American History Quiz

25 questions · 2 eras · Answers explained · Updated 15 October 2026

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1. American Revolution

   1. Why was Jefferson's passage attacking the slave trade removed from the Declaration?

   1. Franklin thought it made the document too long to print
   2. Congress feared it would offend the king of France
   3. Jefferson withdrew it after reading Common Sense
   4. Delegates with ties to slavery and the slave trade objected
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   D. Delegates with ties to slavery and the slave trade objected. Jefferson wrote that it was cut to satisfy South Carolina and Georgia, which wanted to keep importing enslaved Africans, and northern delegates whose merchants had profited from carrying them. Read the full story →

2. American Revolution

   2. Who defended the British soldiers at their trial for the Boston Massacre?

   1. Samuel Adams
   2. John Adams
   3. Paul Revere
   4. Thomas Hutchinson
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   B. John Adams. John Adams, a patriot who later helped lead the push for independence, took the case because he believed the accused deserved a defence. Six of the eight soldiers and their captain were acquitted. Read the full story →

3. American Revolution

   3. The story of young George Washington confessing that he cut down a cherry tree comes from his own diaries.

   1. True
   2. False
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   B. False. The anecdote first appeared in the 1806 edition of Mason Locke Weems's popular biography, years after Washington's death, with no earlier source. Historians treat it as invented. Read the full story →

4. American Revolution

   4. France was secretly supplying the Americans with weapons before it openly joined the war.

   1. True
   2. False
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   A. True. From 1776 the French government channelled money and arms through Beaumarchais's front company, Roderigue Hortalez et Cie. Much of the gunpowder used at Saratoga came from France. Read the full story →

5. American Revolution

   5. Steuben had been a general in the Prussian army before he came to America.

   1. True
   2. False
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   B. False. Steuben had left the Prussian army as a captain, after serving on Frederick the Great's staff. His sponsors presented him as a former general to impress Congress. Read the full story →

6. American Revolution

   6. Why did many colonists object to the Tea Act even though it made tea cheaper?

   1. Buying the tea meant accepting Parliament's right to tax them
   2. It banned colonists from drinking any tea that was not British
   3. It raised the duty on sugar and molasses in New England
   4. It handed control of Boston's harbour to the East India Company
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   A. Buying the tea meant accepting Parliament's right to tax them. The Tea Act kept the Townshend duty on tea. Paying it, even on cheaper tea, would concede the principle colonists had resisted since 1765. Smugglers undercut by the new prices also had reasons to oppose it. Read the full story →

7. American Revolution

   7. Why did the victory at Saratoga matter so much in Paris?

   1. It persuaded Franklin to ask France for help for the first time
   2. It showed that Spain had already declared war on Britain
   3. It convinced Vergennes the Americans could win the war
   4. It forced Britain to repay France's debts from earlier wars
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   C. It convinced Vergennes the Americans could win the war. Vergennes wanted evidence that the rebellion could succeed before risking open war, and he feared Britain might now offer the Americans attractive peace terms. Saratoga gave him both reasons to act. Read the full story →

8. American Revolution

   8. Why did many Pennsylvania farmers sell their food to the British instead of the Continental Army?

   1. The British paid in coin, while American paper money kept losing value
   2. Congress had forbidden the army to buy from local farmers
   3. The British promised farmers freedom from all future taxes
   4. Washington refused to pay more than prewar prices for grain
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   A. The British paid in coin, while American paper money kept losing value. Continental dollars lost value rapidly, while the British in Philadelphia paid in gold and silver. The failing commissary system made the shortage worse. Read the full story →

9. American Revolution

   9. How did the patriots make sure Britons heard their version of events first?

   1. They bribed the captain carrying Gage's report
   2. They printed it in a London paper owned by Franklin
   3. They sent sworn statements to London on a fast ship
   4. They asked the French ambassador to publish it
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   C. They sent sworn statements to London on a fast ship. The Provincial Congress collected depositions from militiamen and rushed them across the Atlantic. They reached London about two weeks before Gage's official account. Read the full story →

10. American Revolution

    10. What killed most of the soldiers who died at Valley Forge?

    1. British raids on the camp
    2. Frostbite in a record cold winter
    3. Accidents while building huts
    4. Diseases such as typhus and dysentery
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    D. Diseases such as typhus and dysentery. Disease spread quickly through crowded, poorly supplied huts. Between 1,700 and 2,000 men died. The winter was cold, but not unusually so; shortages of food and clothing made the soldiers vulnerable. Read the full story →

11. American Revolution

    11. Which title was finally used for the head of the new government?

    1. His Highness the President
    2. His Elective Majesty
    3. Lord Protector of the Republic
    4. President of the United States
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    D. President of the United States. A Senate committee wanted a grand title, but the House insisted on the plain words of the Constitution. Washington came to be addressed simply as “Mr. President”. Read the full story →

