
c. rampant inflation that continued after the Seven Years’ War.
d. a huge government debt produced by the Seven Years’ War.
9. During the dispute over the Stamp Act, the Sons of Liberty became best known for:
a. directing mob violence against British officials.
b. collecting signatures on petitions.
c. urging respect for the law until Parliament changed its policies.
d. going to court to challenge taxation without representation.
11. News of the repeal of the Stamp Act:
a. was greeted with caution in the colonies.
b. caused colonists to sense their power.
c. set off excited demonstrations throughout Britain.
d. ended the tension between colonists and parliament.
12. Of the colonists’ methods to protest the Stamp Act, probably the most effective was:
a. boycotting British goods through nonimportation agreements.
b. threatening the personal safety of British officials in the American colonies.
c. selling the stamps to the French to use on mail to England.
d. sending an endless stream of petitions to the king.
13. The Stamp Act Congress:
a. consisted of delegates from all the colonies.
b. acknowledged that Parliament could legislate for the regulation of the
empire but had no right to levy taxes.
c. established the Sons of Liberty to protest the Stamp Act.
d. is correctly represented by all the above statements.
14. With the Declaratory Act, Parliament:
a. declared that it would no longer attempt internal taxation in the colonies.
b. announced its findings that the colonists bore “full and total responsibility”
for the Boston Massacre.
c. asserted its power to make laws for the colonies.
d. repealed the Quartering Act.
16. One of the special objections of the colonists to the Revenue Act of 1767 was that:
a. the taxes were internal rather than external.
b. the taxes did not raise enough revenue to pay the debts of the war.
c. the revenue raised could be used to pay governors and other colonial
officials and thus release those officials from dependence on the colonial
assemblies.
d. the colonial assemblies themselves were required to oversee the collection
of the taxes.
17. Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer:
a. argued that Parliament could pass external, but not internal, taxes.
b. argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes for revenue.
c. were a protest against the Tea Act of 1773.
d. were a major factor in the repeal of the Stamp Act.
18. The Boston Massacre:
a. developed in protest to the Boston Tea Party.
b. involved the slaughter of slaves in Boston by British troops.
c. grew out of crowd reaction and heckling of British soldiers in Boston.
d. was the unprovoked slaughter of dozens of Boston patriots by British
troops.
21. The Gaspee incident involved:
a. the burning of a grounded British patrol boat.
b. the seizure of an American ship suspected of smuggling.
c. the arrest of a newspaper editor who criticized British colonial policy.
d. the murder of a colonial newspaper editor who criticized the Boston Tea
Party.
22.In response to the widespread protest in the colonies, who stated “They must either
submit or triumph”?
a. George Grenville
b. King George III
c. William Pitt
d. Benjamin Franklin
23. The Bostonian described as “the supreme genius of revolutionary agitation” was:
a. Samuel Adams.
b. John Hancock.
c. Paul Revere.
d. John Adams.
25. The Quebec Act of 1774:
a. recognized the Catholic Church in Canada.
b. gave Canada a government that was non representative in nature.
c. extended Canada’s boundaries to western lands north of the Ohio River.
d. All of the above are true.
27. The Continental Congress met in:
a. Baltimore.
b. Boston.
c. New York.
d. Philadelphia.
28. Which of the following was not a result of the Coercive Acts?
a. The port of Boston was closed to commerce.
b. The governor was permitted to transfer Massachusetts officials to England.
c. Massachusetts’s council and law-enforcement officers were made
appointive rather than elective.
d. Town meetings were called by the governor to raise taxes to pay for the tea
tossed into Boston Harbor.
29. The Declaration of American Rights:
a. declared the Townshend Acts null and void.
b. was passed in Parliament by a small margin.
c. was defeated in Parliament by a small margin.
d. denied Parliament’s authority concerning internal colonial affairs.
30. The Declaration of Independence based its argument for freedom of the colonies
primarily on:
a. the ideas of the Great Awakening.
b. the contract theory of government developed by John Locke.
c. Benjamin Franklin’s theory of the dominion status of the colonies.
d. the concept of judicial review, which allowed the courts of England to
declare America free.
31. The firing of shots at Lexington and Concord occurred because:
a. colonial militias tried to march on Boston by going through those towns.
b. General Gage sent patrols out from Boston to destroy the colonial supply
depot at Concord.
c. British officials sent patrols to arrest all colonists who would not swear
allegiance to the king.
d. British soldiers threatened to burn the churches in those towns.
32. At the meeting of the Second Continental Congress:
a. the Massachusetts militia that surrounded Boston was adopted as the
Continental Army.
b. General Washington was authorized to begin a tour of the colonies to
recruit an American army.
c. delegates refused to fund efforts for colonial defense.
d. all American ships were ordered to become part of a navy under the
command of John Paul Jones.
33. At the Battle of Bunker Hill:
a. the British lost about half of their troops.
b. the colonists held their position on Breed’s Hill.
c. British General William Howe was killed.
d. the “Green Mountain Boys” defeated a larger British army.
34. What element did Common Sense bring into the debate with Britain?
a. It emphasized that neither internal nor external taxes could be imposed on
the colonies.
b. It attacked Parliament for not being fit to rule the colonies.
c. It was an attack on the king, rather than Parliament.
d. It argued that the colonies were already free of British
rule.
35. The Declaration of Independence was drafted primarily by:
a. John Adams.
b. Samuel Adams.
c. Benjamin Franklin.
d. Thomas Jefferson.
36. The Continental Congress passed the resolution “that these United Colonies are, and
of right ought to be, free and independent states” on:
a. July 2, 1776.
b. July 4, 1776.
c. July 4, 1778.
d. November 28, 1778.