Early Colonial America

Question 1

How much did the population in British colonies grow from 1700 to 1763 in comparison to French colonies?

Answer 1

Britain: 300,000 to 2 million
French: 60,000

Question 2

What percentage of the population were slaves by 1763?

Answer 2

1/6
350,000 people

Question 3

What percentage of slaves lived in the south?

Answer 3

90%

Question 4

What percentage of the population worked in the countryside?

Answer 4

80-90%

Question 5

How many white immigrants were indentured servants?

Answer 5

2/3

Question 6

What was an indentured servant?

Answer 6

An immigrant who was given free passage to the colonies as long as they worked under a contract

Question 7

How did the British colonies experience statutory neglect?

Answer 7

• Minimal taxes, only taxed to find the colonial assemblies
• Freedom of speech and press
• Minimal contact with the home government

Question 8

How did freedom of religion increase population in British colonies?

Answer 8

People escaping religious persecution found religious tolerance in British colonies

Question 9

Which products did British colonies farm?

Answer 9

Tobacco
Cotton
Indigo
Rice

Question 10

What percentage of white males could vote in America? What was this based on?

Answer 10

1/2
Property ownership

Question 11

Which products did French colonies focus on?

Answer 11

Fish
Fur
Timber

Question 12

How did the French benefit from their close relationship with Native Americans?

Answer 12

• Adopted guerrilla warfare
- tar and feathering and scalping

Question 13

Why did French colonies have issues with population growth?

Answer 13

People less likely to settle in French colonies due to having to travel to harvest materials, unlike British colonies that set up farming in one place, encouraging people to settle in British colonies

Question 14

Which religions did Spanish and French colonies follow? Why did this worry British colonies?

Answer 14

Catholic
British colonies worried that they would attempt to spread religion to the British colonies

Question 15

How did British governance differ from French/Spanish?

Answer 15

• Fr and Sp had divine monarch ruler ship over colonies
• British set up representative assemblies in the colonies

Question 16

Which areas did France control?

Answer 16

Quebec
Mississippi River

Question 17

What was a proprietary colony? Which colonies were these?

Answer 17

Political authority given to certain families
Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania

Question 18

What was a corporate colony? What colonies were these?

Answer 18

Colonies that had authority granted to them via charter
Conneticate and Rhode Island

Question 19

What were royal colonies?

Answer 19

Colonies governed by a royal governed, appointed by the British crown
9 colonies had royal governers

Question 20

How long did royal goveners stay in term for?

Answer 20

5 years

Question 21

How often and how long did the colonial assemblies meet for?

Answer 21

Spring-Summer
Usually around 4-6 weeks

Question 22

How many white males in America had the vote in comparison to white males in Britain?

Answer 22

50% of white male Americans
15% of white male British people

Question 23

What percentage of the colonial measures were blocked by Britain?

Answer 23

Only 5% of the 8500 colonial measures were blocked by Britain 1691-1775?

Question 24

Who were colonial agents?

Answer 24

Represented the colonies in Britain
Benjamin Franklin was Pennsylvania’s colonial agent

Question 25

By 1650-1770, how much was the colonial economy growing each year?

Answer 25

3.2% annual growth

Question 26

Which new industries were created in the British colonies?

Answer 26

Iron production Textiles Shop building

Question 27

How was New England economically useful?

Answer 27

• Access to seas • More than 1/2 of export trade was with the West Indies who supplied the colonies with molasses, used to distill whiskey

Question 28

How were the middle colonies economically useful?

Answer 28

• Major source of wheat and flour products • Developing major cities such as NYC

Question 29

How were the southern colonies economically useful?

Answer 29

• Rich soil • Tobacco, rice, indigo and cotton farming • Used slaves

Question 30

How much had tobacco exports risen from 1670s to 1770s?

Answer 30

£14 million

Question 31

What fraction of workers were farmers?

Answer 31

9/10

Question 32

What is mercantilism?

Answer 32

When a colony’s purpose is to serve the economic interest of the mother country

Question 33

When were the trade navigation acts passed and what did they do?

Answer 33

1651 and 1673 • All cargo from colonies to be sent in ships built in England/colonies and manned by a predominantly English crew • Sugar, cotton and tobacco had to to be shipped to England first even if the final destination lay elsewhere

Question 34

Which acts were passed to restrict colonial manufacturing as part of the trade and navigations acts?

Answer 34

• Woolen Act (1699) • Hat Act (1732) • Iron Act (1750) These were not detested by colonists as they had little importance and impact

Question 35

How did colonists break the trade and navigation laws?

Answer 35

• Hugh duties levied from acts were rarely collected • Colonial custom service workers were sinecures and bribed by colonists to break trade laws

Question 36

Who benefitted from mercantilism?

Answer 36

Both Britain and colonies as they provided a protected market in Britain

Question 37

By 1760, what fraction of British imports and exports crossed the Atlantic?

Answer 37

1/3 Showed increased colonial trade

Question 38

What percentage of black slaves lived in southern colonies?

Answer 38

90%

Question 39

By 1763, how many white males were literate in comparison to white males in Britain ?

Answer 39

USA 75% Britain 60%

Question 40

What educational society did Benjamin Franklin establish?

Answer 40

The American Philosophical Society