Period Three: 1763 thru 1800

The following multiple-choice questions are academically synonymous to those which appeared on the College Board Advanced Placement National Examination in United States History prior to 2015. They have been adapted from past National Exams, various College Board matter offering sample questions, and assorted APUSH review manuals widely available through common retail outlets. No item is an exact copy of any material previously published. The questions address political, social, economic, intellectual, and diplomatic history. While the multiple-choice format currently used by the College Board deviates from the conventional style, the items included here can nevertheless serve as effective learning support. This review set is intended for private use and educational purpose only and may not be sold or marketed in any manner.


DIRECTIONS: Using knowledge and understanding obtained through class lecture, assigned reading, and other learning activities, coupled with logical reasoning, select the best response for each statement.


  1. Shays's Rebellion reflected the nation's internal tension during the 1780s regarding

    1. conflict between Loyalist supporters of Great Britain and those colonists who favored independence.
    2. economic frustration of New England farmers who had difficulty paying debts in hard currency.
    3. rivalry between merchants and shipbuilders in the Carolinas.
    4. government restrictions on westward expansion into the Ohio Valley region.


  2. The first major challenge to President George Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality issued in 1793 originated from

    1. Great Britain, which failed to send diplomats to the United States following the overbearing Jay Treaty of 1795.
    2. Citizen Edmond Genêt, who solicited American support for France in its war against Great Britain and other European nations.
    3. western expansionists who formed a sizable militia to invade and annex portions of Canada adjacent to the Great Lakes.
    4. Spain's refusal to abide by the Pinckney's Treaty regarding navigation rights on the Mississippi River and port provisions at New Orleans.


  3. Of the following, the person who most likely would have associated the concept of "democracy" with the description "government by passions of the multitude" was

    1. George Washington.
    2. Thomas Jefferson.
    3. Alexander Hamilton.
    4. John Adams.


  4. In episodes such as Bacon's Rebellion, the Gaspee incident, the Boston Tea Party, and the Whiskey Rebellion, the violence

    1. occurred because of the intervention of foreign powers in American internal affairs.
    2. was aimed at "outsiders" or representatives of distant authority.
    3. subsided after the Articles of Confederation were replaced.
    4. was largely confined to urban areas.


  5. Alexander Hamilton's domestic and foreign policies were directed chiefly toward strengthening the federal government by

    1. establishing gold as the sole foundation of United States currency.
    2. advocating free trade.
    3. favoring the interests of the propertied and monied classes.
    4. averting American entanglement in Europe's wars.


  6. In order to make the new government viable, the First Congress of the United States took several steps. Which of the following was NOT part of that process?

    1. Organize a federal court system under the Supreme Court.
    2. Draft a bill of rights and send it to the states for ratification.
    3. Pass a tariff for the purpose of raising revenue.
    4. Grant subsidies to encourage industrial development.


  7. The most notable achievement of the government under the Articles of Confederation concerned

    1. establishment of separation of powers, including a bicameral legislature.
    2. postwar economic prosperity.
    3. systematic settlement of the vast western lands.
    4. termination of America's participation in the international slave trade.


  8. President George Washington's Farewell Address set a course for the nation by

    1. endorsing the fledging two-party political system.
    2. recommending strict term limits for elected federal officials.
    3. discouraging permanent alliances with foreign governments.
    4. warning against absolute separation of church and state.


  9. As originally ratified, the United States Constitution provided for

    1. eventual elimination of slavery and bestowment of citizenship for blacks.
    2. political parties, although it did not specify how many.
    3. term limits for the major offices in all three branches of government.
    4. election of the President by a system involving popular vote and formal electors.


  10. Of the following, the group most likely to oppose ratification of the Constitution was

    1. farmers in isolated areas.
    2. export merchants.
    3. southern planters.
    4. urban artisans.


  11. Which statement best describes the role that newspapers played in American politics during the late 1790s?

    1. "Newspapers expanded in number and circulation and, regardless of political perspective, were often guilty of libelous and irresponsible reporting."
    2. "Although newspapers declined in circulation, their impact grew drastically owing to a new wave of public accountability and editorial responsibility."
    3. "Newspapers declined in circulation and became chiefly the means for the socially elite to communicate among themselves from one pocket of society to another."
    4. "Newspapers expanded in circulation but actually declined in influence because their focus tended to be matters of society hardly relevant to national interest and growth."


