AP U.S. HISTORY
UNIT 2 PRACTICE TEST
Colonial Society, c. 1607 to c. 1754
25 questions — modeled on official AP question styles and stimulus formats.
Give yourself 30 minutes. Answers and explanations begin on a separate page after the questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
Questions 1–3 refer to the following passage. “The planters, finding that a laborer imported for life was more profitable in
the long run than one who would eventually claim his freedom and his own land under the old system, increasingly turned
to a labor force bound not by a term of years, but by an inherited and permanent status.” — adapted from a historian's
description of the labor transition in the Chesapeake colonies
1. The shift described in this passage refers most directly to the transition from reliance on:
A) Free wage labor to slave labor
B) Indentured servitude to chattel slavery as the dominant labor system
C) Slave labor to indentured servitude
D) Native American forced labor to free wage labor
E) Chattel slavery to the encomienda system
2. Which of the following factors most directly contributed to the shift described in this passage during the late
seventeenth century?
A) A declining supply of English indentured servants combined with falling costs of the transatlantic slave trade
B) A sudden abolition of indentured servitude by royal decree
C) A complete absence of any labor shortage in the Chesapeake
D) The immediate conversion of all enslaved Africans to indentured servants
E) A ban on all forms of unfree labor throughout the English colonies
3. Bacon's Rebellion (1676) is often cited by historians as accelerating the shift described in this passage because it:
A) Convinced planter elites that a racially defined, permanently enslaved labor force posed less risk of uniting with poor
free colonists against the colonial government than indentured servants had
B) Immediately ended all forms of unfree labor in Virginia
C) Resulted in the colony's permanent abandonment
D) Had no connection to labor systems or race relations
E) Led directly to Virginia's independence from England
4. The encomienda system, developed by Spanish colonizers, granted colonists the right to demand which of the
following from Native peoples?
A) Voting rights in colonial assemblies
B) Tribute and forced labor, in exchange for supposed protection and religious instruction
C) Full legal citizenship equal to Spanish colonists
D) Exemption from all forms of taxation
E) Ownership of Spanish colonial land grants
5. The Virginia headright system, established in the early seventeenth century, primarily encouraged colonization by:
A) Granting land to anyone who paid for their own or another person's passage to the colony
, B) Requiring colonists to pay a large fee before receiving any land
C) Distributing land exclusively through royal lottery
D) Banning private land ownership entirely
E) Granting land only to colonists born in the New World
6. Which of the following best explains why the New England colonies developed a diversified economy of small
farms, fishing, and shipbuilding, in contrast to the Chesapeake's cash-crop plantation economy?
A) New England's rocky soil and shorter growing season were poorly suited to large-scale cash-crop agriculture, unlike
the Chesapeake's climate and soil, which favored tobacco cultivation
B) New England had no access to the Atlantic Ocean for trade or fishing
C) The Chesapeake colonies banned all forms of agriculture
D) New England colonists were legally prohibited from farming
E) There was no meaningful economic difference between the two regions
7. Puritan New England's social and political structure was most directly shaped by the goal of:
A) Establishing a religiously homogeneous community organized around covenant theology and congregational church
governance
B) Maximizing profit from a single cash crop, above all other considerations
C) Recreating the Spanish encomienda system in North America
D) Eliminating all forms of local self-government
E) Establishing full religious toleration for all Christian denominations from the colony's founding
8. The Middle Colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware) were notably distinct from New England and
the Chesapeake in their:
A) Complete absence of any European settlers
B) Relatively greater ethnic and religious diversity, including significant Quaker, German, and Dutch populations
C) Total reliance on a single cash crop economy identical to the Chesapeake
D) Exclusive settlement by Puritan separatists
E) Complete rejection of any commercial agriculture
9. William Penn's “Holy Experiment” in Pennsylvania was distinctive for its relatively early commitment to:
A) Mandatory conversion of all colonists to Quakerism
B) Religious toleration extending to a wide range of Christian denominations, alongside comparatively fair treatment in
early dealings with Native peoples
C) The exclusion of all non-English settlers
D) The immediate abolition of private property
E) A strict, single-crop plantation economy
10. Which of the following best describes the Middle Passage?
A) A land route used by European fur traders in North America
B) The brutal transatlantic voyage transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas under horrific conditions
C) A sea route exclusively used for transporting English indentured servants
D) A trade route connecting the Chesapeake to New England exclusively
E) A diplomatic agreement between colonial governments
11. The broader Atlantic trade network connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas, often called the triangular trade,
is best characterized by which general pattern?
A) European manufactured goods to Africa, enslaved Africans to the Americas, and colonial raw materials/cash crops
back to Europe
B) A trade network involving only two continents, with no African participation
C) A purely domestic trade system confined to North America
UNIT 2 PRACTICE TEST
Colonial Society, c. 1607 to c. 1754
25 questions — modeled on official AP question styles and stimulus formats.
