Midterm Study Guide

For the midterm there will be vocabulary and one essay. Eight of the vocabulary words below will be on the exam and you must define all of the words. The vocabulary will count toward 40% of the exam grade.

Of the eight essay questions below, four of them will appear on the exam. You must choose one and write an essay with a clear thesis, historical context, detailed examples, and a conclusion. The essay will count toward 60% of the exam grade.

Vocab

Oral Tradition

Animism

Eastern Woodland Indian societies

Pocahontas

John Winthrop

City Upon a Hill

Malleus Maleficarum

Spectral Evidence

Atlantic Slave Trade

The Enlightenment

Tabula rasa

Shot Heard Round the World

Essay Questions

1. Describe the cultures of the Americas and Europe (or Africa and Europe) prior to contact. What happened when these cultures came into contact in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

2. Why did European settlers tend to view indigenous people as “savages”?

3. Compare and contrast two of the colonial regions in the seventeenth century (Chesapeake, Carolinas, Middle Colonies, or New England).

4. Describe the origins of slavery in the Chesapeake and Carolina colonies.

5. Outline the events of the Salem Witch Trials. What caused the witch hysteria in Salem?

6. What were the ideals of Puritanism? Evaluate whether or not the Puritans lived up to their ideals.

7. What ideologies and events led to the American Revolution?

8. Explain the founders’ definition of the “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence. Why did they include this as an unalienable right?