Deck 8: Antebellum Free Blacks

Question 1

States in which region of the country were LEAST likely to have laws barring or hindering immigration by free blacks?

A)the South
B)the Northeast
C)the Midwest
D)the far West

Answer 1

the Northeast

Question 2

Which wealthy black sailmaker overcame his lack of the franchise by influencing his white employees to vote as he himself would do if he had the right to do so?

A)James Forten
B)David Walker
C)William Trail
D)Hosea Easton

Answer 2

James Forten

Question 3

What did the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decide in the case of Hobbs v.Fogg (1838)?

A)According to the constitution of the state,black men could not be denied the right to vote if they owned a certain amount of property.
B)According to the constitution of the state and the nation,black men could not be citizens and therefore could not possess the right to vote.
C)According to the constitutions of both the state and the nation,black men should have the right to vote on the same basis as white men.
D)According to the constitutions of the state and the nation,black men were indeed full citizens,but citizenship did not automatically entail the right to vote.

Answer 3

According to the constitution of the state and the nation,black men could not be citizens and therefore could not possess the right to vote.

Question 4

During the antebellum period,all of the following states or territories passed laws which were designed explicitly to curtail immigration from free black EXCEPT

A)Oregon.
B)Ohio.
C)Massachusetts.
D)Iowa.

Question 5

Which of the following statements about antiblack mob violence in the antebellum period is MOST accurate?

A)Although they occurred throughout the nation,antiblack riots were especially common in southern cities.
B)The rise of industrialization brought an end to antiblack riots by expanding opportunities for previously underemployed white workers.
C)The affluent lifestyles of the black elite contributed to the resentments which resulted in mob violence.
D)As a result of antiblack riots in the North,the emigration of free blacks from the South effectively stopped.

Question 6

Julien Hudson is a notable example of an early African-American

A)blacksmith.
B)cabinetmaker.
C)painter.
D)physician.

Question 7

In which state did the worst antiblack outbreaks of the antebellum period occur?

A)Pennsylvania
B)Maryland
C)South Carolina
D)New York

Question 8

In which of the following cities would one expect to find the largest proportion of free blacks working in skilled trades in this era?

A)Boston
B)Philadelphia
C)New York City
D)Charleston

Question 9

In the 1840s,most black women in Philadelphia worked at what occupation?

A)cook
B)needle-woman
C)day laborer
D)washerwoman

Question 10

Which of the following statements about free blacks in antebellum Boston is LEAST accurate?

A)By the late antebellum period,residential segregation had begun to concentrate members of the city's black community more densely.
B)The development of a strong abolitionist movement in the city resulted from and contributed to Boston having the North's largest free black urban community by 1850.
C)A small elite of middle-class professionals represented the upper class of the black community and contributed to an ongoing tradition of activism and protest.
D)Although both men and women worked as domestics for white families,black men were more likely than black women to be able to obtain personal prestige from their employer's status.

Question 11

Free blacks living in which of the following regions were most likely to own property?

A)Upper South
B)Lower South
C)Midwest
D)Northeast

Question 12

The ex-slave "Free Frank" founded the town of New Philadelphia in which state?

A)Massachusetts
B)North Carolina
C)Illinois
D)California

Question 13

Which of the following statements about minstrelsy is LEAST accurate?

A)Emerging in the nineteenth century,the genre remained a popular feature of American entertainment into the twentieth.
B)The genre built on a tradition of racist exaggerations and distortions of black Americans' physical features and speech patterns.
C)The racist elements of the genre helped to create a sense of political and social solidarity among some white immigrant groups.
D)Despite the racist elements of the genre,black leaders like Frederick Douglass praised it for making elements of black musical tradition more accessible to white audiences.

Question 14

In the 1830s,Quaker schoolteacher Prudence Crandall opened a school for black children,which suffered harassment,vandalism,and legal prosecution,in the state of

A)Ohio.
B)Virginia.
C)Connecticut.
D)New York.

Question 15

What name was given to the stock minstrel character who was depicted as a lazy,ignorant slave?

A)Jim Crow
B)Zip Coon
C)Uncle Tom
D)Stepin Fetchit

Question 16

Which statement BEST captures the political condition of free black men in the United States between 1800 and 1860?

A)Outside of a few New England states,free black men could not vote anywhere in the U.S.at any time until the end of the Civil War.
B)Nowhere in the United States were free black men granted the right to vote until the end of the Civil War.
C)Several states in both the North and the South withdrew the right to vote from black men who had previously exercised it.
D)By the beginning of the Civil War,almost every northern state had granted black men the right to vote as long as they owned a certain amount of property.

Question 17

Which of the following statements about free blacks in southern states is LEAST accurate?

A)Because of the conflation of race and slavery,all southern states required free blacks to carry on their persons evidence of their freedom at all times.
B)Because racial slavery led people in the South to ascribe a racial stigma to labor,free blacks in the South found it easier to get jobs in professions like teaching,dentistry,and pharmacology than free blacks in the North.
C)All southern states prohibited free blacks from elsewhere from settling in their borders,and even required black sailors from out of state to be jailed throughout the duration of their stay in southern seaports.
D)Several states enacted laws to make it possible for free blacks who wanted to abandon their freedom and become slaves to choose their own masters.

Question 18

Which of the following statements about free blacks in New York City is LEAST accurate?

A)Although the black elite mingled frequently with whites,lower-class blacks created their own exclusionist culture.
B)The black community owned a substantial amount of property,especially in comparison with blacks in Boston.
C)The black elite of New York held itself aloof from lower-class blacks and condemned the lower classes' uncouth behavior.
D)Some whites sought thrills and pleasures by visiting the same dance halls and other cultural enclaves frequented by lower-class blacks.

