Q 01/05

In which Massachusetts town was John Adams born in 1735?

A) Weymouth

B) Braintree

C) Worcester

D) Salem

Answer · why

B) Braintree

Braintree: the northern precinct where the family farm stood broke away in 1792 as the town of Quincy, which is why his birthplace now sits in a diffe...

Q 02/05

Which college did John Adams enter in 1751?

A) Yale

B) College of New Jersey

C) Harvard

D) William & Mary

Answer · why

C) Harvard

Harvard: as a boy he skipped school and said he would rather be a farmer, but his father insisted that he get a formal education.

Q 03/05

Adams's father expected him to enter which profession?

A) The law

B) The ministry

C) Medicine

D) The militia

Answer · why

B) The ministry

The ministry held no appeal for him: after college he taught at a Worcester school while weighing his future, then began studying law in 1756.

Q 04/05

Of whom did John Adams write that he had "a better hand at pulling down than building"?

A) John Dickinson

B) Samuel Adams

C) Benjamin Franklin

D) Thomas Paine

Answer · why

D) Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine: Adams told Abigail in March 1776 that Common Sense made the case for independence well but planned government badly, and noted that peop...

Q 05/05

Before they married, Abigail Smith was already what to John Adams?

A) His third cousin

B) His law partner's sister

C) His landlord's daughter

D) His childhood neighbour

Answer · why

A) His third cousin

His third cousin: the young lawyer met her through his friend Richard Cranch, who was courting her older sister Mary and later married her.