Chapter 10 Quiz: Revolution, Republic, and the Whiskey Rebellion — Appalachia in the New Nation
Multiple Choice
1. The Battle of Kings Mountain (October 7, 1780) was fought between:
- A) Continental Army regulars and British regulars
- B) Appalachian frontier militia and Loyalist militia under British Major Patrick Ferguson
- C) Cherokee warriors and Overmountain settlers
- D) French forces and British regulars in the Carolina piedmont
2. The Overmountain Men who fought at Kings Mountain assembled and marched:
- A) Under direct orders from General George Washington
- B) After being drafted by the North Carolina legislature
- C) On their own initiative, without orders from any military or political superior
- D) As a unit of the Continental Army stationed at Sycamore Shoals
3. What prompted the Overmountain Men to mobilize in September 1780?
- A) A congressional resolution calling for frontier militia
- B) A British threat by Major Patrick Ferguson to cross the mountains and destroy their settlements
- C) The arrival of a French fleet in Charleston harbor
- D) The capture of General George Washington by British forces
4. The Battle of Kings Mountain resulted in:
- A) A narrow British victory
- B) A stalemate that led to a negotiated truce
- C) A decisive American victory with approximately 290 Loyalists killed, 163 wounded, and 668 captured, versus 28 Patriot killed and 62 wounded
- D) The destruction of the Overmountain settlements
5. The State of Franklin (1784-1788) was:
- A) A successful secessionist movement that became the state of Tennessee
- B) An attempt by Overmountain settlers to form an independent state after North Carolina ceded its western lands, which ultimately failed
- C) A British loyalist colony established in the mountains after the Revolution
- D) A Cherokee-settler cooperative government in eastern Tennessee
6. Why was whiskey so economically important to frontier Appalachian communities?
- A) Frontier settlers were primarily alcoholics
- B) Distilling grain into whiskey concentrated its value, making it transportable across the mountains, and whiskey functioned as de facto currency in the barter economy
- C) Whiskey was the only product that could be sold to European markets
- D) The federal government required tax payments to be made in whiskey
7. Alexander Hamilton's excise tax on distilled spirits (1791) was considered unfair by mountain farmers because:
- A) It exempted eastern distillers entirely
- B) It was structured so that large commercial distillers paid a lower effective rate than small frontier producers, and it required cash payment in a barter economy
- C) It applied only to whiskey produced west of the mountains
- D) It was higher than any British tax had been
8. When western Pennsylvania communities submitted petitions to Congress protesting the whiskey tax, Congress:
- A) Immediately repealed the tax
- B) Significantly modified the tax to address backcountry grievances
- C) Effectively ignored the petitions, leaving the tax unchanged
- D) Sent a negotiating commission to western Pennsylvania
9. The Bower Hill attack of July 1794 involved:
- A) A British assault on an American fort
- B) An attack by armed tax resisters on the home of federal tax inspector John Neville, which was burned to the ground
- C) A Cherokee raid on a frontier settlement
- D) A battle between State of Franklin and North Carolina militia
10. In response to the Whiskey Rebellion, President Washington:
- A) Negotiated a compromise that reduced the tax rate
- B) Assembled approximately 13,000 militia troops and marched them into western Pennsylvania — the only time a sitting president personally led troops in the field
- C) Declared martial law but took no military action
- D) Resigned the presidency in protest
11. The Whiskey Rebellion was ultimately suppressed with:
- A) A major battle in which hundreds were killed
- B) A prolonged siege of rebel fortifications
- C) Minimal violence — the resistance dissolved before the army arrived; approximately 150 were arrested, 2 convicted of treason, and both pardoned by Washington
- D) The execution of the rebel leaders
12. The Regulator movement in North Carolina (1760s-1770s) was:
- A) A movement to regulate the price of whiskey
- B) A backcountry protest movement against eastern political domination, unfair taxation, and corrupt local officials — a precursor to the dynamics of the Whiskey Rebellion
- C) A movement to regulate slavery in the mountains
- D) A Cherokee diplomatic initiative
13. Land speculation on the Appalachian frontier established what pattern that would recur throughout the region's history?
- A) Fair distribution of land to small farmers
- B) Absentee ownership — wealthy eastern investors acquiring mountain resources and extracting wealth while leaving local communities with the costs
- C) Indigenous and settler cooperative land management
- D) Government-managed land redistribution programs
14. The chapter identifies the Whiskey Rebellion as establishing which fundamental pattern in Appalachian history?
- A) Mountain communities' enthusiastic embrace of federal authority
- B) The conflict between distant centralized authority and local mountain autonomy, with mountain resistance suppressed by external force
- C) The alliance between mountain communities and eastern financial interests
- D) The abandonment of democratic principles in favor of authoritarianism
15. The excise tax on distilled spirits was eventually repealed in:
- A) 1794, immediately after the rebellion
- B) 1796, when Washington left office
- C) 1802, under the Jefferson administration
- D) It was never repealed and remains in effect today
Short Answer
16. Explain why the Battle of Kings Mountain has been called "the turning point of the Southern Campaign" of the American Revolution. What were its tactical and strategic consequences?
17. The chapter identifies five patterns established during the Revolutionary and early national period that recur throughout Appalachian history. Name and briefly describe any three of these patterns.
18. Why did the State of Franklin fail? What does its failure reveal about the possibilities and limits of frontier self-governance?
19. Explain the structural argument that the whiskey tax was regressive — that it fell more heavily on small frontier producers than on large eastern distillers. How was this built into the tax's design?
20. The chapter notes that George Washington was both the president who suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion and one of the largest land speculators in western Virginia. What does this dual role reveal about the contradictions of the American founding as experienced in the Appalachian backcountry?
Quiz for Chapter 10: Revolution, Republic, and the Whiskey Rebellion. See the Answers to Selected Exercises appendix for answer guidance.