Chapter 5 Quiz
In 1775, what did William Pitt propose that American colonists should do in exchange for Parliament renouncing its power to tax the colonies and its recognition of the Continental Congress as a lawful body?
Acknowledge parliamentary supremacy and provide revenue
What group petitioned the Massachusetts legislature for a law granting them new rights, arguing that they have "a natural right . . . to enjoy such property, as they may acquire by their industry"?
African American slaves
What happened after British soldiers fired into a crowd in Boston on March 5, 1770, killing five townspeople?
Boston's Radical Whigs used the incident to rally against imperial authorities.
Apart from respectfully requesting a repeal of the Stamp Act, what else did influential Americans suggest for peaceful resistance in 1765?
Boycotting British goods
Who did Parliament decide to tax first when the British Empire found itself deep in debt in the wake of the Great War for Empire (1754-1763)?
Britain's poor and middling classes
What did the Radical Whig John Wilkes do?
Condemned rotten boroughs, sparsely populated, aristocratic-controlled electoral districts, and demanded greater representation for rapidly growing commercial and manufacturing cities
The patriotic writers on the eve of the American Revolution drew on which intellectual tradition to protest imperial reform?
English common law
How did British politicians respond to Benjamin Franklin's argument that Americans deserved representation in Parliament before they could be taxed?
Except for William Pitt, British politicians argued that the colonists already had virtual representation in Parliament because some of its members were transatlantic merchants and West Indian sugar planters.
To help pay the enlarged British national debt in the 1760s, Parliament passed an increase in sales taxes also known as what?
Excise levies
Why did the British secretary of state for American affairs Lord Hillsborough favor a permanent Proclamation Line to the west of the colonies?
First, he believed it would antagonize Indians without benefiting the empire and only drain resources. Second, he observed on his own vast Irish estates that the number of tenants leaving for America grew alarmingly. (Feared the end of the British laboring class)
Colonial opponents of the Stamp Act drew on which of the following political traditions from the Radical Whig influence in English politics?
For creating a constitutional monarchy that prevented the king from imposing taxes and other measures.
Which prime minister presided over British attempts to reform the colonial system in America after the Great War for Empire?
George Grenville assumed office in 1763, when the nation was swamped in debt and British subjects were paying five times as much in taxes as the colonists. He believed it was only fair for the new revenue to come from the colonists.
Why was Patrick Henry's attack against the Stamp Act so radical?
He directly attacked George III for supporting the legislation.
How did Prime Minister George Grenville first try to address the revenue problem with the American colonies?
He proposed the Currency Act.
How did chancellor of the exchequer Charles Townshend seek to undermine American political institutions in his Revenue Act of 1767?
He sought to block American influence by using parliamentary taxes to finance imperial administration in the colonies.
In November 1773, a group of African American slaves in Virginia planned to use what strategy to try to win their freedom?
Helping British troops expected to arrive in Virginia
How did the king respond to the formation of the Second Continental Congress in May 1775?
In August 1775, he issued a Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition.
Why was the Declaratory Act so threatening to colonists?
It declared American governmental institutions to be completely dependent on the will of Parliament.
What was significant about the 1765 Stamp Act Congress?
It led to the first boycott of British goods
How did Parliament resolve the Stamp Act crisis in 1766?
It repealed the law but reaffirmed its right to enact such taxation.
Why did southern slave owners join the cause of the largely urban-led Patriot movement?
Many were deeply in debt to British merchants and, as masters of their domains, resented this financial dependence.
Why did Lord North ask for a repeal of the Townshend duties in 1770?
North argued that it was foolish to tax British exports to America.
What constitutional principle was Parliament asserting with passage of the Stamp Act?
Parliament could bypass colonial assemblies and impose an internal tax on the colonies.
Where did the First Continental Congress meet in September of 1774?
Philadelphia
Which act of 1774 extended legal recognition to Roman Catholics in French regions of Canada, stirring old religious hatreds between Catholics and Protestants, especially in New England?
Quebec Act
In Great Britain, which political faction supported American protests against the Stamp Act?
Radical Whigs
Evangelical Protestants stirred by the religious passions of the Great Awakening joined mobs opposing the Stamp Act because they...
Resented the arrogance of British military officers and the corruption of royal bureaucrats.
In 1763, Radical Whigs launched a campaign to reform Parliament by abolishing tiny districts that were controlled by wealthy aristocrats and merchants. What were these districts known as?
