AP US History · Topic 2.5

Interactions Between American Indians and Europeans Practice

Part of Period 2: 1607–1754.

Practice questions

9

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Sample questions

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  1. Sample 1difficulty 3/5

    "On the tenth of February 1675, came the Indians with great numbers upon Lancaster... Their first coming was about sun-rising; hearing the noise of some guns, we looked out; several houses were burning, and the smoke ascending to heaven... I had often before this said that if the Indians should come, I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive; but when it came to the trial, my mind changed." — Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (1682), recalling her capture during King Philip's War

    Which historical claim is best supported by Rowlandson's narrative as a piece of evidence?

    • A

      By 1682, captivity narratives had been suppressed by Crown censors

    • B

      English colonists generally adopted Algonquian religious practices after sustained contact

    • C

      Massachusetts Bay outlawed all printed religious literature after 1670

    • D

      Late-seventeenth-century New England print culture used personal trauma to reinforce Puritan piety

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    Why

    Widely read in New England and London, Rowlandson's account exemplifies how personal narratives served sermonic and didactic ends in print, reinforcing Puritan moral and religious frameworks.

  2. Sample 2difficulty 3/5

    "It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire... and horrible was the stink and scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the praise thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy." — Captain John Mason, A Brief History of the Pequot War (account of the Mystic Massacre, 1637)

    Mason's framing of the burning of the Pequot fort as a "sweet sacrifice" most clearly reflects which English colonial worldview?

    • A

      Quaker pacifist tradition reluctantly approving defensive bloodshed

    • B

      A providentialist Puritan theology interpreting military success as divine favor

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    • C

      Enlightenment rationalism justifying conquest by natural-rights theory

    • D

      Anglican royalist ideology sanctioning warfare to enforce Crown religious uniformity

    Why

    Puritan colonists routinely interpreted battlefield outcomes as expressions of God's providence. Mason's praise-language about "frying" enemies frames slaughter as a sanctified gift from God, characteristic of New England covenant theology.

  3. Sample 3difficulty 3/5

    "Brothers — When the white men first set foot on our shores, they were hungry; they had no place to spread their blankets. They were feeble; they could do nothing for themselves. Our fathers commiserated their distress, and gave them food. The white men are like poisonous serpents: when chilled they are feeble; when warmed they sting their benefactors to death." — Tecumseh, Speech to the Osages, 1811

    Tecumseh's Confederation, 1810-1813 Prophetstown Tippecanoe Detroit Thames Shawnee Creek (south)

    Tecumseh's argument was intended primarily to

    • A

      Encourage assimilation into farming

    • B

      Build a pan-Indigenous confederation against U.S. expansion

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    • C

      Negotiate trade terms with Spanish Louisiana

    • D

      Convert Osages to Christianity

    Why

    Tecumseh traveled widely to recruit tribes south and west into a confederacy he and his brother Tenskwatawa hoped would halt American settlement.

  4. Sample 4difficulty 3/5

    "It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire... and horrible was the stink and scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the praise thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy." — Captain John Mason, A Brief History of the Pequot War (account of the Mystic Massacre, 1637)

    The pattern of colonial-Indigenous warfare exemplified here continued in which later seventeenth-century New England conflict?

    • A

      King Philip's (Metacom's) War of 1675-1676

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    • B

      The War of Jenkins's Ear in the 1730s

    • C

      Pontiac's Rebellion of 1763

    • D

      The Yamasee War of 1715 in South Carolina

    Why

    King Philip's War, fought a generation later between New England colonists and Wampanoag-led Algonquian forces, repeated the pattern of total-war tactics, providential rhetoric, and devastation of Indigenous communities seen in the Pequot War.

  5. Sample 5difficulty 3/5

    "On the tenth of February 1675, came the Indians with great numbers upon Lancaster... Their first coming was about sun-rising; hearing the noise of some guns, we looked out; several houses were burning, and the smoke ascending to heaven... I had often before this said that if the Indians should come, I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive; but when it came to the trial, my mind changed." — Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (1682), recalling her capture during King Philip's War

    Rowlandson's narrative is best categorized as which kind of source?

    • A

      A Puritan captivity narrative blending personal memoir with providential theology

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    • B

      An almanac essay defending Crown imperial policy

    • C

      A merchant's ledger documenting Atlantic trade in furs

    • D

      A formal sermon delivered to the General Court of Massachusetts

    Why

    Captivity narratives like Rowlandson's were a popular genre in late-seventeenth-century New England, framing personal ordeals among Indigenous captors as tests of faith and signs of God's providence.