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Quiz for A New Commercial Culture in Boston

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Choose the best answer to each question.

Question

1. Based on the Boston log of arrivals and departures (Document 4.11) and the goods for sale (Document 4.12), what can be concluded about Boston in the early eighteenth century?

Boston remained a largely agricultural center.

Boston had become a cosmopolitan center.

Boston could be characterized as intolerant of diversity.

Bostonians did not practice slavery.

Correct: The answer is b. By the early eighteenth century, Boston was becoming a cosmopolitan city where people and products from different regions of the world mingled.

Incorrect: The answer is b. By the early eighteenth century, Boston was becoming a cosmopolitan city where people and products from different regions of the world mingled.

Question

2. Looking at the Advertisement for Musical Instruments (Document 4.13) and the photograph of the Chest of Drawers (Document 4.14), what can be inferred about the citizens of Boston in this time period?

Most of Boston’s citizens remained peasants in the eighteenth century.

Boston remained an isolated city in the early eighteenth century with limited exposure to the outside world.

Artisans migrated out of Boston in the eighteenth century.

A wealthy class of conspicuous consumers existed in Boston in the eighteenth century.

Correct: The answer is d. Taken together, the documents illustrate the rise of a wealthier class of citizens who had enough money to purchase luxury items.

Incorrect: The answer is d. Taken together, the documents illustrate the rise of a wealthier class of citizens who had enough money to purchase luxury items.

Question

3. In the advertisement for the runaway slave (Document 4.15), why does the ad mention the law?

To underline to the abolitionist community that slavery is legal in Boston

To make a farce out of the institution of slavery and slave holders

To threaten the runaway slave with the death penalty

To remind anyone harboring the slave that the return of the slave was required

Correct: The answer is d. The advertisement warns readers not to “entertain or harbor” the slave to “avoid the Penalty of the law,” which demanded the return of runaway slaves.

Incorrect: The answer is d. The advertisement warns readers not to “entertain or harbor” the slave to “avoid the Penalty of the law,” which demanded the return of runaway slaves.

Question

4. The anonymous letter printed in the Boston News-Letter (Document 4.16) threatens violence if the governor employs militias to arrest the perpetrators in the destruction of the new marketplace. What message was being relayed in the destruction of the marketplace and in the letter to the sheriff in the newspaper?

Boston workers refused to take part in the slave market and/or slave trade.

Boston merchants would never support a new marketplace with higher prices.

Boston’s working classes would not succumb to the will of Boston’s merchant class.

Boston’s slave population resisted the slave trade in every possible way.

Correct: The answer is c. The opposition to the new marketplace and the letter communicated the solidarity of will among the working classes of Boston against the wealthier citizens’ exploitative attempts.

Incorrect: The answer is c. The opposition to the new marketplace and the letter communicated the solidarity of will among the working classes of Boston against the wealthier citizens’ exploitative attempts.

Question

5. What conclusion can you make about Boston's commercial culture in the first half of the eighteenth century after reading the following documents: Document 4.12, Document 4.13, Document 4.14, Document 4.15, and Document 4.16?

There were stark contrasts between the wealthier and the poorer classes in the city.

There was a pervasive debate over the morality of the slave trade.

Boston's commercial culture provided opportunities for all of its citizens.

Poorer Bostonians benefitted from associating with wealthier members of Boston society.

Correct: The answer is a. The documents illustrate the stark contrast between the wealthier merchant class and the poor servants and slaves who inhabited Boston in the early 1700s.

Incorrect: The answer is a. The documents illustrate the stark contrast between the wealthier merchant class and the poor servants and slaves who inhabited Boston in the early 1700s.