Quiz Test-1 The History of American Literature

Covering The Colonial and American National Period (1607–1830)

1. Who is considered the first published American poet?
A) Jonathan Edwards
B) Anne Bradstreet
C) William Bradford
D) Edward Taylor
✅ Answer: B

2. What genre dominates early Puritan writing?
A) Gothic romance
B) Political satire
C) Religious narrative
D) Allegorical fantasy
✅ Answer: C

3. Of Plymouth Plantation was written by:
A) Cotton Mather
B) John Smith
C) William Bradford
D) Thomas Paine
✅ Answer: C

4. Mary Rowlandson’s famous work is classified as:
A) Autobiography
B) Captivity narrative
C) Political pamphlet
D) Sermon
✅ Answer: B

5. The Puritan literary style is best described as:
A) Ornate and rhetorical
B) Simple and plain
C) Symbolic and poetic
D) Dramatic and lyrical
✅ Answer: B

6. Edward Taylor is best known for writing:
A) Satirical essays
B) Religious poetry
C) Travel journals
D) Revolutionary songs
✅ Answer: B

7. What was the central concern of Puritan literature?
A) Humor
B) Economic policy
C) Salvation and divine will
D) Secularism
✅ Answer: C

8. Which of the following texts is an early American sermon?
A) The Autobiography
B) The Tenth Muse
C) Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
D) Common Sense
✅ Answer: C

9. Who delivered Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God?
A) George Whitefield
B) Jonathan Edwards
C) Cotton Mather
D) Thomas Jefferson
✅ Answer: B

10. The Enlightenment in America emphasized:
A) Religious ritual
B) Monarchy
C) Reason and human rights
D) Feudal loyalty
✅ Answer: C

11. Which writer represents the transition to Enlightenment ideals?
A) Anne Bradstreet
B) William Bradford
C) Benjamin Franklin
D) Roger Williams
✅ Answer: C

12. Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack promoted:
A) Military training
B) Political satire
C) Practical wisdom and virtue
D) Epic poetry
✅ Answer: C

13. What type of document is the Declaration of Independence?
A) Captivity narrative
B) Political manifesto
C) Sermon
D) Travel log
✅ Answer: B

14. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was intended to:
A) Defend British loyalty
B) Promote monarchy
C) Inspire revolution
D) Support neutrality
✅ Answer: C

15. What literary form did Thomas Paine use in The American Crisis?
A) Drama
B) Satire
C) Pamphlet
D) Allegory
✅ Answer: C

16. Which author was most associated with early political rhetoric?
A) Anne Hutchinson
B) Benjamin Franklin
C) Jonathan Edwards
D) Thomas Paine
✅ Answer: D

17. Phillis Wheatley was the first African American to:
A) Preach publicly
B) Vote
C) Publish a book
D) Translate Latin
✅ Answer: C

18. Phillis Wheatley’s poetry often praised:
A) Revolution
B) African heritage
C) Greek mythology
D) Christian faith
✅ Answer: D

19. What theme appears in Wheatley’s poems?
A) Romantic love
B) Religious devotion
C) Gothic horror
D) Naturalism
✅ Answer: B

20. A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass falls under:
A) Slave narrative
B) Sermon
C) Fiction
D) Tragedy
✅ Answer: A

21. The Federalist Papers supported:
A) British monarchy
B) American federalism
C) Religious separatism
D) Agricultural reform
✅ Answer: B

22. Who co-wrote The Federalist Papers?
A) Jefferson, Madison, Franklin
B) Hamilton, Madison, Jay
C) Adams, Washington, Paine
D) Lincoln, Clay, Monroe
✅ Answer: B

23. The Colonial period ends around:
A) 1492
B) 1607
C) 1776
D) 1830
✅ Answer: C

24. Early American literature was influenced most by:
A) Spanish tradition
B) African folklore
C) British literary forms
D) German classics
✅ Answer: C

