SAT II US History : U.S. Economic History

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT II US History

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Example Questions

Example Question #91 : U.S. Economic History

Which of the following contributed to the declining use of indentured servants in late seventeenth-century America?

Possible Answers:

The Whiskey Rebellion

Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Bacon’s Rebellion 

The Taos Revolt

Shay’s Rebellion

Correct answer:

Bacon’s Rebellion 

Explanation:

Bacon’s Rebellion took place in Virginia, in 1676. It was an armed uprising by indentured servants, poor settlers and slaves against the rule of Virginia Governor William Berkeley. The rebellion began because Berkeley failed to provide for the safety of the colonists against Native American incursions, and because the poorer classes in the colonies—both black and white—were disturbed by the strict hierarchical nature of colonial Virginian society. The makeshift alliance between black slaves and white indentured servants disturbed the ruling classes greatly, and it caused a massive reduction in the use of indentured servants for labor, leading to a hardening of the racial hierarchy of colonial America—particularly in the South.

Example Question #2 : U.S. Economic History From Pre Columbian History To 1789

What is the primary reason that slavery was more prevalent in the South than in the North?

Possible Answers:

The bicameral legislature of Massachusetts passed a bill outlawing slavery, and the other Northern colonies promptly followed suit.

The British government forbade slavery in Northern colonies.

Northern colonists abhorred what they viewed as the backwardness of the South and believed slavery to be morally wrong.

The North's economy didn't rely heavily on agriculture, but the plantation economy of the South required large reserves of workers to turn a profit.

The personal campaigning of luminaries such as William Penn and Lord Baltimore against slavery gained a following only in New England.

Correct answer:

The North's economy didn't rely heavily on agriculture, but the plantation economy of the South required large reserves of workers to turn a profit.

Explanation:

During the colonial period, neither Northerners nor Southerners held much regard for the rights of blacks. However, in the North the economy was much more heavily based around small land holdings and city life than it was in the South. The South produced the vast majority of America’s cash crops. Southerners believed that they could not keep their plantations operating profitably without the import of black slaves – an opinion that would persist up to, and past, the outbreak of the Civil War.

Example Question #93 : U.S. Economic History

The well-documented 1773 political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston was in response to which controversial law(s) promulgated by the Parliament of Great Britain?

Possible Answers:

Tea Act

Intolerable Acts

Stamp Act

Coercive Acts

Townshend Acts

Correct answer:

Tea Act

Explanation:

The 1773 protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston was in response to, and in defiance of, the Tea Act of 1773. The Sons of Liberty protested by destroying shipments of tea sent by the East India Company by throwing them into Boston Harbor.

The Stamp Act was a duty imposed on the revenue of the American Colonies. The Intolerable Acts and the Coercive Acts were colloquial names for the series of rulings made by the British Parliament in response to the 1773 protest. The Townshend Acts referred to a series of acts concerned with the American colonies, passed in 1767.

Example Question #1 : Facts And Details In U.S. Economic History From Pre Columbian To 1789

1.       What was the reasoning behind Parliament’s imposition of the Stamp Act in 1765?

Possible Answers:

To enforce regulations on trade between the colonies and British and non-British merchants

To defray costs from importing goods from the Americas

The French and Indian war left Britain in great debt and revenue was needed

Defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing he British colonies and plantations in America

To pay for British militia to patrol smuggling on the part of colonial merchants

Correct answer:

Defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing he British colonies and plantations in America

Explanation:

The stamp act was imposed in order for the British to defray cost of defending, protecting, and securing the colonies as stated in the first paragraph of the stamp act.

Example Question #1 : Facts And Details In U.S. Economic History From Pre Columbian To 1789

The Economienda System, established by the Spanish in their early colonies, prescribed that?

