AP US History · Topic 2.7
Colonial Society and Culture Practice
Part of Period 2: 1607–1754.
Practice questions
39
Sample questions
5 of 39 — sign in to practice the rest with adaptive difficulty and mastery tracking.
Sample 1difficulty 2/5
"The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked... He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours." — Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," 1741
Edwards's preaching style as shown here is best situated within which broader eighteenth-century development?
- A
The Glorious Revolution's emphasis on parliamentary supremacy over the monarchy
- B
The Enlightenment's promotion of deistic, naturalistic religion
- Ccheck_circle
The First Great Awakening's emphasis on emotional conversion and itinerant preaching
- D
The Halfway Covenant's expansion of partial church membership in the 1660s
Why
Edwards's vivid emotional appeal is a hallmark of the First Great Awakening (1730s-40s). The Glorious Revolution was a political event, deism opposed Edwards's revivalism, and the Halfway Covenant predated Edwards by nearly a century and concerned baptismal rules, not revival rhetoric.
- A
Sample 2difficulty 2/5
"The Lord knoweth I have not done this thing of which I am accused. I am as innocent as the child unborn... I shall, as I hope to be saved, speak nothing but the truth before this honoured Court... If it were possible that any one human being could give such evidence as this, I cannot belie my own soul." — Examination of Rebecca Nurse, Salem Village, 1692
What does the speaker's identity as an accused defendant reveal about the limits of this excerpt as historical evidence?
- A
It is invalid because women were not permitted to give sworn testimony in colonial courts
- Bcheck_circle
It captures the defendant's self-presentation but cannot reveal what evidence persuaded the jury to convict
- C
It cannot show Puritan religious belief, since defendants were required to speak in secular terms
- D
It is unreliable because court reporters in Massachusetts were forbidden from recording defendants
Why
A defendant's plea is invaluable for self-presentation but doesn't disclose the spectral evidence and accuser testimony that swayed the court. Massachusetts courts did record proceedings, used overtly religious language, and permitted women's testimony—those distractors invert the historical record.
- A
Sample 3difficulty 2/5
"We shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We must be knit together in this work as one man." — John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity," 1630
Winthrop's vision most directly reflects which broader development in early seventeenth-century New England?
- A
The negotiation of proprietary land grants from the Crown to Catholic nobles
- B
The chartering of joint-stock ventures focused on extracting cash crops
- C
The expansion of headright systems to attract indentured servants
- Dcheck_circle
The establishment of Puritan covenant communities seeking to model godly society
Why
Winthrop's sermon reflects the Puritan project of building a covenanted godly community in Massachusetts Bay. Cash-crop joint-stock ventures (Virginia Company), headright systems (Chesapeake), and proprietary Catholic grants (Maryland under the Calverts) were all real but distinct colonial models that did not animate Winthrop's "city upon a hill."
- A
Sample 4difficulty 2/5
"We... do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick... and frame such just and equal Laws... as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience." — Mayflower Compact, 1620
The flowchart and excerpt together best illustrate which political principle?
- A
Royal charters alone establish lawful colonial government
- Bcheck_circle
Government legitimacy derives from the consent of the governed
- C
Hereditary nobility forms the basis of just law
- D
Religious uniformity is required for political authority
Why
Both source and diagram show settlers voluntarily forming a body politic and binding themselves to its laws—an early articulation of consent-based government.
- A
Sample 5difficulty 3/5
"No man's life shall be taken away, no man's honor or good name shall be stained, no man's person shall be arrested, restrained, banished, dismembered, nor any ways punished... unless it be by virtue or equity of some express law of the country warranting the same, established by a General Court and sufficiently published, or, in case of the defect of a law in any particular case, by the Word of God." — Massachusetts Body of Liberties, drafted by Nathaniel Ward (1641)
The protection established here most closely anticipates which clause of the United States Bill of Rights?
- Acheck_circle
The Fifth Amendment's guarantee against deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process
- B
The Second Amendment's protection of a well-regulated militia
- C
The Third Amendment's bar on quartering soldiers
- D
The Seventh Amendment's preservation of jury trial in civil suits
Why
The Body's procedural guarantees against arbitrary punishment foreshadow the Fifth Amendment's due-process protection, illustrating continuity between colonial Puritan legal codes and federal constitutional rights.
- A