Q 01/05

Which holiday did Puritan leaders in Boston outlaw in 1659, with a five-shilling fine for anyone caught celebrating?

A) Halloween

B) New Year's Day

C) Christmas

D) Valentine's Day

Answer · why

C) Christmas

Christmas struck Puritans as a Catholic invention, and the ban stood until 1681. Boston went on ignoring the day for generations, and it only became f...

Q 02/05

Despite the popular image of burning at the stake, how did nineteen people convicted in the Salem witch trials die?

A) Hanging

B) Drowning

C) Beheading

D) Firing squad

Answer · why

A) Hanging

Hanging killed all nineteen, fourteen women and five men. The idea that American witches were burned is a later myth, though one more man died under t...

Q 03/05

Which college did Massachusetts Puritans found in 1636 to train ministers, now the oldest in the United States?

A) William & Mary

B) Harvard

C) Princeton

D) Dartmouth

Answer · why

B) Harvard

Harvard was named for a Puritan clergyman who, on his deathbed, left the new college £780 and his library of several hundred books. He was its first b...

Q 04/05

Which Hawthorne novel set in Puritan Boston follows Hester Prynne, forced to wear a badge of shame for adultery?

A) The Marble Faun

B) The Blithedale Romance

C) The House of the Seven Gables

D) The Scarlet Letter

Answer · why

D) The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is set in the 1640s, two centuries before Hawthorne wrote it. Hester's sentence is three hours on the scaffold and a lifetime weari...

Q 05/05

Which Puritan general ruled England as Lord Protector in the 1650s and turned down Parliament's offer of the crown?

A) Oliver Cromwell

B) Thomas Fairfax

C) Thomas Harrison

D) Henry Ireton

Answer · why

A) Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell agonised for six weeks over the crown before deciding that God had spoken against the office of king. He was sworn in as Lord Protecto...