12. American Revolution

    12. Who commanded the French fleet that trapped Cornwallis at Yorktown?

    1. The Marquis de Lafayette
    2. The Comte de Rochambeau
    3. The Comte de Grasse
    4. The Comte de Vergennes
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    C. The Comte de Grasse. Admiral de Grasse brought 28 warships from the Caribbean and held Chesapeake Bay. Rochambeau led the French army on land, Lafayette commanded American troops in Virginia and Vergennes was the foreign minister in Paris. Read the full story →

13. American Revolution

    13. What was the Olive Branch Petition of 1775?

    1. A last appeal to George III for reconciliation
    2. A request to France for weapons and money
    3. A plan to unite the colonies under one government
    4. A demand that Parliament free enslaved people
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    A. A last appeal to George III for reconciliation. Adopted in July 1775, it professed loyalty to the king and asked him to restrain his ministers. George III refused to receive it and instead proclaimed the colonies in rebellion. Read the full story →

14. American Civil War

    14. What years did Reconstruction span?

    1. 1863-1875
    2. 1865-1877
    3. 1867-1879
    4. 1869-1881
    Show the answer

    B. 1865-1877. Reconstruction spanned from 1865 to 1877, the period following the Civil War.

15. American Civil War

    15. What speech redefined American democracy during the Civil War?

    1. Gettysburg Address
    2. Emancipation Proclamation
    3. First Inaugural
    4. Second Inaugural
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    A. Gettysburg Address. The Gettysburg Address (1863) redefined the purpose of American democracy and the Civil War.

16. American Civil War

    16. What was significant about Confederate reinforcements arriving at Bull Run?

    1. They came by train
    2. They came by boat
    3. They came on foot
    4. They came by horse
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    A. They came by train. Confederate reinforcements arrived by train, one of the first times in history that railroads carried troops directly into a battle.

17. American Civil War

    17. What were Grant's surrender terms?

    1. Generous terms allowing soldiers to return home
    2. Harsh punishment
    3. Imprisonment
    4. Forced labor
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    A. Generous terms allowing soldiers to return home. Grant's generous terms paroled Confederate soldiers and let them go home—officers keeping their sidearms and men keeping their horses—free from prosecution as long as they honored their paroles.

18. American Civil War

    18. What ended Reconstruction?

    1. The Compromise of 1877
    2. The Emancipation Proclamation
    3. The Civil Rights Act
    4. The Dred Scott decision
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    A. The Compromise of 1877. The Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction by withdrawing federal troops from the South.

19. American Civil War

    19. What was Sherman's strategy called?

    1. Limited war
    2. Defensive war
    3. Naval war
    4. Total war
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    D. Total war. Sherman's strategy was called 'total war'—destroying everything of military value to break the South's will to fight.

20. American Civil War

    20. What was the Sunken Road at Antietam also called?

    1. Death Valley
    2. Killer's Path
    3. Devil's Road
    4. Bloody Lane
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    D. Bloody Lane. The Sunken Road at Antietam became known as 'Bloody Lane' due to the heavy casualties suffered there.

21. American Civil War

    21. Roughly how many soldiers died in the Civil War?

    1. About 100,000
    2. About 300,000
    3. Over 600,000
    4. Over 1.5 million
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    C. Over 600,000. Traditional estimates put Civil War deaths at about 620,000; more recent research suggests as many as 750,000—more than in any other American war.

22. American Civil War

    22. What was Abraham Lincoln's profession before entering politics?

    1. Farmer
    2. Lawyer
    3. Teacher
    4. Merchant
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    B. Lawyer. Lincoln was a self-taught lawyer who studied law books to gain his legal education.

23. American Civil War

    23. How many words is the Gettysburg Address?

    1. 150 words
    2. 200 words
    3. 272 words
    4. 350 words
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    C. 272 words. The Gettysburg Address contains only 272 words, delivered in about two minutes.

24. American Civil War

    24. What was the name of the famous Confederate charge on the third day?

    1. Lee's Charge
    2. Jackson's Charge
    3. Pickett's Charge
    4. Stuart's Charge
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    C. Pickett's Charge. Pickett's Charge was the massive Confederate assault on July 3, 1863, that failed to break Union lines.

25. American Civil War

    25. What was Davis's background before becoming Confederate president?

    1. Newspaper editor
    2. Businessman
    3. Lawyer
    4. West Point graduate and former U.S. senator
    Show the answer

    D. West Point graduate and former U.S. senator. Davis was a West Point graduate, Mexican War veteran, and former U.S. senator and secretary of war.

About this quiz

Twenty-five US history questions covering the two wars that made the United States: the American Revolution, from the Stamp Act to Yorktown, and the Civil War, from Bull Run and Gettysburg to Appomattox and Reconstruction. Tap an answer to see the explanation.

The questions come from the lessons in Aurelius: Learn History, where each one follows a short illustrated story. They are written and checked by the Aurelius editorial team.

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