Theme: Advanced focus on writers, genres, styles, and ideological trends from The Colonial and American National Period (1607–1830).
1. Who wrote A Model of Christian Charity aboard the Arbella?
A) Cotton Mather
B) John Winthrop
C) William Bradford
D) Anne Hutchinson
✅ Answer: B
2. What concept does “city upon a hill” illustrate?
A) Commercial success
B) Religious separation
C) Moral example to the world
D) British loyalty
✅ Answer: C
3. The Bay Psalm Book was important because:
A) It contained fiction
B) It translated Latin verse
C) It was the first book printed in British America
D) It was banned
✅ Answer: C
4. The dominant theme of William Bradford’s writing is:
A) Exploration
B) Christian providence
C) Trade and economy
D) Satirical rebellion
✅ Answer: B
5. Mary Rowlandson’s narrative emphasized:
A) Political rebellion
B) Native resistance
C) God’s sovereignty
D) Romantic suffering
✅ Answer: C
6. The spiritual autobiography influenced by Puritan conversion models is:
A) The Federalist Papers
B) Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
C) The Diary of Samuel Sewall
D) The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
✅ Answer: D
7. What distinguishes Edward Taylor’s poetry?
A) Gothic imagery
B) Native folklore
C) Metaphysical conceits
D) Blank verse
✅ Answer: C
8. Jonathan Edwards is often associated with:
A) Deism
B) Enlightenment skepticism
C) Emotional revivalism
D) Romanticism
✅ Answer: C
9. What movement is Jonathan Edwards linked to?
A) The Enlightenment
B) The Great Awakening
C) Transcendentalism
D) Romanticism
✅ Answer: B
10. The Enlightenment emphasized:
A) Fear and repentance
B) Monarchical power
C) Human reason and progress
D) Divine intervention
✅ Answer: C
11. The Declaration of Independence is a product of:
A) Gothic prose
B) The Great Awakening
C) Enlightenment ideals
D) British satire
✅ Answer: C
12. Thomas Jefferson’s prose is known for:
A) Biblical allegory
B) Classical balance
C) Poetic ambiguity
D) Apocalyptic imagery
✅ Answer: B
13. Thomas Paine’s writing style can be described as:
A) Abstract and ornate
B) Rhymed couplets
C) Bold, plain, persuasive
D) Philosophical and ironic
✅ Answer: C
14. The Crisis papers were written to:
A) Inspire soldiers
B) Mock monarchy
C) Debate theology
D) Question slavery
✅ Answer: A
15. The line “These are the times that try men’s souls” appears in:
A) Common Sense
B) The Federalist Papers
C) The Crisis
D) Letters from an American Farmer
✅ Answer: C
16. Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography demonstrates:
