20. Which of the following statements regarding the plantation mistresses is accurate?
a. They led lives of extreme leisure.
b. They exerted great political power in the South.
c. Those who were married were legally independent of their husbands.
d. They had more freedoms than their northern sisters.
e. Few spoke out publicly against the male-dominated social order.
21. The highest managerial position a slave could hope for on a plantation was that of
a. driver.
b. overseer.
c. house servant.
d. butler.
e. master’s personal valet.
22. According to the textbook, __________ were the largest segment of white society in the Old
South.
a. overseers
b. planters
c. plain white folk
d. drivers
e. slave owners
23. Which of the following statements regarding “poor whites” in the Old South is accurate?
a. They were often of mixed race.
b. They were former overseers and “plain folk.”
c. They often begged in the streets of southern cities.
d. They were often cattle rustlers.
e. They were often day laborers and squatters.
24. In the years from 1830 to 1860, the number of slaves in the United States
a. grew 50 percent.
b. grew 70 percent.
c. nearly doubled.
d. nearly tripled.
e. quadrupled.
25. __________ were state laws that governed the treatment of slaves in the years before the
Civil War.
a. Slave codes
b. Black codes
c. Segregation laws
d. Planter codes
e. Cotton laws
26. Most southern whites viewed slaves as
a. equal to whites.
b. free men.
c. property.
d. equal to Native Americans.
e. part of a superior race that threatened their own.
27. In the South, free persons of color
a. lived in rural areas predominantly and had fewer rights than slaves.
b. lived in cities with a social status between slavery and freedom.
c. lived in cities and had fewer rights than slaves.
d. clustered along the coast.
e. lived in cities and were treated the same as whites.
28. In which of the following ways could a slave become free?
a. By petitioning his or her appeal in court
b. By purchasing his or her freedom
c. By having another free black sponsor him
d. By marrying another member of the free black population
e. By escaping to New Orleans
29. __________ was the term used to refer to a person of mixed white and black ancestry in the
nineteenth-century Old South.
a. Mulatto
b. Criollo
c. Tejano
d. Mestizo
e. Creole
30. The __________ young men were the most expensive slaves on the auction block.
a. most experienced
b. least experienced
c. tallest, strongest, and blackest
d. most quiet and mild mannered
e. most intelligent and submissive
31. Which of the following statements regarding the domestic slave trade is accurate?
a. Only Louisiana and Georgia prohibited separating a small child from his or her mother.
b. Only Louisiana and Alabama prohibited the separation of spouses.
c. Only Louisiana and Alabama prohibited separating a small child from his or her father.
d. All southern states allowed a mother to be separated from a small child.
e. No slave state prohibited a husband and wife from being separated.
32. The vast majority of slaves in the South
a. lived in cities.
b. worked as field hands.
c. were house slaves.
d. were drivers.
e. were overseers.
33. In general, slaves living in southern cities
a. avoided discrimination.
b. were always paid for their labor.
c. had greater freedom but less mobility than rural slaves.
d. had greater freedom and mobility than rural slaves.
e. were legally different from rural slaves.
34. Which of the following statements regarding the lives of male and female slaves is
accurate?
a. All slaves shared the same experiences.
b. Males slaves were treated worse than female slaves.
c. Females slaves were treated better than male slaves.
d. Slavery was harder on adults than on children.
e. Female slaves suffered the double burden of sexism and racism.
35. Slaves often expressed their desire for freedom through sacred folk songs known as
a. hymnals.
b. laments.
c. praise psalms.
d. spirituals.
e. dirges.
36. Which statement about marriage among slaves is accurate?
a. Slaves could not legally marry, but unofficial marriages were common.
b. Legal marriages were encouraged by slave masters.
c. Slaves did not wish to legally marry and did not notice the lack of that right.
d. Some states allowed slaves to marry.
e. All slave states recognized slave marriages if a minister performed the ceremony.
37. Which of the following statements regarding slave families is accurate?
a. Slave families were always genetically related.
b. Nuclear families were only allowed among free whites.
c. Children were often separated from their parents.
d. Women headed slave families.
e. Childhood was long for slaves.
38. Which of the following statements regarding African American religion is accurate?
a. It had a mix of African, Caribbean, and Christian elements.
b. Few adult slaves adopted a Christian denomination.
c. Slaves tended to worship out in the open.
d. Most slaves did not identify with a supreme being.
e. Slave owners embraced the slaves’ group religious worship.
39. Southern whites feared __________ more than any other danger in their society.
a. blacks becoming Christian
b. blacks with an education
c. a lack of access to weapons
d. lax immigration laws
e. slave uprisings
40. Slaves who did not escape could resist by
a. earning a public education.
b. becoming plantation mistresses.
c. becoming overseers.
d. becoming drivers.
e. destroying crops.
ESSAY
1. How important was slavery to the economy of the Old South? Discuss its effects on
agriculture, industry, and any other relevant aspect of the South.
2. Describe the classes within white society in the Old South. What role did each play in
southern culture?
3. Discuss the difference between African American lives as plantation slaves, urban slaves,
and free blacks.
4. Describe the various ways the South was distinct from the rest of the United States in the
early to mid–nineteenth century. Include the aspect of myths versus reality in the southern
mind.
5. How did African Americans respond to the inhumanity of life as slaves?
MATCHING
Match each person with one of the following descriptions.
a. Plotted a slave revolt near Richmond
b. Was an abolitionist who portrayed southern planters as brutal rapists
c. Was Thomas Jefferson’s nephew and killed a rebellious slave in front of other slaves as a
warning to them
d. Was a plantation mistress and a critic of the plantation system
e. Declared that “Cotton is King”
f. Coined the term “peculiar institution” to refer to slavery
g. Led the largest slave revolt in American history, just north of New Orleans
h. Led a slave revolt in 1831 in a rural area of Virginia
i. Was a successful free black who owned land and slaves
j. Escaped slavery in Maryland
1. Mary Chestnut
2. Lilburn Lewis
3. Harriet Beecher Stowe
4. Gabriel Prosser
5. Charles Deslondes
6. Nat Turner
7. John C. Calhoun
8. James Henry Hammond
9. Frederick Douglass
10. William Johnson
