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AP US History study guide · Chapter 10

Unit 2 Review: Why British North America Split Into Distinct Regions, 1607–1754

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PART II — U.S. HISTORY, 1491 TO THE PRESENT · UNIT 2 REVIEW

Why British North America Split Into Distinct Regions, 1607–1754

Why the Colonies Developed Along Different Paths

British mainland colonies developed several regional systems inside one empire. Chesapeake tobacco encouraged dispersed plantations and heavy labor demand. New England family migration and Puritan institutions supported town-centered settlement. The Middle Colonies combined grain production, ports, and ethnic and religious diversity. The Lower South developed rice and indigo plantations with large enslaved populations. Across the colonies, slavery became more hereditary and racialized, trade connected colonial economies to the Atlantic, elected institutions encouraged local political habits, and Native nations used diplomacy and resistance to defend land and sovereignty. The Great Awakening and Enlightenment changed the ways colonists thought about authority without making independence inevitable.

The Road From Jamestown to 1754

KEY DATES

DATE	EVENT
1607	Jamestown.
1619	Virginia representative assembly; Africans arrive in English Virginia.
1620	Plymouth and Mayflower Compact.
1649	Maryland Toleration Act.
1675–1676	King Philip’s War; Bacon’s Rebellion.
1680	Pueblo Revolt.
1730s–1740s	First Great Awakening.
1739	Stono Rebellion.
1754	Seven Years’ War begins; transition toward Unit 3.

Use These Facts to Explain Regional Difference

Tobacco + headright: land and labor were linked in Chesapeake growth.

Slave codes: racial slavery became hereditary and legally hardened over time.

Navigation Acts: colonies were economically integrated into an imperial system before 1763.

House of Burgesses / Mayflower Compact: local political institutions predated independence.

King Philip’s War / Pueblo Revolt: Native resistance could reshape colonial policy.

Great Awakening / Enlightenment: authority was being questioned through more than one intellectual route.

Practice: How British America Developed Before 1754

Question 1

Which development most directly explains the dispersed settlement pattern of the Chesapeake?

A. Tobacco plantations spread along navigable rivers and demanded land
B. Town-centered Puritan congregations
C. A ban on export agriculture
D. Large grain cities built around canals

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: A. Tobacco production and river access encouraged dispersed plantations rather than compact towns.

Question 2

Compared with the Chesapeake, New England colonies were more likely to have

A. rice plantations with an enslaved majority
B. family migration and town-centered settlement
C. Spanish mission settlements
D. a complete absence of Atlantic trade

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: B. Puritan family migration and town institutions gave New England a different demographic and settlement pattern.

Question 3

Which feature best characterized the Middle Colonies?

A. Uniform Puritan settlement
B. Exclusive dependence on tobacco
C. Ethnic and religious diversity combined with grain production and commercial ports
D. No immigration from continental Europe

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: C. The Middle Colonies developed plural populations, productive grain farming, and major ports.

Question 4

South Carolina’s colonial economy is best associated with

A. small subsistence towns with no export trade
B. fur trading posts with few settlers
C. a ban on African slavery throughout the colonial period
D. rice and indigo plantations using enslaved labor

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: D. Rice and indigo supported plantation growth and a large enslaved population.

Question 5

The Mayflower Compact is strongest evidence for

A. an early agreement for local self-government
B. complete religious toleration
C. Parliamentary taxation of the colonies
D. the abolition of property qualifications

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: A. The compact formed a civil political body. It did not create universal democracy.

Question 6

The Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 is best understood as

A. full separation of church and state
B. a limited protection for Trinitarian Christians in a religiously divided colony
C. a law ending slavery
D. a Puritan ban on Catholic worship

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: B. The act is useful evidence for limited toleration, not modern universal religious liberty.

Question 7

Which event most directly exposed tensions over land, frontier policy, and elite rule in Virginia?

A. Pueblo Revolt
B. Great Awakening
C. Bacon’s Rebellion
D. Glorious Revolution in England

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: C. Bacon’s Rebellion involved frontier conflict, land pressure, resentment of Governor Berkeley, and attacks on Native peoples.

Question 8

Which development best describes the long-term labor transition in the Chesapeake?

A. An overnight switch from free labor to slavery in 1676
B. The replacement of tobacco with factory work by 1700
C. A legal ban on African labor after 1619
D. A gradual move from heavy use of indentured servants toward hereditary racial slavery

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: D. The shift unfolded over decades through labor supply, profit, law, demography, and political pressures.

Question 9

The principle that a child’s slave status followed the mother helped make slavery

A. hereditary across generations
B. temporary and contractual
C. independent of race
D. limited to newly arrived adults

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: A. Maternal inheritance of status made slavery self-reproducing and permanent across generations.

