The fighting at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 marked the start of the Revolutionary War.
Correct Answer
True
True. Massachusetts militia, warned by riders, met British troops at Lexington and Concord and harassed them all the way back to Boston. The clash turned years of protest into open war.
Category: Fighting Begins
Question 2
Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured Fort Ticonderoga from the French in 1775.
Correct Answer
False
False. They seized Fort Ticonderoga from the British in May 1775. Its cannons were later hauled to Boston and used to force the British out of the city.
Category: Fighting Begins
Question 3
The Second Continental Congress named George Washington commander in chief of the Continental Army in 1775.
Correct Answer
True
True. In June 1775 Congress created a Continental Army and chose Washington, a Virginian with military experience from the French and Indian War, to lead it. Choosing a southerner also helped tie the colonies together behind New England's fight.
Category: Fighting Begins
Question 4
Dunmore's Proclamation persuaded most Virginia slaveholders to stay loyal to the Crown.
Correct Answer
False
False. By offering freedom to enslaved people who joined the British, the proclamation alarmed slaveholders and pushed many of them toward the Patriot cause. It did draw some enslaved people to British lines.
Category: Road to Independence
Question 5
Common Sense was written in plain language meant to reach ordinary readers, not only educated elites.
Correct Answer
True
True. Thomas Paine avoided learned references and wrote so that farmers and artisans could follow his case against monarchy. The pamphlet spread widely and built support for independence.
Category: Road to Independence
Question 6
John Adams was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence.
Correct Answer
False
False. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration, with suggestions from John Adams and others on the committee. Congress then revised the draft before adopting it in July 1776.
Category: Road to Independence
Question 7
The Declaration of Independence aimed its list of grievances chiefly at King George III.
Correct Answer
True
True. The Declaration charged the king with a long series of abuses meant to establish tyranny. Like Common Sense, it made the monarch, not just Parliament, the target of colonial grievances; it never names Parliament at all.
Category: Road to Independence
Question 8
Washington's army won the Battle of Long Island in August 1776.
Correct Answer
False
False. General Howe's forces routed the Continental Army on Long Island, and the British soon captured New York City. The city served as the British headquarters for the rest of the war.
Category: War in the North
Question 9
Thomas Paine wrote The American Crisis pamphlets to rally Patriots during the war's darkest moments.
Correct Answer
True
True. The first Crisis essay appeared in December 1776, when Washington's army had been driven from New York and its future looked bleak. Paine continued the series through the war.
Category: War in the North
Question 10
Washington's victory at Trenton came in the middle of the summer fighting season.
Correct Answer
False
False. Washington struck at Trenton on December 26, 1776, after crossing the icy Delaware, when armies usually rested for the winter. The surprise attack revived Patriot morale.
Category: War in the North
Question 11
Spain joined the war against Britain in 1779 but did not formally recognize American independence until 1783.
Correct Answer
True
True. Spain fought Britain as an ally of France, seeking to regain lost territory, but it was wary of encouraging colonial rebellion and delayed recognizing the United States.
Category: Saratoga and Alliance
Question 12
The Continental Army spent the winter of 1777 to 1778 comfortably quartered in Philadelphia.
Correct Answer
False
False. The British occupied Philadelphia that winter, while Washington's army camped at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and suffered severe shortages and disease. Many soldiers died or deserted.
Category: War in the North
Question 13
In 1780 American general Benjamin Lincoln successfully defended Charleston against a British siege.
Correct Answer
False
False. Lincoln surrendered Charleston and nearly his entire army to the British in 1780, one of the worst American defeats of the war. The loss opened South Carolina to British forces.
Category: War in the South
Question 14
The British army in Virginia surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781 to a combined American and French force.
Correct Answer
True
True. American and French troops besieged Yorktown by land while the French fleet blocked rescue by sea. The surrender effectively ended major fighting and pushed Britain toward peace.
Category: War in the South
Question 15
The Treaty of Paris of 1783 required Americans to give up fishing rights off Newfoundland.
Correct Answer
False
False. The treaty granted Americans fishing rights in the waters off Newfoundland, which mattered greatly to New Englanders. It also recognized independence and urged the states to return confiscated Loyalist property.
Category: Peace Terms
Question 16
Native nations allied with Britain were not parties to the Treaty of Paris, which transferred lands they lived on to the United States.
Correct Answer
True
True. Britain ceded territory west to the Mississippi without consulting its Native allies, breaking promises to protect their lands. Nations such as the Mohawk and Creek were left to face American expansion.
Category: Peace Terms
Question 17
Benjamin Franklin's son William, the royal governor of New Jersey, became a Patriot leader.
Correct Answer
False
False. William Franklin remained a Loyalist, was imprisoned by revolutionaries, and later moved to England. He and his father never reconciled, a sign of how the war divided families.
Category: Revolutionary Society
Question 18
Thousands of enslaved people escaped to British lines during the war in hope of gaining freedom.
Correct Answer
True
True. Many fled Patriot owners, including well-known leaders, and some left with the British at the war's end for Nova Scotia, England, or later Sierra Leone. Others who reached British lines were never freed.
Category: Revolutionary Society
Question 19
Esther DeBerdt Reed organized Philadelphia women to raise money for the British army.
Correct Answer
False
False. Reed's Ladies Association of Philadelphia raised money to support the Continental Army. Her campaign showed women taking a public role in the war effort.
Category: Revolutionary Society
Question 20
Britain hoped its southern strategy would draw support from Loyalists, enslaved people seeking freedom, and Native allies.
Correct Answer
True
True. British planners expected these groups to help them hold the southern colonies once the war in the North stalled. Fierce backcountry resistance and Greene's campaign undercut the plan.
Category: War in the South