5. Colonial America in the Eighteenth Century, 1701

Quiz for Experiencing the American Promise: A Sailor’s Life in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

1. What made Ashley Bowen’s entry into a career as a sailor unusual among his eighteenth-century peers?

Bowen began sailing at a much younger age than most sailors.

Bowen’s father apprenticed him to a friend’s father.

Bowen’s first voyage sailed to England, not a North American port.

Bowen grew up in a fishing port town.

2. In what way was working as a seaman similar to being a farm laborer in the eighteenth century?

The death rate was approximately the same for both types of workers.

Men were equally likely to find success in both sailing and farm work.

Both sailing and farm labor paid approximately the same monthly wage.

Apprenticeships were expected for both young seamen and farm laborers.

3. Why did Ashley Bowen break his apprenticeship to the sea captain after just four years?

He decided that he wanted to become a farmer instead of a sailor.

The captain was cruel and did not teach Bowen anything useful.

He had already learned everything he needed to know to become a captain.

The captain found a new cabin boy who wanted to take over Bowen’s apprenticeship.

4. What kind of dangers did eighteen-century sailors frequently face?

Hostile port towns

Slave mutinies

Pirates

Tropical diseases

5. This essay supports which of the following historical arguments?

About the same number of men became sailors as farmers during the eighteenth century because both forms of employment offered steady wages.

Sailors facilitated trade in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World by transporting a wide variety of goods from port to port.

Upward mobility from apprentice to master was more easily achieved by sailors than by men in other industries, such as metalworkers.

The growth of port towns like Marblehead, Massachusetts was due in large part to former sailors retiring in these communities.