Deck 11: The South and Slavery, 1800-1860

Question 1

Slaves were overwhelmingly resistant to adopting Christianity.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The Denmark Vesey plot was a slave insurrection in Charleston, South Carolina.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Plantation owners were unable to exert any significant political or economic influence over southern society.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The slave-holding planter class made up a small portion of the overall southern society.

Question 5

By 1860, two thirds of the richest Americans lived in the South.

Question 6

The percentage of the native-born population in the South was high compared with other parts of the country

Question 7

In the South of the mid-nineteenth century there were virtually no people of mixed race.

Question 8

A black "overseer" on a plantation was known as a "driver."

Question 9

Because slavery was so central to southern culture, it was referred to as

A)racial unity.
B)the peculiar institution.
C)the white regime.
D)the peculiar bond.
E)southern equality.

Question 10

In addition to cash crops such as cotton and rice, the South also led the nation in the production of hogs and cattle.

Question 11

In the Old South's mythic view of itself, slavery

A)benefited both slaves and owners.
B)was not necessary.
C)was demeaning.
D)was brutal.
E)was a moral evil.

Question 12

Free blacks were usually wealthy and highly educated.

Question 13

Abolitionists might portray southern planters as men who

A)raped and brutalized their slaves.
B)treated their slaves with dignity.
C)treated their slaves better than northern factory owners treated their employees.
D)rarely used violence to get slaves to obey.
E)actually desired slavery be phased out.

Question 14

Which state was part of the sub-region of the Old South called the Lower South?

A)North Carolina
B)Tennessee
C)Georgia
D)Virginia
E)New Mexico

Question 15

When defending their way of life, southerners often claimed that the region was more moral than the North.

Question 16

Agricultural diversity in the Old South was practically nonexistent.

Question 17

The slave population in the South showed no significant growth between 1790 and 1830.

Question 18

In which of the following ways was the South different from the rest of the nation?

A)It had more large cities.
B)It had more factories.
C)Its economy was based less on agriculture.
D)It relied more on slave labor.
E)It had a lower proportion of native-born Americans.

Question 19

The operation of the domestic slave trade often meant separating families from each other.

Question 20

Economically the South was dependent on northern industry and commerce.

Question 21

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.

Question 22

In the first half of the nineteenth century, __________ became the most profitable cash crop in the South.

A)tobacco
B)cotton
C)rice
D)sugar
E)wheat

Question 23

According to the textbook, by 1860 more than __________ of the slaves in the South worked in cotton production.

A)10 percent
B)25 percent
C)50 percent
D)75 percent
E)90 percent

Question 24

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

Question 25

The southern economy by 1860 could be fragile because it was so dependent on

A)northern textile mill markets.
B)the stock market.
C)Yankees in New York, who usually set the price of cotton.
D)the European demand for cotton.
E)the production of cheaper cotton than in Mexico.

Question 26

By 1860, annual cotton production had risen to

A)250,000 bales.
B)500,000 bales.
C)1 million bales.
D)2 million bales.
E)4 million bales.

Question 27

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.

Question 28

As the oldest southern states became less fertile, farmers moved to the

A)Border South.
B)Lower South.
C)Old Southwest.
D)border South.
E)Upper South.

Question 29

The difference between a plantation and a farm was the

A)types of crops grown.
B)size, diversity of crops, and the use of slaves.
C)use of drivers rather than overseers.
D)size, number of slaves, and use of overseers.
E)use of technology.

Question 30

__________ was a plantation mistress in South Carolina who complained that plantation wives were treated no better than slaves.

A)Abigail Adams
B)Priscilla Greene
C)Sarah Grimke
D)Dolley Madison
E)Mary Boykin Chesnut

Question 31

The success of the southern "cotton kingdom" was the result of

A)the government's use of high tariffs.
B)the widespread existence of banks in the South.
C)the end of the Second National Bank.
D)textile mills and the cotton gin.
E)the low price of cotton.

Question 32

The cotton-producing region of Alabama and Mississippi was known as the __________ because of the color of the fertile soil.

A)Red River region
B)"Colorado"
C)black belt
D)green belt
E)brown belt

Question 33

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.

Question 34

Which of the following was part of the Old Southwest?

A)Alabama
B)Nevada
C)California
D)Tennessee
E)Arizona

Question 35

In the Border South, slavery was slowly disappearing because

A)there were so many slave rebellions.
B)cotton did not thrive there.
C)slaves were becoming too expensive.
D)the states in that region were encouraging emancipation.
E)slaves were being granted certain constitutional rights.

Question 36

Massive southern plantations were __________ and their owners wielded __________ in economic, political, and social life.

A)common; little influence
B)common; great influence
C)rare; little influence
D)rare; great influence
E)rare; disproportionate influence

Question 37

__________ 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

Question 38

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.

Question 39

The textbook defines a southern planter as an individual who owned at least __________ slaves.

A)20
B)15
C)10
D)5
E)2

Question 40

__________ were more expensive cash crops to produce than cotton in the early nineteenth century.

A)Cotton and sugar
B)Rice and cotton
C)Rice and sugar
D)Rice and wheat
E)Cotton and wheat

Question 41

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.

Question 42

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

Question 43

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.

Question 44

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.

Question 45

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.

Question 46

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.

Question 47

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.

Question 48

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.

Question 49

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.

Question 50

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.

Question 51

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.

Question 52

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

Question 53

Slaves often expressed their desire for freedom through sacred folk songs known as

A)hymnals.
B)laments.
C)praise psalms.
D)spirituals.
E)dirges.

Question 54

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.

Question 55

Discuss the difference between African American lives as plantation slaves, urban slaves, and free blacks.

Question 56

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.

Question 57

How did African Americans respond to the inhumanity of life as slaves?

Question 58

__________ 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

Question 59

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

Question 60

Describe the classes within white society in the Old South.What role did each play in southern culture?