Rotten boroughs, which were tiny electoral districts controlled by aristocrats and merchants
Why did Lord North repeal the Townshend duties in 1770?
Since taxes on British exports would only raise the price of consumer goods for American colonists and thereby lower the consumption, they would ultimately also limit market opportunities for British merchants, which made no economic sense.
What institution was directly threatened by the Patriots' ideology?
Slavery
How had Boston merchant John Hancock made his fortune?
Smuggling French molasses
Why did American merchants resent the Sugar Act even though it reduced the tariff on French molasses?
The British said they would enforce the law more vigorously than before.
The Tea Act of 1773 benefited which group?
The East India Company
Under which policy did the British prohibit white settlement west of the frontier line along the Appalachians?
The Proclamation of 1763 prohibited white settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.
As part of his plan to address the issue of representation, Joseph Galloway, a delegate to the First Continental Congress proposed "That the several [colonial] assemblies shall [form an American union and] choose members for the grand council. . . . That the Grand Council . . . shall hold and exercise all the like rights, liberties and privileges, as are held and exercised by and in the House of Commons of Great-Britain. . . . That the said President-General and the Grand Council, be an inferior and distinct branch of the British legislature, united and incorporated with it, . . . and that the assent of both [Parliament and the Grand Council] shall be requisite to the validity of all such general acts or statutes [that affect the colonies]." Which of the follohttp://www.macmillanhighered.com/externalcontent/learningcurve.bfwpub.com/question_pics/HEN_Table5.2.jpgwing most accurately summarizes Galloway's plan?
The colonies would remain British but operate under a continental government with the power to veto parliamentary laws that affected America.
Why did the mainland colonies achieve a trade surplus with Britain in 1769?
The colonies' nonimportation agreement was taking its toll.
What statement assesses the situation of the British national debt in 1763?
The issue was crucial because interest on the debt consumed much of the nation's budget.
Why did the political allies of New England merchants object to the Sugar Acts?
The objected to the Sugar Act on constitutional acts and they argued that every tax had to originate with the people
According to the royal governor of Massachusetts Francis Bernard, what applied to British subjects in Britain but not to American colonists?
The right to direct representation in Parliament
Why did the tenant farmers of the Hudson River Valley in New York support the king
Their landlords were Patriots
Why did the Radical Whigs criticize the increased size of the British government created to enforce new tax laws in the 1760s?
They claimed that a large, expensive government placed the nation at the mercy of banks and financiers.
Why did the Virginia gentry support the demands of yeomen farmers to close the law courts in 1774?
They feared that Parliament might turn as coercive with Virginia as it had with Massachusetts and assist British merchants to seize debt-burdened properties.
Why did a good number of men of the upper classes fear the Patriot movement?
They feared that resistance to Britain was the beginning of broader anarchy.
Why did New England merchants oppose the Sugar Act of 1764?
They feared that tighter customs enforcement would wipe out their smuggling of French molasses. (Some merchants, such as John Hancock, had made their fortunes smuggling molasses from the French West Indies.)
Why were veteran officers of the Seven Years' War interested in westward expansion?
They had been paid in land warrants and hoped to benefit from those grants.
Why did the Quebec Act anger land speculators in Virginia?
They had long planned to expand into the Ohio River Valley.
Why were so many members of the Virginia gentry deeply in debt on the eve of the American Revolution?
They spent lavishly on an extravagant lifestyle.
Why were many American colonists skeptical of the Patriot movement?
They suspected that Patriot leaders only sought to advance their own selfish interests.
Which statement explains the fact that more than three-fourths of the voters of Long Island did not want to send a delegate to New York's Provincial Congress in 1775?
They wanted to preserve their families' property and independence.
What was the primary purpose of the Townshend Act of 1767?
To free royal officials from financial dependence on the American legislatures
Why did the Stamp Act Congress meet?
To petition the king for repeal of the Stamp Act
What was the primary American complaint against being tried in vice-admiralty courts, as stipulated by the Sugar Act of 1764?
Trial before the courts robbed Americans of their rights to be tried before a local common-law court.
Which British political leader was the only one who openly supported a proposal made by Benjamin Franklin for American representation in Parliament?
William Pitt, a British political leader
The British ministry shrewdly drafted the Sugar Act of 1764 with the intention of
allowing colonial trade with the French West Indies and imposing a lower but more strictly enforced duty on French molasses.
The major transformation of the British Empire following the Seven Years' War can best be characterized as a(n)
centralization of the empire in the hands of imperial officials