Possible Answers:
Those Native Americans who resisted Spanish imposition were to be dispatched with legalized ruthlessness
Native people were to be utilized in forced slave labor to assist the development of Spanish infrastructure
Slaves were to be brought over from Africa to work the plantations of the Caribbean and the Southern parts of what is now the United States
Spanish Missionaries would be given the freedom to preach and travel where they pleased in the New World to spread Christianity to an “uncivilized people”
Every Spanish colonist was made economically and politically subject to the Spanish Crown
Correct answer: Native people were to be utilized in forced slave labor to assist the development of Spanish infrastructure
Explanation:

The Economienda System dictated that Native Americans were lesser peoples, afforded the same status as other inferior races, and were free to be used as slaves to further the goals of Spanish Empire. The repeal of the system, at this insistence of several Spanish missionaries, helped lead to the massive influx of slaves from Africa to replace the work that had previously been done by Native Americans. One missionary would famously state that his work to free the Native Americans was the biggest mistake he ever made, as their population was ultimately ravaged by Smallpox anyway and the repeal of the Economienda System led directly to the massive use of African slaves in the New World

Example Question #94 : U.S. Economic History

Which company provided financial backing for both the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies?

Possible Answers:

British East India Company

The Company of the Americas

South Sea Company

Atlantic Company

London Company

Correct answer:

London Company

Explanation:

The London Company, often called the Virginia Company of London, was established by King James I in 1606 with the expressed purpose of establishing colonies in North America. The London Company provided financial backing for the Jamestown and Plymouth experiments that later led to the creation of Massachusetts and Virginia. 

Example Question #95 : U.S. Economic History

How did the headright system encourage settlement in the colonies?

Possible Answers:

It provided financial assistance to settlers who arrived with an established skill set.

It established a financial reward if a colonist could prove he had killed a Native American.

It provided military protection to colonists on the frontier.

It rewarded colonists with a section of land, the size of which was based on how many individuals the arriving colonists brought with them.

It awarded one hundred and sixty acres of land to whoever agreed to live work there for at least five years.

Correct answer:

It rewarded colonists with a section of land, the size of which was based on how many individuals the arriving colonists brought with them.

Explanation:

The headright system was a system of land grants that were used to expand the population of the original thirteen colonies. It functioned differently in different areas of colonial America, but the principle was essentially the same throughout: an established settlement, like Jamestown or Plymouth, would award newly arriving settlers with a fifty acre tract of land to encourage settlement. Further, to encourage families and wealthy land owners to settle in the colonies, an individual would be awarded an additional fifty acres for each individual he brought along with him. 

Example Question #5 : Facts And Details In U.S. Economic History From Pre Columbian To 1789

______________ was the first European to come upon the Mississippi River in 1542.

Possible Answers:

Hernán Cortés

Juan Ponce de León

Christopher Columbus

Hernando de Soto

Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Correct answer:

Hernando de Soto

Explanation:

Hernando de Soto from Spain was the first European to explore the Mississippi River in 1542.

Example Question #96 : U.S. Economic History

Of these colonies, which was the first to use African slaves?

Possible Answers:

Maryland

South Carolina

Georgia

North Carolina

Virginia

Correct answer:

Virginia

Explanation:

The first African slaves in any of the English colonies were brought to Virginia in 1619. They were brought to help with the thriving tobacco cultivation in the colony, and soon became a crucial part of the growing plantation economy. Their arrival in 1619 predates even the existence of the other colonies listed in this question.

Example Question #97 : U.S. Economic History

Who was was the first person to introduce a successful strain of tobacco to Virginia colony that became a profitable cash crop?

Possible Answers:

John Rolfe

Miles Standish

Thomas Jefferson

John Smith

Eli Whitney

Correct answer:

John Rolfe

Explanation:

John Rolfe was the first to cultivate a strain of tobacco in Virginia that became a profitable cash crop, allowing the colony to thrive. John Smith played an important early role in the settlement of Virginia, but returned to England before a profitable strain of tobacco was introduced. Miles Standish was an important leader in Plymouth colony, not Virginia. Thomas Jefferson and Eli Whitney were important late 18th and early 19th century figures, long after the early development of Virginia.

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