  12. The central government under the Articles of Confederation was denied power to

    1. make treaties.
    2. conduct diplomacy.
    3. regulate Indian affairs.
    4. levy taxes.


  13. The Sedition Act was enforced by the John Adams administration chiefly for the purpose of

    1. keeping France from selling Louisiana to Spain.
    2. intimidating critics of the Adams foreign policy toward England and France.
    3. barring illegal aliens from voting.
    4. protecting constitutional guarantees now threatened by the Democratic-Republicans.


  14. In drafting the Articles of Confederation, the Continental Congress

    1. was cautious about giving the new American government powers it had just denied Parliament.
    2. granted the national court system the power to review both national and state laws.
    3. was careful to establish division of powers among three separate branches of government.
    4. gave Congress the important powers of controlling interstate commerce and raising revenue through taxation.


  15. Which statement most accurately describes the attitude of the Founding Fathers toward political parties?

    1. "Parties are engines of democracy that provide citizens with a voice in government"
    2. "In a large republic, parties are the best means of creating effective coalitions of interest groups"
    3. "Parties are vehicles of ambition and self interest that threaten the existence of a republican government"
    4. "A two-party system is essential to a stable republic."


  16. Great Britain's justification for its continued occupation of a number of posts located on United States soil despite the terms of the Treaty of Paris was that

    1. the United States lacked the military capability to maintain the posts.
    2. England's understanding with both France and Spain allowed the British to stay.
    3. America had violated the treaty clauses dealing with the restoration of Loyalist property.
    4. Great Britain needed a buffer zone between the United States and Canada.


  17. The status of Indians and tribes under the Constitution was

    1. carefully clarified; Indian lands were ceded to the United States government and most Indians were restricted to reservations, either immediately or eventually.
    2. unclear because tribes were considered legal entities but not foreign nations; furthermore, individual Indians were not granted United States citizenship.
    3. to be determined by the state in which the tribe resided; each state was granted power to determine Indians' status most congruent with state interest.
    4. subject to renegotiation because all treaties approved under the Articles of Confederation became null and void once the Constitution was ratified.


  18. The primary objection to the Constitution expressed by Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and other leading Anti-Federalists was that

    1. it contained no absolute guarantees prohibiting abuse of basic civil liberties by government agents.
    2. the federal government could conceivably suffer loss of power during periods of war and other inopportune times due to the so-called "elastic clause."
    3. the document was brief to the point of being incomplete, ignoring such important issues as additional statehoods, removal of the western Indians, and the question of slavery
    4. certain provisions were doomed to failure, such as the odd method of electing the President and the relative drastic lack of power allocated to the Supreme Court.


  19. Which statement best reflects the policy mandated by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 with regard to slavery in the newly-created territories?

    1. "The issue of slavery was not addressed."
    2. "Each separate territory would determine, by vote of legal inhabitants, the question of slavery."
    3. "The decision of whether or not to allow slavery was left to the discretion of the individual inhabitants throughout the territories."
    4. "Slavery was expressly prohibited."


  20. As the Indians of Appalachia were defeated, the group(s) that moved in greatest numbers into the region was/were

    1. Spanish settlers from Florida.
    2. slaveholders, indentured servants, and slaves from coastal plantations.
    3. Puritans from New England.
    4. Scotch-Irish, German, and English immigrants.


  21. During the Revolutionary War, the principal reason why the American government sought diplomatic recognition from foreign powers was to

    1. convince the British of the justice of the American cause.
    2. make it easier to levy taxes on the citizens of the several states.
    3. facilitate the purchase of arms and borrowing of money from other countries.
    4. rally all the states behind a common cause.


  22. "The Present King of Great Britain...has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws...." The reference to "constitution" in this excerpt from the Declaration of Independence meant

    1. principles common to all of the colonial charters.
    2. the Articles of Confederation.
    3. laws passed concurrently by the several colonial legislatures.
    4. principles the colonists believed had traditionally regulated English government.


  23. The major consequence of the Revolutionary War for the Iroquois Confederacy was

    1. unified support for the British in hopes that it would help Indians resist white settlement of their land after the war.
    2. division among the tribes as some abandoned the Confederacy's traditional policy of neutrality by supporting the British against the Americans.
    3. total disaster as both American and British forces attacked Iroquois villages which refused to provide military alliance.
    4. insignificant because the Iroquois remained staunchly neutral and therefore were unaffected by warfare between the colonists and the British.


