Colonial Society on the Eve of Revolution
1700-1775
1. How many colonies did Great Britain possess in North America by 1775?
2. Which non-rebelling colonies were larger or wealthier than those that rebelled?
CONQUEST BY CRADLE
3. How did the population of the colonies grow between 1700 and 1775?
4. What accounted for the growth of the American population?
5. What were the four most populous colonies?
6. What were the only communities that could be called cities?
7. Where did most of the colonists live?
A MINGLING OF THE RACES
8. Why had Germans, about 150,000 by 1775, come to settle in America?
9. Where did most German’s settle in America?
10. What was the primary protestant sect that most Germans in America belonged?
11. Why were the Germans incorrectly known as the Pennsylvania Dutch?
12. What part of Pennsylvania did the German newcomers settle?
13. Where did most of the Scots-Irish settle in America in the 1700s?
14. When their westward expansion was blocked by the Allegheny barrier, where did the Scots-Irish move to settle?
15. What secrets did the Scots-Irish bring to the western frontier of the colonies?
16. What protest did Scots-Irish lead in Pennsylvania in protest to Quaker oligarchy’s lenient policy to Indians?
17. What was the Regulator movement in North Carolina?
18. What other European groups made up of 5% of the population in colonial America? Of this group, which is the only which felt loyalty to Great Britain?
19. What group made up the largest percentage of colonial America?
20. Where were 90% of the slave population constituted?
21. Which region had the least amount of ethnic diversity?
22. Which region boasted the greatest ethnic diversity?
23. What question did the French settler Michel-Guillaume de Crèvecoeur pose?
THE STRUCTURE OF COLONIAL SOCIETY
24. What class did not dominate American society? What class did not threaten it?
25. What was the most remarkable feature of the American coloinial social ladder?
26. Who began to emerge as the upper class in New England and the middle colonies?
27. What were created in New York and Philadelphia to help the destitute and poor?
28. What were the poor in Boston who relied on public charity forced to wear?
29. Whose power continued to grow in the South?
30. Who did the English government dump on the colonies?
31. What did Southerners fear?
32. What did the Southern states hope to put restrictions upon but were vetoed by the British government?
CLERICS, PHYSICIANS AND JURISTS
33. What was the most revered profession in America?
34. What profession was the least highly esteemed?
35. What was a favorite prescription for smallpox?
36. What profession was classed with drunkards and brothel keepers?
WORKDAY AMERICA
37. What was the leading industry in America?
38. What was the staple crop in Virginia and Maryland?
39. What did the middle colonies produce?
40. What was the major industry of New England?
41. What other professions did fishing stimulate?
42. What colonies were enriched by the bustling commerce industry?
43. Describe the triangular trade which became an infamously profitable trade?
44. What type of hats were manufactured despite British restrictions?
45. What was the most important single manufacturing activity?
46. What resources were needed for colonial naval stores for the British navy?
47. Why did the Americans seek to trade with non-British markets?
48. What law was passed by Parliament to stop the Americans from trading with the French West Indies?
49. How did America merchants get around this law?
HORSEPOWER AND SAILPOWER
50. What was lacking in colonial America?
51. Because of the reliance on God-grooved waterways, where did much of the population settle/cluster?
52. What sprang up along the routes of travel?
53. What amusements were customary in the taverns?
54. What was established in the mid-1700s?
DOMINANT DENOMINATIONS
55. What were the two established churches in colonial America?
56. What was the official faith of Georgia, North South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and part of New York?
57. What church was formally established in colonial New England?
58. What became a leading topic from New England pulpits?
59. What side would Anglican clergymen take as the Revolution neared?
THE GREAT AWAKENING
60. What factors had set the stage for the Great Awakening?
61. When did the Great Awakening explode and sweep through the colonies?
62. What did Jonathan Edwards proclaim with burning righteousness?
63. What was his most famous sermon?
64. What was Edward’s preaching style?
65. What was George Whitefield’s preaching style?
66. What message did Whitefield trumpet?
67. What happened in the revival meetings of Whitefield?
68. Who were the “Old Lights?”
69. Who were the “New Lights?”
70. What did the Great Awakening emphasize?
71. How did the Great Awakening impact religious denominations?
72. Where did it inspire more missionary work?
73. What “new light” centers of higher learning are established?
74. Why was the Great Awakening considered the first mass movement of the American people?
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
75. What did the Congregational Church stress?
76. Who was education primarily for in New England?
77. What handicapped the South’s ability to develop an effective school system?
78. What was the general attitude in colonial schools?
79. What was emphasized in colonial schools?
80. Why were the first colleges established in New England?
81. How did well-to-do Southern families educate their boys?
82. What was the first American college to be free from denominational control?
A PROVINCIAL CULTURE
83. Where did famous American painters have to study?
84. Who was Phillis Wheatley?
85. What did Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac contain?
86. Who was perhaps the only first rank American scientist?
87. Who invented bifocal spectacles, the Franklin stove and a lightning rod?
PIONEER PRESSES
88. Which family owned the most books in America?
89. Who established the first privately supported library in America?
90. On the eve of the Revolution, how many colonial newspapers in America?
91. What was New York newspaper editor John Peter Zenger accused?
92. What did Zenger argue?
93. What argument did Zenger’s attorney Andrew Hamilton use to counter the royal chief justice?
94. What was the Zenger case a banner achievement for?
THE GREAT GAME OF POLITICS
95. What kind of governors did the colonies have?
96. What did practically every colony have?
97. How were the two houses of the colonial legislatures different?
98. What precious privilege did Americans come to cherish?
99. Why did even competent colonial governors have trouble with colonial legislatures?
100. How did colonial legislatures keep royal governors under control (power of the purse)?
101. What were the general colonial qualifications to vote?
COLONIAL FOLKWAYS
102. How were Britain’s colonies in North America similar? (SEE FINAL PARAGRAPH)