A) Humility and chaos
B) Depravity and fate
C) Self-discipline and rational order
D) Mysticism and dreams
✅ Answer: C
17. What value is central in Franklin’s writings?
A) Original sin
B) Rational improvement
C) Manifest destiny
D) Class division
✅ Answer: B
18. Phillis Wheatley published during:
A) The 1600s
B) The early 1700s
C) The American Revolution
D) The Civil War
✅ Answer: C
19. Wheatley’s classical references reflect:
A) English satire
B) Romantic longing
C) Her classical education
D) Gothic excess
✅ Answer: C
20. Who was Phillis Wheatley’s intended audience?
A) Native leaders
B) European monarchs
C) Educated Christians and abolitionists
D) Southern planters
✅ Answer: C
21. Wheatley’s religious tone often portrays:
A) Spiritual despair
B) Conflict with God
C) Redemptive faith
D) Historical sarcasm
✅ Answer: C
22. Enlightenment literature often focused on:
A) Emotions over logic
B) Rational structure and civic virtue
C) Chaos and confusion
D) Musicality and meter
✅ Answer: B
23. The Puritan legacy in American literature includes:
A) Mystery
B) Emotional extremes
C) Deep moral seriousness
D) Secular imagination
✅ Answer: C
24. What does Cotton Mather’s writing style reflect?
A) Political liberty
B) Enlightenment rationalism
C) Puritan doctrine and providence
D) Modernist ambiguity
✅ Answer: C
25. What’s a captivity narrative?
A) Fairy tale
B) Slave song
C) Story of being captured and redeemed
D) Travelogue
✅ Answer: C
26. The Enlightenment most challenged:
A) Science
B) Monarchy
C) Traditional religion
D) Emotional sincerity
✅ Answer: C
27. The primary difference between Puritan and Enlightenment prose is:
A) Punctuation
B) Use of imagery
C) Tone and purpose
D) Use of rhyme
✅ Answer: C
28. Early sermons aimed to:
A) Entertain readers
B) Teach doctrine and moral action
C) Imitate European poetry
D) Advance politics
✅ Answer: B
29. A major goal of Revolutionary literature was:
A) Celebration of aristocracy
B) Justification of colonial rebellion
C) Worship of monarchy
D) Denial of democracy
✅ Answer: B
30. The phrase “natural rights” is central to:
A) Gothic novels
B) Religious poems
C) Enlightenment political philosophy
D) Puritan catechisms
✅ Answer: C
31. Which group rejected established religion most directly?
A) Quakers
B) Puritans
C) Deists
D) Separatists
✅ Answer: C
32. Who described America as “a melting pot” of cultures?
A) Cotton Mather
B) Thomas Jefferson
C) Hector St. John de Crèvecœur
D) Jonathan Edwards
✅ Answer: C
33. What was the tone of Crevecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer?
A) Cynical and hopeless
B) Idealistic and patriotic
C) Surreal and abstract
D) Violent and fearful
✅ Answer: B
34. The best word to describe Wheatley’s poetic tone is:
A) Indifferent
B) Mocking
C) Reverent
D) Rebellious
✅ Answer: C
35. What movement followed Puritanism in literary influence?
A) Postmodernism
B) Enlightenment
C) Romanticism
D) Transcendentalism
✅ Answer: B
36. Deism holds that:
A) God intervenes daily
B) Miracles guide history
C) God created the world, then withdrew
D) Angels wrote Scripture
✅ Answer: C
37. Who believed reason could improve humanity?
A) Puritans
B) Enlightenment thinkers
C) Anti-federalists
D) Mystics
✅ Answer: B
38. The earliest American fiction often lacked:
A) Morality
B) Adventure
C) Acceptance
D) Print form
✅ Answer: C
39. What does the Enlightenment prioritize over emotion?
A) Revelation
B) Nature
C) Reason
D) Intuition
✅ Answer: C
40. Bradstreet’s poetic structure often relied on:
A) Free verse
B) Haiku
C) Rhymed couplets
D) Sonnets
✅ Answer: C
41. Who argued most for religious liberty in the colonies?
A) George Whitefield
B) John Smith
C) Roger Williams
D) Samuel Sewall
✅ Answer: C
42. Enlightenment ideas prepared colonists for:
A) Scientific experimentation
B) Religious revival
C) Political independence
D) Artistic revolution
✅ Answer: C
43. Which of the following was most concerned with virtue?
A) Benjamin Franklin
B) Jonathan Edwards
C) Phillis Wheatley
D) Cotton Mather
✅ Answer: A
44. Early novels in America were criticized for being:
A) Too intellectual
B) Morally dangerous
C) Politically extreme
D) Historically inaccurate
✅ Answer: B
45. What did Edwards emphasize in his sermons?
A) Democracy
B) Grace and damnation
C) Artistic style
D) Physical health
✅ Answer: B
46. Who best represented the bridge between Puritan and Enlightenment worldviews?
A) Thomas Paine
B) Jonathan Edwards
C) Anne Bradstreet
D) Roger Williams
✅ Answer: B
47. The Great Awakening opposed:
A) Clergy
B) Rationalism
C) Mysticism
D) Emotions
✅ Answer: B
48. Which genre became more important during the American National period?
A) Historical fiction
B) Political oratory
C) Travel narrative
D) Personal memoir
✅ Answer: B
49. The Colonial and American National Period ends around:
A) 1776
B) 1800
C) 1830
D) 1865
✅ Answer: C
50. Early American literature shaped national identity through:
A) Fiction
B) Sermons and political texts
C) Plays and satire
D) Journalism
✅ Answer: B
