Questions: The British North American Colonies (1607–1754)
4 questions to test your understanding
Score: 0 / 4
Question 1 Multiple Choice
Which crop saved the Jamestown colony financially and shaped the Chesapeake economy?
ACotton
BTobacco
CSugar
DWheat
John Rolfe began growing a sweeter tobacco strain around 1612, and it sold well in England. Tobacco needed large amounts of labor, first from indentured servants and later from enslaved Africans.
Question 2 True / False
The Puritans of Massachusetts Bay allowed people of all faiths to worship freely.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
The Puritans wanted a community built on their own form of Protestantism. They banished dissenters such as Roger Williams, who then founded Rhode Island, and Anne Hutchinson.
Question 3 Short Answer
Give one example of colonial self-government before 1700 and explain why it mattered later.
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: Examples: Virginia's House of Burgesses (1619), the first elected assembly in the English colonies; the Mayflower Compact (1620); New England town meetings. These gave colonists long experience in governing themselves, so they resisted later British efforts to tax and control them directly.
Because Britain was distant and often did not enforce its laws closely, colonial assemblies grew used to controlling local taxes and affairs, which shaped the conflict of the 1760s and 1770s.
Question 4 Multiple Choice
Which conflict of 1675–1676 was one of the deadliest wars, relative to population, in colonial New England?
AThe Pequot War
BKing Philip's War (Metacom's War)
CBacon's Rebellion
DThe French and Indian War
Metacom, a Wampanoag leader called King Philip by the English, led a coalition against colonial expansion. Thousands died on both sides, and Native power in southern New England was largely broken. Bacon's Rebellion (1676) was in Virginia.