Midterm Practice Exam

How does the course's roster classify the document that King James I issued to the Virginia Company's adventurers?

Select one.

• A covenant that the settlers signed among themselves
• A treaty of peace concluded between two crowns
• A constitution framing a government for a nation
• A royal charter granting land, powers, and duties

Before quoting the Mayflower Compact in an essay, a student writes a one-line source note for it. Which note is accurate?

Select one.

• A royal charter granted to a company of investors, dated 1607
• A law passed by Virginia's colonial assembly, dated 1619
• A covenant, dated 1620, whose text the Avalon Project keeps
• A treaty concluded between two governments, dated 1620

A timeline on a classroom wall marks the Mayflower Compact and the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War, using the survey chronology's years. How many years apart should the two marks be labeled?

Select one.

• 143 years
• 144 years
• 198 years
• 271 years

Which document on the course roster is the source of the pinned fragment "There I found very many islands, filled with innumerable people, and I have taken possession of them all for their Highnesses, done by proclamation and with the royal standard unfurled, and no opposition was offered to me."?

Select one.

• Ferdinand and Isabella's grant to Columbus, given in 1492
• The Treaty of Tordesillas, concluded in 1494
• Columbus's letter on the first voyage, printed in 1493
• The Mayflower Compact, signed in 1620

A student reads that a delegate backed the proposed Constitution as a Federalist in 1787 and concludes that he must have belonged to the Federalist Party of the 1790s. What is wrong with that conclusion?

Select one.

• Nothing; the Federalist Party wrote the Constitution and then defended it
• Backing the Constitution in 1787 did not make anyone a member of the later Federalist Party
• The delegate must have been an Anti-Federalist, since Federalists opposed it
• Nothing; both labels describe the followers of Jefferson in every decade

A small state and a large state each send a delegation to Congress under the Articles of Confederation. How do their votes compare?

Select one.

• The large state casts more votes, set by its population
• The small state casts one vote and the large state two
• Each casts one vote, so the two count equally
• Each delegate votes alone, so the larger delegation counts more

A county archive files a set of resolutions under the name of a town meeting, but the resolutions' own text names a different body as the one that adopted them. How should a careful historian credit them?

Select one.

• To the town meeting, because an archive's label is the official record of origin
• To the body the resolutions' own text names, noting the archive's label
• To neither body, since the label and the text disagree
• To whichever body is better known today

During the ratification debate, a citizen urges the state's ratifying convention to approve the proposed Constitution as written. Which name did the debate give people on this citizen's side?

Select one.

• A Federalist
• An Anti-Federalist
• A member of the Federalist Party that formed later
• A Loyalist

Which roster document opens with the pinned fragment "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union"?

Select one.

• The Articles of Confederation
• The Declaration of Independence
• The Bill of Rights
• The Constitution of the United States

Before a discussion, a student checks five statements about the First Charter of Virginia and the Mayflower Compact. Which statements are accurate? Select every accurate statement.

Select every option that applies.

• The First Charter of Virginia names the spread of Christianity as one of its aims
• The Mayflower Compact is a constitution for a new nation
• Both documents date from the seventeenth century
• The First Charter of Virginia promises the colonists religious freedom
• Neither document is a treaty between two governments

A newspaper column quotes the pinned fragment "We are all republicans: we are all federalists." Which roster document is the column quoting?

Select one.

• Washington's Farewell Address
• The Constitution of the United States
• Jefferson's First Inaugural Address
• The Declaration of Independence

On the survey chronology, the Declaration of Independence is keyed 1776 and the signing of the Constitution 1787. How many years separate the two documents?

Select one.

• 6 years
• 11 years
• 5 years
• 12 years

Where does the course read Abigail Adams's letter from Braintree to John Adams?

Select one.

• The National Archives
• The Avalon Project
• The Library of Congress
• Founders Online

An archive shelves three documents by the year each was made, oldest first: the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, the Treaty of Tordesillas, and Ferdinand and Isabella's royal grant to Columbus. Which shelf order is right?

Select one.

• The Treaty of Tordesillas, the royal grant to Columbus, the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
• The royal grant to Columbus, the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, the Treaty of Tordesillas
• The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, the royal grant to Columbus, the Treaty of Tordesillas
• The royal grant to Columbus, the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

True or false: the Avalon Project prints the Treaty of Tordesillas in the original language of the two crowns that concluded it.

True or false.

• True
• False

A timeline of English colonization is missing the year of the First Charter of Virginia. Which year belongs there?

Select one.

• 1565
• 1606
• 1607
• 1619

Which description names both the host whose text of Washington's Farewell Address the course reads and the kind of document the roster records it as?

Select one.

• Founders Online, which keeps it as a published address
• The Library of Congress, in a recording of the speech
• The Avalon Project, as a transcript of a delivered speech
• The National Archives, in a version it prints as III

True or false: under the Articles of Confederation, Congress could collect taxes directly from the people of the states.

True or false.

• True
• False

True or false: the Columbian Exchange carried crops such as maize and potatoes from the Americas to the Old World, and it also carried horses and smallpox from the Old World to the Americas.

True or false.

• True
• False

True or false: settlers bound for the northern parts of Virginia signed the First Charter of Virginia at Cape Cod in 1620.

True or false.

• True
• False

In 1776 Abigail Adams wrote from Braintree asking John Adams to be more generous to women than his ancestors had been. Which document type does the course's roster give that writing?

Select one.

• A published address
• A royal charter
• A private letter
• A newspaper essay

A timeline of the founding years needs four events placed from earliest to latest: Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, the Declaration of Independence, Washington's Farewell Address, and the Articles of Confederation taking effect. Which order is right?

Select one.

• The Articles take effect, the Declaration of Independence, the Farewell Address, the First Inaugural Address
• The Declaration of Independence, the Articles take effect, the First Inaugural Address, the Farewell Address
• The Declaration of Independence, the Farewell Address, the Articles take effect, the First Inaugural Address
• The Declaration of Independence, the Articles take effect, the Farewell Address, the First Inaugural Address

A letter's own first line gives one year, while the catalogue record a library later made for it gives another. Which date should a historian give the letter?

Select one.

• The year in the letter's own text, with the mismatch noted
• The catalogue's year, since a library's record is the official date
• The earlier of the two years, since letters are dated when begun
• No year at all, since the two sources disagree

An indentured servant's contract fixed how many years the servant owed labor. What does the course call that fixed length of service?

Select one.

• Hereditary racial slavery
• The Middle Passage
• A term of years
• A frame of government

True or false: Jefferson delivered his First Inaugural Address as a speech when he took office.

True or false.

• True
• False