25. Which colony was known for its intellectual Puritan writing?
A) Virginia
B) Maryland
C) Georgia
D) Massachusetts
✅ Answer: D

26. Which early colony produced the most surviving texts?
A) Jamestown
B) Plymouth
C) Savannah
D) New Orleans
✅ Answer: B

27. Roger Williams wrote in defense of:
A) Slavery
B) Religious liberty
C) Federal authority
D) Feudal law
✅ Answer: B

28. Which author famously recorded witch trials?
A) Anne Bradstreet
B) Cotton Mather
C) Jonathan Edwards
D) William Byrd
✅ Answer: B

29. The Magnalia Christi Americana is a history of:
A) Revolution
B) Puritan leaders
C) Native tribes
D) British monarchy
✅ Answer: B

30. The term “city upon a hill” is from:
A) Thomas Jefferson
B) John Winthrop
C) Cotton Mather
D) Patrick Henry
✅ Answer: B

31. John Winthrop’s model of government relied on:
A) Military rule
B) Puritan unity
C) Separation of powers
D) Enlightenment science
✅ Answer: B

32. Enlightenment thinkers believed most in:
A) Original sin
B) Divine right
C) Human reason
D) Emotional expression
✅ Answer: C

33. Early American autobiography includes:
A) Jonathan Edwards’s diary
B) Franklin’s Autobiography
C) Mather’s sermons
D) Jefferson’s letters
✅ Answer: B

34. Who stressed self-discipline and moral improvement?
A) Thomas Paine
B) George Whitefield
C) Benjamin Franklin
D) John Smith
✅ Answer: C

35. Jonathan Edwards helped lead which movement?
A) Abolition
B) American Revolution
C) The First Great Awakening
D) Romanticism
✅ Answer: C

36. What did the Great Awakening promote?
A) Political independence
B) Rationalism
C) Religious revivalism
D) Trade reform
✅ Answer: C

37. Early American poetry often imitated:
A) French symbolism
B) Classical English forms
C) Native chants
D) Gothic ballads
✅ Answer: B

38. Samuel Sewall is known for:
A) Editing sermons
B) Writing anti-slavery tracts
C) Fictional works
D) Inventing allegory
✅ Answer: B

39. What’s a key theme in John Woolman’s work?
A) Exploration
B) Slavery and conscience
C) Naval warfare
D) Witchcraft
✅ Answer: B

40. The American National Period officially begins with:
A) Jamestown
B) The Civil War
C) The Declaration of Independence
D) The Constitution
✅ Answer: C

41. Early American fiction was rare because:
A) Religion banned novels
B) No writers existed
C) Only poetry was legal
D) Fiction lacked truth
✅ Answer: A

42. What form of expression dominated the Revolution?
A) Travel writing
B) Autobiography
C) Political pamphlet
D) Fiction
✅ Answer: C

43. Thomas Jefferson’s style reflects:
A) Puritanism
B) Romanticism
C) Enlightenment
D) Realism
✅ Answer: C

44. Mercy Otis Warren contributed through:
A) Political plays
B) Military diaries
C) Scientific reports
D) Colonial maps
✅ Answer: A

45. Early American novels began appearing around:
A) 1600
B) 1750
C) 1790
D) 1850
✅ Answer: C

46. The most common early theme was:
A) Horror
B) Satire
C) Morality
D) Romance
✅ Answer: C

47. Who helped shape American ideals of liberty and reason?
A) Cotton Mather
B) Jonathan Edwards
C) Thomas Paine
D) William Bradford
✅ Answer: C

48. What was Franklin’s view of religion?
A) Superstition
B) Rejection
C) Moral usefulness
D) Romantic emotion
✅ Answer: C

49. Bradstreet’s poems often end in:
A) Doubt
B) Hope
C) Despair
D) Confusion
✅ Answer: B

50. Early American writing combined:
A) Philosophy and atheism
B) Romance and war
C) Faith and survival
D) Drama and fiction
✅ Answer: C

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