US History Literacy Pre-Test
Name ______Date ______
- The first permanent English settlement in US was in
- Jamestown
- Boston
- New York
- St. Augustine
- The first permanent European settlement in US was in
- Jamestown
- Boston
- New York
- St. Augustine
- The Declaration of Independence was signed in
- 1492
- 1640
- 1776
- 1861
- The French and Indian War was fought between
- The Americans and British
- The English and the French
- The French and Indians
- The Americans and the English
- The Civil War was fought
- 1687 - 1691
- 1776 - 1780
- 1861 - 1865
- 1917 - 1921
- The President during the Civil War was
- Washington
- Lincoln
- Jefferson
- Jackson
- The general in charge of the Confederate forces was
- Jackson
- Lincoln
- Jefferson
- Lee
- A person who wanted to end slavery in the US was called a
- Nullifier
- Freedom Fighter
- Lincolner
- Abolitionist
- Women received the right to vote in federal elections in
- 1776
- 1820
- 1920
- 1963
- Who spoke out against taxation without representation by saying, "Give me liberty or give me death!"?
- King George III
- Thomas Jefferson
- Patrick Henry
- Benjamin Franklin
- He wrote the Declaration of Independence
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Paine
- John Hancock
- George Washington
- The Korean War started in
- 1861
- 1914
- 1939
- 1950
- World War II started in
- 1861
- 1914
- 1939
- 1950
- What event in the early 1900's sparked a tremendous wave of Mexican immigration into the United States?
- An influenza outbreak in Mexico City
- The Mexican Revolution
- Famine
- a depression
- The Revolutionary War Started in
- 1678
- 1756
- 1775
- 1861
- 1914
- 22 men, including five African Americans, seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hoping to ignite a slave rebellion. Who was their leader?
- Nat Turner
- Gabriel Prosser
- John Brown
- O.J. Simpson
- The Spanish American War was fought in
- 1497
- 1598
- 1780
- 1898
- 1935
- The Mormons were persecuted because they believed :
- There was more than one god.
- Everyone should be armed.
- Everyone should have slaves.
- You could have more than one wife.
- Who was the first Black American woman Secretary ofState, appointed in 2005?
- Condoleezza Rice
- Roberta Weaver
- Patricia Harris
- Colleen Powell
- The anti-slavery novel written in 1852 by Harriet Beecher Stowe was
- Huckleberry Finn
- Tom Sawyer
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Gone with the Wind
- The Pilgrims came in
- 1492
- 1520
- 1620
- 1720
- The Emancipation Proclamation, freeing some of the slaves, was issued in
- 1776
- 1640
- 1863
- 1917
- The president of the Confederacy was
- Robert E. Lee
- Jefferson Davis
- Stonewall Jackson
- Thomas Jefferson
- The Union general who later became president was
- Robert E. Lee
- George Custer
- Benjamin Franklin
- Ulysses S. Grant
- The future American President who was a hero during the Spanish-American war was
- John F. Kennedy
- Teddy Roosevelt
- Herbert Hoover
- Dwight Eisenhower
- Former slave who helped lead the fight for freedom
- Robert E. Lee
- Patrick Henry
- Frederick Douglass
- Uncle Tom
- The invention that made slavery more profitable
- Steam Engine
- Cotton Gin
- Planting turbine
- The Reaping Machine
- During World War II we fought against
- Japan, Germany and France
- France, Germany and England
- Germany, Italy and Japan
- Italy, England and Japan
- Before the Europeans arrived there were about how many different Indian tribes in North America?
- 7
- 20
- 500
- 3000
- The Pilgrims came to America
- to hunt for gold
- for religious freedom
- to farm
- to escaped from wars
- The famous American witch trial took place in
- Boston
- Philadelphia
- Salem
- Fairfield
- In U.S. history, Prohibition meant
- the closing of U.S. borders to new immigrants
- the outlawing of slavery
- laws forbidding the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages
- state regulations against collective bargaining
- The American senator who said that there were Communists in our government was
- Sen. Lawrence
- Sen. McCarthy
- Sen. Einstein
- Sen. Lenin
- On what country did the US drop atomic bombs?