Question 10

Which best explains why the Stono Rebellion is useful evidence?

A. It ended slavery in South Carolina
B. It shows both enslaved resistance and a colonial legal crackdown
C. It created the First Great Awakening
D. It caused Parliament to repeal the Navigation Acts

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: B. The uprising was followed by tighter regulation, illustrating resistance and coercive response.

Question 11

The Navigation Acts were designed primarily to

A. grant colonies complete trade independence
B. ban English shipping
C. channel colonial trade through the English imperial system
D. allow colonies to tax Parliament

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: C. The acts reflected mercantilist efforts to control shipping and key exports.

Question 12

“Salutary neglect” most directly describes

A. Britain’s total abandonment of its colonies
B. the legal abolition of customs duties
C. Native control of colonial assemblies
D. relatively loose enforcement and broad local autonomy within an existing imperial system

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: D. The empire still had laws and authority. Enforcement and local oversight were often loose.

Question 13

Which comparison between King Philip’s War and the Pueblo Revolt is strongest?

A. Both demonstrate organized Native resistance to expanding colonial power, but in different empires and regions
B. Both occurred in English New England
C. Both permanently expelled Europeans from North America
D. Both were caused by the Stamp Act

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: A. They share a resistance theme but differ in geography, empire, and result.

Question 14

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy could gain leverage in colonial diplomacy because it

A. had no contact with European powers
B. could negotiate among competing British and French interests
C. controlled Parliament
D. rejected trade entirely

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: B. Imperial rivalry created opportunities for Native diplomatic strategy.

Question 15

The Great Awakening is best used as evidence for

A. a direct decision to declare independence in 1740
B. the creation of the Constitution
C. religious revival that challenged established authority and encouraged individual judgment
D. the end of denominational conflict

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: C. Its AP value is in religious change and attitudes toward authority, not a direct one-step cause of Revolution.

Question 16

Enlightenment political thought supplied colonists with which language?

A. Divine right and hereditary privilege
B. Industrial unionism
C. Manifest Destiny
D. Natural rights, consent, and legitimate government

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: D. Lockean ideas became part of later political arguments over rights and authority.

Question 17

Which statement best compares the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment?

A. Both challenged older forms of authority in different ways, one through revival religion and the other through reason/natural-rights thought
B. Both were identical religious revivals
C. Both began after 1800
D. Neither affected colonial culture

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: A. They were different intellectual/religious currents, but both broadened ways colonists evaluated authority.

Question 18

Which factor best explains why colonial self-government developed before independence?

A. Most colonists already wanted independence in 1650
B. Distance, elected assemblies, local institutions, and loose imperial supervision created habits of local decision-making
C. Parliament ordered colonies to become republics
D. The Crown abolished governors

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: B. Self-government grew inside the empire long before a majority sought separation.

Question 19

Which statement about slavery in the British colonies is most accurate?

A. It developed identically in every region
B. It existed only in Virginia
C. Crop, demography, law, and regional economy shaped different plantation and labor patterns
D. It disappeared during the Great Awakening

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: C. Regional economies shaped the scale and organization of slavery even as racialized hereditary slavery spread broadly.

Question 20

Which is the strongest Unit 2 comparison claim?

A. All colonies became the same by 1754
B. Climate alone determined every colonial institution
C. Religious belief had no economic consequences
D. Regional differences persisted because environment interacted with migration, labor, religion, and markets

Show the answer and explanation

ANSWER: D. The strongest comparison uses multiple variables and avoids environmental determinism.

SAQ: What a Colonial Source Reveals About Authority

SOURCE: In a 1676 declaration, Nathaniel Bacon accused Virginia’s governor of protecting favored interests, failing to defend frontier settlers, and mismanaging conflict with Native peoples. Bacon and his followers then took up arms against the colonial government.

A. Briefly describe one purpose of Bacon’s declaration.

B. Briefly explain one development from 1607 to 1676 that contributed to the conflict described in the source.

C. Briefly explain one development from 1676 to 1754 that reflected a change in colonial labor or social structure.

SAMPLE ANSWERS

A. Bacon’s purpose was to justify rebellion against Governor Berkeley by portraying the colonial government as corrupt and ineffective in protecting frontier settlers.

B. The expansion of tobacco agriculture increased demand for land, which pushed settlers farther onto Native land and intensified frontier conflict. A response using growth in the population of land-poor former servants can also work if explained.

C. Colonial laws increasingly made African slavery hereditary and racial, while planters relied less heavily on English indentured servants. This changed the labor system by making bondage more permanent and legally tied to ancestry.

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