The American Revolution

The British taxed American colonists in 1764 and 1765 in order to raise money.  Why did the British need to raise money?

• to help pay for a war the British were fighting elsewhere in Europe
• to pay to keep an army in North America and manage their American empire
• to pay for manufacturing of more goods and supplies in Britain
• to pay for the creation of roads, schools, and businesses in North America

In response to the Stamp Act, an uprising in Boston forced the Massachusetts stamp collector to resign his position. What was an effect of the Mass stamp collector's resignation?

• Britain gave the East India Company a monopoly of the American Stamp market
• Additional stamp collectors were sent to Mass to control the rebellious colonists
• The colonists lost confidence in their ability to force Britainto repeal its unfair taxes.
• Stamp collectors in other colonies resigned from their positions

Reread paragraph nine in the text.
Based on this evidence, what might have been a purpose of the Coercive Acts?

• to encourage colonists in other parts of America to work in Britain to maintain order in Mass
• to convince colonists in Mass that the British tax on tea was imposed in order to help the colonies
• to control the colonists in Mass more closely as punishment for their actions against British taxes
• to force colonists in Mass to declare their indep  from British rule

Based on the text, what was the main goal behind American colonists’ rebellious actions against the various acts imposed by the British government?

• to address the colonists’ complaints and get the British to repeal their acts that the colonists thought were unfair 
• to prove to other countries that Americans were more powerful than the British 
• to convince all colonists that going to war with Britain was the only solution to their problems
• to force the British government to grant the colonists independence from Britain 

What is the main idea of the passage or excerpt? 

• American colonists declared their independence from Britain because they were unable to pay the taxes imposed on them by the British government.
• A number of taxes, restrictions, and actions taken by the British government caused American colonists to declare their independence from Britain.
• Although many American colonists wanted to declare independence, a number of colonists remained loyal to the British Crown.
• American colonists declared their independence from Britain as a result of a single act of the British government that the colonists thought was unfair. 

Read the following sentences:
A Stamp Act Congress of delegates from nine colonies met in New York in October 1765, passed resolutions asserting their rights, and petitioned the king, the Lords, and the Commons for redress of their grievances. What else could the colonists do? Allowing the Stamp Act to go into effect would create a precedent for new taxes, which Parliament would surely approve again and again because every tax on the Americans relieved them and their constituents of that financial burden.
Why might the author have included the question, “What else could the colonists do?”

• to express that the colonists did not believe they had any choice but to assert their rights 
• to express that the British government did not think the colonists would continue to rebel 
• to suggest that there were other ways for the colonists to achieve their goals 
• to suggest that the colonists were strong compared to the British government

 Choose the answer that best completes the sentence below.
The Second Continental Congress again petitioned the king for redress of grievances and assured him of the colonists’ loyalty. _________, in a proclamation in August and again in a speech to Parliament in October 1775, King George III said that the Americans were seeking independence. 

• Moreover
• Therefore
• Accordingly
• Even so