- France
- Korea
- Viet Nam
- Japan
- The Viet Nam war ended in
- 1937
- 1973
- 1996
- Famous American inventor who signed the Declaration of Independence (and is on 100 dollar bill)
- Jefferson
- Washington
- Franklin
- Lincoln
- First man on the moon was
- John Glenn
- Peter Shepard
- Neil Armstrong
- John Marcietta
- We first landed on the moon in
- 1917
- 1937
- 1948
- 1969
- The president who was forced to resign was
- Lincoln
- Bush
- Clinton
- Nixon
- The WorldTradeCenter was destroyed by terrorists in
- 1968
- 1983
- 1992
- 2001
- A famous American Muslim leader who was assassinated was
- Gandhi
- Malcolm X
- Martin Luther King
- Robert Kennedy
- A Supreme Court ruling that said separate but equal was unfair was
- Brown vs. the Board of Education
- Marbury vs. Madison
- Kellerman vs. State of Mississippi
- Lawrence vs. State of Georgia
- The Cuban Missile Crisis involved the US and
- France
- Iraq
- Russia
- Korea
- A big portion of the US fleet was sunk in WWII at
- Gettysburg
- Pearl Harbor
- Iowa Jima
- Cape Canaveral
- He was elected President four times
- Washington
- Lincoln
- Roosevelt
- Bush
- The Great Depression started in
- 1829
- 1879
- 1929
- 1959
- The ship on which the Pilgrims came
- Santa Maria
- Mayflower
- Amistad
- The ship on which Columbus came
- Santa Maria
- Mayflower
- Amistad
- GoodShip Hope
- The ship on which the slaves revolted
- Santa Maria
- Mayflower
- Amistad
- Who were the first three presidents of the United States?
- Washington, Adams, Jefferson
- Washington, Jefferson, Franklin
- Washington, Hamilton, Madison
- Washington, Madison, Jackson
- To pay for the French & Indian War, the British government made a law that said the colonists had to ______
- drink tea.
- close the seaport to Boston.
- send tax money to Great Britain.
- come back to Great Britain.
- The war between the colonies and Great Britain was called the ______
- American Revolution.
- French & Indian War.
- Seven Years War.
- Civil War.
- The colony of Connecticut was founded by ______
- William Hutchinson.
- King Philip.
- Thomas Hooker
- John Winthrop.
- To keep their people from leaving the Communists built a wall across what city?
- Paris
- Berlin
- Prague
- Quebec
- In colonial government, all the following groups were restricted from voting EXCEPT ______
- enslaved persons.
- Native Americans.
- women property owners.
- white male property owners over the age of 21.
- The Southern slave codes did all of the following EXCEPT ______
- forbid enslaved persons to carry weapons.
- prohibit enslaved persons from holding meetings
- require enslaved Africans to learn to read.
- treat enslaved people as both persons and property.
- The term "Middle Passage" refers to the ______
- banks of a number of slow-flowing rivers in Virginia.
- lower class Southern farmers who worked for big planters.
- route of slave trips between Africa and America.
- raids made by slave traders in Africa.
- We think the first Europeans to reach the New World were :
- Columbus and his crew
- Marco Polo and his camels
- The Vikings
- Vasco deGama and his mates
- Who was the youngest US president when his term began in 1901?
- John Kennedy
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Bill Clinton
- Ben Franklin
- Which famous frontiersman died at the Alamo?
- Daniel Boone
- Jerimiah Johnson
- Davy Crockett
- William Tell
- The Indian people of the ______built their homes out of a type of sun-dried mud bricks called adobe.
- Southwest
- Plains
- East
- North
- The scandal that helped bring down President Nixon was
- Teapot Dome
- Pentagon Papers
- Waterworld
- Watergate
- The Russian satellite that was launched in 1957 was
- Sputnik
- Apotivak
- Malinivik
- Lenin I
- Who made the "Midnight Ride" to alarm the country side that British troops were landing at Cambridge, Massachusetts during the American Revolution?
- Franklin
- Jefferson
- Revere
- Johnson
- Puerto Rico became a territory of the US because of
- World War I
- World War II
- The Spanish-American War
- The US-Mexican War
- About what percentage of Americans are black?
- 5%
- 12%
- 40%
- 50%
- The ______, expressed in 1823, proclaimed the United States' opinion that European powers should no longer colonize or interfere in the Americas.
- Truman Doctrine
- Monroe Doctrine
- Kennedy Doctrine
- Jackson Doctrine
- The period between 1945 and 1980 in which the US and Russia both tried to expand their influence in the world is known as
- The Domino War
- The Berlin War
- The Candy War
- The Cold War
- Which president was not assassinated?
- Lincoln
- McKinley
- Johnson
- Kennedy
- In what state is the White House located in?
- New York
- Virginia
- No State
- Washington
- Which of the following was an American traitor?
- Thomas Lawrence
- John Paul Jones
- Paul Revere
- Benedict Arnold
- What state did the Mormons finally settle in?