Question 19

How did the population of free blacks,in proportion to the whole population of the United States,change during the antebellum period?

A)Although the free black population grew in absolute numbers,it shrank significantly as a percentage of the whole population.
B)The free black population grew in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the whole population.
C)Although the free black population shrank in absolute numbers,it grew significantly as a percentage of the whole population.
D)The free black population shrank in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the whole population.

Question 20

Which of the following statements about attempts by state and territorial governments to bar free black migration into their states' borders during the antebellum period is MOST accurate?

A)Because of legal barriers and discrimination,substantial free black communities failed to develop in states and territories beyond the eastern seaboard.
B)In 1857,the U.S.Supreme Court ruled that laws designed to block the immigration of free blacks unconstitutionally deprived black Americans of their rights as federal citizens.
C)Since no free blacks wanted to live in a slave society,only a couple of southern states bothered to pass laws barring in-migration by free blacks.
D)The laws of some northern states automatically assumed that black persons were slaves unless they could provide certification or post a substantial monetary bond to demonstrate otherwise.

Question 21

Which biblical episode did free blacks and slaves most frequently employ to criticize their current condition and to express their hope for the future?

A)Exodus
B)the Prodigal Son
C)Sodom and Gomorrah
D)Daniel in the lions' den

Question 22

Which prominent black advocate of colonization authored the Official Report of the Niger Exploring Party in 1861?

A)James Theodore Holly
B)Martin Delany
C)H.Ford Douglas
D)John Russwurm

Question 23

Who was the first African American to achieve national and international fame as a painter?

A)Daniel Alexander Payne
B)George Moses Horton
C)Robert S.Duncanson
D)William Henry "Juba" Lane

Question 24

Whose militant lectures and writings such as "Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality,the Sure Foundation on Which We Must Build" led her to be regarded as America's first black feminist?

A)Jarena Lee
B)Sojourner Truth
C)Maria W.Stewart
D)Frances Dana Gage

Question 25

By the 1830s,Americans of African descent preferred to refer themselves as

A)Africans.
B)blacks.
C)Colored Americans.
D)Negros.

Question 26

Isabella Van Wagenen,a strident opponent of both racial and sexual discrimination,is better known as

A)Jarena Lee.
B)Sojourner Truth.
C)Phillis Wheatley.
D)Harriet Tubman.

Question 27

Which Ohio institution,named after a famous abolitionist,opened its doors to black students in 1856?

A)Lincoln University
B)Wilberforce University
C)Bowdoin College
D)Franklin College

Question 28

The most important contribution of the antebellum black convention movement was to

A)secure the abolition of slavery in the few northern states which retained it.
B)acquire voting rights for black men in most of the states of the Midwest.
C)convince the majority of white northerners that blacks should have equal political and social rights.
D)foster a sense of group consciousness and encourage protest among black Americans.

Question 29

Who was the most prominent black woman to advocate colonization out of the United States?

A)Mary Anne Shadd Cary
B)Isabella Van Wagenen
C)Jarena Lee
D)Maria W.Stewart

Question 30

Most of the blacks who emigrated from the United States under the auspices of the American Colonization Society traveled to

A)Haiti.
B)Canada.
C)Central America.
D)Liberia.

Question 31

The National Council of Colored People was founded in 1853 at an important conference held in

A)Rochester.
B)Cleveland.
C)Philadelphia.
D)Boston.

Question 32

Which of the following statements about public education in the northern states is MOST accurate?

A)Northern blacks had little opportunity to receive an education because most northern states refused to provide any public funding to all-black schools.
B)Because of the small size of black populations in the North,most northern states allowed black students to attend the same schools as white students.
C)Most northern states established segregated school systems,and allocated fewer resources to all-black schools.
D)Although black students could attend the same schools as white students,most black parents insisted on sending their children to private,all-black schools.

Question 33

Which of the following statements BEST describes educational opportunities available to blacks in the southern states?

A)Despite an extensive system of public education for white children,black children were given no formal educational opportunities.
B)Throughout the South,the formal education of blacks,whether free or enslaved,was prohibited by law.
C)Because of the larger black population in the South,educational opportunities there were actually much greater than they were in the northern states.
D)Although the South lacked public schools,a small number of private institutions offered educational opportunities to blacks,especially in cities.

Question 34

Which "virtually free," yet still enslaved,black poet published the volume The Hope of Liberty?

A)Daniel Alexander Payne
B)George Moses Horton
C)Robert S.Duncanson
D)William Henry "Juba" Lane

Question 35

Which national organization did the African-American sailor Peter Ogden found in 1843?

A)the Black Freemasons
B)the Band Society
C)the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows
D)the Star in the East Association

Question 36

In the case of Roberts v.City of Boston the supreme court of Massachusetts decided that

A)racially segregated school systems were constitutional.
B)racially segregated school systems denied black children their civil rights.
C)racially segregated school systems were permissible only if the segregation resulted from residential patterns and not from official policy.
D)racially segregated school systems were constitutional in general,but black students would have to be admitted to white schools if there were no all-black schools nearby.

Question 37

Who enjoyed access to the pulpit of the African Methodist Episcopal Church for a time,until the death of her patron,Richard Allen,brought an end to church leaders' willingness to allow women to preach?

A)Jarena Lee
B)Sojourner Truth
C)Maria W.Stewart
D)Frances Dana Gage

Question 38

During the 1830s through the 1850s,black proponents of colonization

A)abandoned the scheme,having become convinced that blacks must remain in the United States.
B)concluded that the only way to achieve the hoped-for emigration out of the United States was to partner with the ACS.
C)denounced the ACS but continued to explore options for new black homelands in Central America or Africa.
D)succeeded in transporting almost 40,000 free black Americans to new homes outside of the United States.