(Updated January 22, 2008)

You will have 60 minutes to complete the examination.  The exam as a whole is worth 25 percent of your course grade; it will be graded on a scale of 100 points.  It will consist of two parts:

Part I is worth 60 points.  It will consist of 15 multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions.  A few questions will ask you to place a series of related events in the correct chronological order.  Some of the questions may be drawn verbatim from the quizes in the online companion to the main textbook. 

Part II is worth 40 points.  You will be given two essay questions.  You will answer ONE of them. The essay questions will be closely based upon the study guide for Edmund Morgan, The Puritan Dilemma (3rd edition).

Study Questions

References are to The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society, but questions address issues addressed in lecture as well as the main textbook.

Chapter 1. ANCIENT AMERICA AND AFRICA

1. What was Native American culture like before the coming of the Europeans? How did they live, work, worship, fight, etc.?

2. What change occurred in the size of the Native American population in the 150 years after the coming of the Europeans? What magnitude was this change and why did it occur?

3. What was West African culture and civilization like circa the year 1500?

4. What basic motives prompted Europeans to launch what they later called the "Age of Discovery"?

5. What was the Spanish colonial system like? In what ways did it differ from the English colonial system?

Chapter 2. EUROPEANS AND AFRICANS REACH THE AMERICAS; Chapter 3. COLONIZING A CONTINENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY; Chapter 4; THE MATURING OF COLONIAL SOCIETY

6. What were the two main motives for English settlement of North America? Identify three colonies closely associated with the first motive and three associated with the second one.

7. Explain the role of the London (Virginia) Company in establishing a colony in Virginia.

8. In its early years the Jamestown settlement struggled along. What important staple crop finally put it on its economic feet?

9. What were the main differences between the Separatists (Pilgrims) and the Puritans?

10. When and why did the Puritans decide to settle in America? What was the significant feature of their charter?

11. The government established by the Puritans was neither democratic--although it allowed many adult males to vote; nor theocratic--although the clergy exercised a great deal of influence over the colony. Explain how the Puritan system of government worked.

12. Who were Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson? What does their fate say about the nature of Puritan society?

13. What is the difference between an "indentured servant" and a "slave"? Why did these two systems of forced labor develop in the Southern colonies? Why did slavery persist even when indentured servitude declined?

14. By 1700 the English colonists had begun to exhibit a distinctly "American" character. What were the main features of this character and how did New World conditions influence their formation?

15. New Englanders tended to live longer than persons in England (and, for that matter, the southern colonies). Why was this the case? What effect did this have on the creation of strong, stable communities? For what other reasons did New England tend to have stronger communities than other colonies?

16. What role did family life play in New England society?

17. The status of women in New England tended to be better than in Europe. Why was this the case? In what ways were women still restricted?

18. The high death rate suffered in early Virginia, more than any other factor, created a society far different from the one that evolved in New England. What were the main outlines of this society? Compare it to the society that evolved in New England.

19. How did the cultivation of tobacco prepare the way for the introduction of a slave system? How did tobacco cultivation influence population distribution in Virginia?

20.  Which came first, racism or the widespread use of Africans and African Americans as slaves?  (Historians in fact disagree on this question.  You should know the answer as explained in lecture, but you need not agree with it if you can make a historically grounded case for a different answer.  It's probably best not to attempt this, though, unless you have had previous coursework in this area.)

21. Until the 1670s, the legal status of slavery was somewhat murky. During that time new laws were established and African Americans increasingly were considered slaves for life. What were the other main features of the new slave laws?

22.  What was the political and economic significance of the legal prohibition on sexual relationships between Europeans and African Americans?  No similar legal prohibitions applied to sexual relationships between Europeans and Indians.  Why not?

25. What was it like to be a slave in colonial America?

26. What was mercantilism? How did the Navigation Acts relate to mercantilism, and what were these acts designed to accomplish?

27. What can the Salem Witch Trials tell us about Puritan society in the late 17th century?

28. Between 1700 and 1770, the population of the colonies rose from 250,000 to 2,000,000. Where did all those people come from?

29. Colonists tended to resent English regulations on trade. Why?

30. What was "the Great Awakening"? What influence did it have on American society?

31. How did the English political system really work in the 18th century? How did the colonists think it worked?

32. American colonists liked to think that their own systems of government were similar to the British parliamentary system.  Why did the Americans believe this? In what ways were they mistaken?

Chapter 5. THE STRAINS OF EMPIRE, and Chapter 6. A PEOPLE IN REVOLUTION

33. What were the main results of the British victory during the Seven Years (French and Indian) War?

34. How did victory in the Seven Years (French and Indian) War contribute to tension between the colonies and Great Britain?

35. What is meant by "salutary neglect"? Why did the British government adopt this policy in the early colonial period? When and why did this policy end? What policy replaced it?

36. By 1765, American colonists had acquired a different view of the English government than the view possessed by the English. How and why did this different viewpoint evolve?

37. What is the difference between "virtual" and "direct" representation? What role did this difference play in the crisis of 1763-1775?

38. What was the Proclamation of 1763? Why did the British government believe it was wise? Why did the colonists dislike it so much?

39. Get to know the basic facts about the following terms: Stamp Act, Declaratory Act, Townshend Duties, Tea Act, Coercive (Intolerable) Acts. What was the British government trying to accomplish by the passage of these acts?

40. In what ways did the colonists resist the acts mentioned above?

41. The War for Independence began in April 1775 with the battles at Lexington and Concord. Yet it was over a year--July 1776--before the Second Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain. Why didn't this event occur sooner?

42. What role did Thomas Paine's pamphlet, Common Sense, play on the independence debate?

43. What was the main significance of the Battle of Saratoga?

44. What was the main significance of the Battle of Yorktown?

45. Who were the Loyalists? What happened to many thousands of them after the American Revolution? (OMIT)

46. What were the main provisions of the Peace of Paris, signed in 1783?

47. What was the impact of the American Revolution on Native Americans? African Americans? White women? White male laborers with little property? (OMIT)

Essay Questions

To repeat a point made above, the essay questions will be based entirely upon the study guide in Edmund Morgan, The Puritan Dilemma, 3rd edition, copies of which were distributed in class. Use the chapter-by-chapter questions to assist you in grasping the content of the book; use the broader questions posed by Morgan himself when thinking about the essay questions you will be asked in class. You will have a choice of three questions; write on only ONE.

Terms

You are responsible for knowing the significance of these terms in the context of History 151.  Do NOT think of them as vocabulary to be memorized in isolation, but think about their relationship to the study questions and essay questions given above.

history
memory
"objectivity"

"European explosion" / Vasco da Gama Era
caravel / galleon
 astrolabe
gunpowder / cannon
Aztecs
Hernan Cortes
"demographic catastrophe"
genocide
"Columbian exchange"

Jamestown
Virginia Company
John Smith
Powhatan Confederation
"stinking weed"
House of Burgesses
indentured servants

English Reformation
Puritans
Pilgrims (Separatists)
John Winthrop
Great Migration
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
"city on a hill"
"eastern establishment"

racism
"white privilege"
Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676
Great Awakening
"Old Light"
"New Light"

"salutary neglect"
Proclamation of 1763 
Sugar Act (1764)
John Locke
"direct representation"
"virtual representation"
 Stamp Act (1765)
Townshend Duties
Boston Massacre
Tea Act
"Intolerable Acts"

Lexington and Concord, April 1775
Continental Army
George Washington
Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Thomas Jefferson
Declaration of Independence, July 1776
"triangularity of struggle"
Yorktown, 1781
Treaty of Paris, 1783

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