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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