Give yourself 30 minutes. Answers and explanations begin on a separate page after the questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
Questions 1–3 refer to the following passage. “The planters, finding that a laborer imported for life was more profitable in
the long run than one who would eventually claim his freedom and his own land under the old system, increasingly turned
to a labor force bound not by a term of years, but by an inherited and permanent status.” — adapted from a historian's
description of the labor transition in the Chesapeake colonies
1. The shift described in this passage refers most directly to the transition from reliance on:
A) Free wage labor to slave labor
B) Indentured servitude to chattel slavery as the dominant labor system
C) Slave labor to indentured servitude
D) Native American forced labor to free wage labor
E) Chattel slavery to the encomienda system
2. Which of the following factors most directly contributed to the shift described in this passage during the late
seventeenth century?
A) A declining supply of English indentured servants combined with falling costs of the transatlantic slave trade
B) A sudden abolition of indentured servitude by royal decree
C) A complete absence of any labor shortage in the Chesapeake
D) The immediate conversion of all enslaved Africans to indentured servants
E) A ban on all forms of unfree labor throughout the English colonies
3. Bacon's Rebellion (1676) is often cited by historians as accelerating the shift described in this passage because it:
A) Convinced planter elites that a racially defined, permanently enslaved labor force posed less risk of uniting with poor
free colonists against the colonial government than indentured servants had
B) Immediately ended all forms of unfree labor in Virginia
C) Resulted in the colony's permanent abandonment
D) Had no connection to labor systems or race relations
E) Led directly to Virginia's independence from England
4. The encomienda system, developed by Spanish colonizers, granted colonists the right to demand which of the
following from Native peoples?
A) Voting rights in colonial assemblies
B) Tribute and forced labor, in exchange for supposed protection and religious instruction
C) Full legal citizenship equal to Spanish colonists
D) Exemption from all forms of taxation
E) Ownership of Spanish colonial land grants
5. The Virginia headright system, established in the early seventeenth century, primarily encouraged colonization by:
A) Granting land to anyone who paid for their own or another person's passage to the colony
, B) Requiring colonists to pay a large fee before receiving any land
C) Distributing land exclusively through royal lottery
D) Banning private land ownership entirely
E) Granting land only to colonists born in the New World
6. Which of the following best explains why the New England colonies developed a diversified economy of small
farms, fishing, and shipbuilding, in contrast to the Chesapeake's cash-crop plantation economy?
A) New England's rocky soil and shorter growing season were poorly suited to large-scale cash-crop agriculture, unlike
the Chesapeake's climate and soil, which favored tobacco cultivation
B) New England had no access to the Atlantic Ocean for trade or fishing
C) The Chesapeake colonies banned all forms of agriculture
D) New England colonists were legally prohibited from farming
E) There was no meaningful economic difference between the two regions
7. Puritan New England's social and political structure was most directly shaped by the goal of:
A) Establishing a religiously homogeneous community organized around covenant theology and congregational church
governance
B) Maximizing profit from a single cash crop, above all other considerations
C) Recreating the Spanish encomienda system in North America
D) Eliminating all forms of local self-government
E) Establishing full religious toleration for all Christian denominations from the colony's founding
8. The Middle Colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware) were notably distinct from New England and
the Chesapeake in their:
A) Complete absence of any European settlers
B) Relatively greater ethnic and religious diversity, including significant Quaker, German, and Dutch populations
C) Total reliance on a single cash crop economy identical to the Chesapeake
D) Exclusive settlement by Puritan separatists
E) Complete rejection of any commercial agriculture
9. William Penn's “Holy Experiment” in Pennsylvania was distinctive for its relatively early commitment to:
A) Mandatory conversion of all colonists to Quakerism
B) Religious toleration extending to a wide range of Christian denominations, alongside comparatively fair treatment in
early dealings with Native peoples
C) The exclusion of all non-English settlers
D) The immediate abolition of private property
E) A strict, single-crop plantation economy
10. Which of the following best describes the Middle Passage?
A) A land route used by European fur traders in North America
B) The brutal transatlantic voyage transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas under horrific conditions
C) A sea route exclusively used for transporting English indentured servants
D) A trade route connecting the Chesapeake to New England exclusively
E) A diplomatic agreement between colonial governments
11. The broader Atlantic trade network connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas, often called the triangular trade,
is best characterized by which general pattern?
A) European manufactured goods to Africa, enslaved Africans to the Americas, and colonial raw materials/cash crops
back to Europe
B) A trade network involving only two continents, with no African participation
C) A purely domestic trade system confined to North America