- Connecticut
- Utah
- California
- Montana
- What were the last two states added to the United States.
- Montana and Utah
- Alaska and Maine
- Hawaii and Alaska
- Hawaii and Utah
- How many stripes are there on the flag?
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- In the War of 1812 we fought against?
- France
- Spain
- England
- Germany
- When did the foreign slave trade end in the United States?
- 1776
- 1808.
- 1863.
- 1880
- The United States bought Alaska from
- France
- Russia
- England
- Canada
- What do we call the period following the Civil War?
- post-War years
- The golden years
- Reconstruction
- the twilight years
- When did Chinese workers begin to build the Transcontinental Railroad?
- 1865
- 1900
- 1915
- 1935
- What state is home to nearly two-thirds of all Cuban Americans?
- New York
- Florida
- California
- Utah
- Texas
- Who established the National Farm Workers Association in 1962, and later led a successful nationwide boycott of grapes?
- Romana Acosta Banuelos
- Cesar Estrada Chavez
- Henry Gabriel Cisneros
- Steve Campos
- The 1925 trial of John Scopes involved a conflict between
- communists and industrialists
- science and religion
- the Ku Klux Klan and civil rights advocates
- supporters and opponents of a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages
- What European nation originally colonized Florida?
- England
- Spain
- France
- Portugal
- Who has traditionally been given credit for sewing the first American flag?
- Betsy Ross
- Martha Washington
- Francis Hopkins
- Dolly Madison
- "The Battle of Normandy" took place during what war?
- World War I
- World War II
- The Korean War
- The Vietnam War
- The Bay of Pigs episode took place when
- Cuban exiles from Florida landed in Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro
- U.S. troops invaded Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa
- UN forces undertook an amphibious landing behind enemy lines in Korea
- U.S. marines were sent by President Lyndon Johnson to the Dominican Republic
- The term "Seward's Folly" refers to
- the purchase of Alaska negotiated by Secretary of State William Seward
- the impeachment of Andrew Johnson urged by Secretary of State William Seward
- the cornering of gold by financier George Seward, which led to the stock market crash of 1869
- the Great Fire of Chicago, which started in Seward's Tavern
- Who is traditionally known as "The Father of the United States Constitution"?
- Benjamin Franklin
- James Madison
- John Hancock
- Thomas Jefferson
- Who contributed to the Revolutionary War by providing military leadership as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army?
- George Washington
- Richard Henry Lee
- Benedict Arnold
- John Paul Jones
- "The shot heard 'round the world" happened here.
- Lexington, Massachusetts
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Jamestown, Virginia
- This document states that "all men are created equal," everyone has the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and that the colonies were "free and independent states."
- The Declaration of Independence
- The Bill of Rights
- The Constitution
- The Stamp Act
- One of the most famous residents of Jamestown, Virginia, was
- William Penn
- Pocahontas
- Lord Baltimore
- James I
- The New Deal was the name given to
- Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy
- Harry S. Truman's domestic programs
- Franklin D. Roosevelt's social and economic reforms
- Lyndon B. Johnson's social programs
- Valley Forge was the site of an encampment by
- Union troops under Grant during the winter of 1863
- federal troops under Lee preceding the Harpers Ferry raid
- British forces under Cornwallis in 1783
- the Continental army under Washington in 1777-1778
- An oil reserve called Teapot Dome gave its name to
- a scandal involving bribery during the Harding administration
- a corrupt group of New York City Democrats under Boss Tweed
- an energy commission set up by Jimmy Carter
- an act of rebellion by Boston colonists
- Aided by an Indian woman named Sacajawea, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
- led a party of explorers to the fountain of youth
- defeated Chief Sitting Bull at Little Bighorn
- charted a route from Missouri to the Pacific
- helped defeat the Apaches
- What important event took place in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848?
- Women met to call for their rights as citizens.
- The Johnstown Flood killed over two thousand people.
- A revolution led Joseph Smith to create the Book of Mormon.
- The Erie Canal was completed.
- Gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in California in 1848 by James Marshall and it
- justified the purchase of Alaska
- ensured the conversion of paper money to gold
- brought 100,000 settlers into a new territory
- made millionaires of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller
- Harriet Tubman is primarily known for
- founding the first college for black students
- spying for Confederate forces during the Civil War
- leading slaves north on the Underground Railroad
- her work with the suffragist movement
- Through the Marshall Plan, the United States
- aided European economies after World War II
- supplied arms to developing nations in the 1970s
- allied with France and Great Britian in 1917
- developed plans for the League of Nations