  24. The argument between Great Britain and its American colonies during the 1760s and 1770s over "virtual representation" concerned

    1. the increasing use of juryless admiralty courts in the colonies.
    2. Parliament's ability to reflect colonial interests.
    3. the lack of colonial participation in negotiating the Treaty of Paris.
    4. patterns of legislative apportionment in the colonial assemblies.


  25. In 1772, a Maryland master placed the following newspaper advertisement after Harry, his slave, ran away: "He has been seen about the Negro Quarters in Patuxent, but is supposed to have been removed among his Acquaitances on Potomack; he is also well acquainted with a Negro of Mr. Wall's named Rachael; a few miles from the Quarter is his Aunt, and he may possibly be harboured thereabouts." Which of the following statements about conditions under slavery is best supported by the above passage?

    1. "Slaves had no opportunity to develop their own culture and society."
    2. "Slaves commonly formed settlements of their own away from the plantations."
    3. "Slaves maintained social networks among kindred and friends despite forced separations."
    4. "Slaves frequently associated with free black people."


  26. Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense attacked

    1. Parliament for its continued opposition to the policies of Prime Minister George Grenville.
    2. politicians who believed that a relatively small island could not effectively govern a distant continent.
    3. Spain because of its failure to support the colonial war effort.
    4. King George III and the general principle of monarchy.


  27. The chief reason for Parliament's repeal of the Stamp Act and the Townshend duties was the

    1. harmful effects of colonial boycotts and non-importation agreements on British commerce.
    2. expectation that most of the colonial assemblies would eventually vote in favor of higher taxes to support the Crown's endeavors.
    3. steadfast public demonstrations by various Sons of Liberty chapters under the leadership of such individuals as Samuel Adams and Paul Revere.
    4. conviction that the colonists were on the verge of revolution.


  28. Which of the following was NOT a contributing factor in the importance of the Stamp Act crisis to the coming of the American Revolution?

    1. The crisis coincided with a British decision to garrison regular troops in various American cities.
    2. Colonists realized that British inflexibility made revolution virtually inevitable.
    3. The British maintained that the colonies had no right to independence from parliamentary authority.
    4. Colonists demonstrated their willingness to use violence rather than legal means to frustrate British policy.


  29. The French-American alliance formed in 1778

    1. influenced the British to offer generous peace terms in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
    2. allowed France to repossess its North American colonies lost in the French and Indian War.
    3. was limited to naval activity along the Atlantic seaboard without deployment of ground troops.
    4. actually hampered the American revolutionary cause because France's European enemies were turned away from sending military aid to the colonists.


  30. The result of battles at King's Mountain, Cowpens, and Guilford Court House support the conclusion that

    1. the impact of various Indian tribes on the outcome of the Revolutionary War was negligible; the many tribes' lack of unity compromised their potential strength.
    2. General George Washington's innate sense for military tactics was outstanding; the fact that he clearly and often outmaneuvered his British counterparts is extraordinary.
    3. the French alliance was key to America's war victory; the probability that the Continental Army alone would have prevailed over the British is slight.
    4. Great Britain's campaign in the South, initially successful, was deteriorating; the momentum was steadily shifting to the Americans.


  31. "The present King of Great Britain...has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws...." This protest, contained in the Declaration of Independence, referred to George III's

    1. approval of parliamentary laws impinging on colonial self-government.
    2. reliance on his appointed governors in the colonies.
    3. military alliance with the King of France.
    4. use of Hessian mercenaries against the colonists.


  32. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions took the position that

    1. only the United States Supreme Court had the power to limit freedoms of speech and press.
    2. the authority of the state governments included the power to decide whether or not an act of Congress was constitutional.
    3. only fiscal measures initiated by state legislatures could be acted on by Congress.
    4. the "supremacy clause" of the Constitution applied only to foreign affairs.


  33. When considering Alexander Hamilton's economic proposals, the issue of constitutionality figured most prominently in debate regarding

    1. the Whiskey Tax.
    2. funding of the national debt.
    3. the Bank of the United States.
    4. assumption of state debts.


  34. The presidential election of 1800 has been referred to as instigating "another revolution" because

    1. the House of Representatives decided the election.
    2. voter turnout increased dramatically.
    3. the once dominant party was replaced by a newly formed opposition party.
    4. Supreme Court action was required to dislodge the Federalists.



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