Deck 7: Southern Slavery

Question 1

In 1860,roughly how many white southerners,out of a total population of 8 million,owned slaves?

A)1,270,000
B)390,000
C)215,000
D)3,050,000

Answer 1

390,000

Question 2

When the United States barred the importation of slaves from foreign countries,what effect did it have on states like Virginia and Maryland?

A)The prohibition caused the institution of slavery to wither in those states and practically to disappear by the outbreak of the Civil War.
B)The prohibition intensified antislavery sentiment in those states as the importance of slavery in the region declined.
C)The prohibition led the states to shift the focus of their economies away from tobacco and wheat to more lucrative crops such as cotton.
D)The prohibition raised the value of slaves already living in the United States and led to a renewed commitment to slavery in those states.

Answer 2

The prohibition raised the value of slaves already living in the United States and led to a renewed commitment to slavery in those states.

Question 3

Which of the following statements about the domestic slave trade of the antebellum era is LEAST accurate?

A)Benevolent organizations frequently raised funds by selling slaves through lottery.
B)Newspapers played a crucial role in spreading news of the sale of slaves.
C)Despite the large-scale demand for slaves,the internal trade was hampered by the lack of facilities to hold groups of slaves awaiting purchase.
D)While some firms specialized in the trading of slaves,others dealt in slaves as well as other commodities such as farm animals and agricultural tools.

Answer 3

Despite the large-scale demand for slaves,the internal trade was hampered by the lack of facilities to hold groups of slaves awaiting purchase.

Question 4

Which of the following statements about slave patrols is LEAST accurate?

A)Slave patrols consisted of white citizens who were required by law to serve in them.
B)In the regular course of things,slave patrols summarily murdered any slaves found off their masters' estates without permission.
C)Slave patrols investigated not only public spaces but also slave quarters,which they scoured for evidence of illegal weapons.
D)Many men resented their obligation to serve on slave patrols,and preferred to pay fines for dereliction of duty than to serve.

Question 5

In 1860 the top four states in both cotton production and individual holdings in excess of 20 slaves included all of the following states EXCEPT

A)Mississippi.
B)Georgia.
C)Alabama.
D)South Carolina.

Question 6

In which of the following states would one expect to find the LEAST support for the reopening of the international slave trade in the 1850s?

A)South Carolina
B)Mississippi
C)Virginia
D)Alabama

Question 7

Which statement BEST captures slaveholders' attitudes toward the punishing of their slaves?

A)Masters' paramount concern was for the safety of themselves and the broader white community,and so they favored harsh penalties,including the death penalty,even for small offenses.
B)Masters' concern for their self-image and their desire to protect their investment led them to prefer meting out justice on their own rather than to resort to courts of law.
C)Masters generally believed that only by adhering firmly to the statutes established by slave codes could they maintain discipline over their slaves.
D)Masters preferred to punish their slaves through the courts rather than to punish them personally because they wanted slaves to look at them as benevolent masters.

Question 8

When did Congress bar slave markets from the nation's capital?

A)1789
B)1808
C)1850
D)1861

Question 9

Which of the following statements BEST describes American attitudes toward the prohibition of the Atlantic slave trade in 1808?

A)Despite its illegality,the trade continued throughout the antebellum period and did so with the growing support of southern slaveholders.
B)Although some radical northern merchants called for a revocation of the prohibition,the vast majority of southern slaveholders rejected it for fear of the effect that the influx of new slaves would have on the monetary value of their own slaves.
C)Hand in hand with the British Navy,the U.S.managed not only to bring an end to American participation in the trade,but effectively to end the trade completely by the middle of the nineteenth century.
D)Although records suggest that a few smugglers managed to sneak a handful of foreign slaves into the country,widespread and vocal public indignation against such criminal activities ensured that such smuggling remained insignificant.

Question 10

What effect did the Panic of 1837 have on the prices of slaves in the United States?

A)The price of slaves remained unaffected by the general economic downturn.
B)The price of slaves slumped along with the prices of other commodities.
C)The price of slaves continued the steady and consistent rise it had exhibited since the end of the Atlantic slave trade.
D)The price of slaves shot up as slaveholders took advantage of the economic downturn to enhance their own estates.

Question 11

In every state,it was a capital crime for slaves to commit any of the following offenses EXCEPT

A)conspiracy to rebel.
B)arson.
C)rape of a white woman.
D)running away.

Question 12

Which of the following statements about the domestic slave trade and slave families is MOST accurate?

A)The general reluctance of slaveholders to divide slave families indicates that slavery in the U.S.was a "precapitalist" system.
B)One of the main factors helping to preserve slave families was the economic fact that slave traders could make more money by selling families as a unit than they could by selling each slave individually.
C)As avowed capitalists,slaveholders regularly boasted of the profits to be made by breaking apart families and selling slaves individually as the need arose.
D)The economic needs of slaveholders typically outweighed their paternalistic reluctance to break apart families.

Question 13

In response to reports of a potential slave uprising in 1822,South Carolina passed a law which

A)granted slaves greater access to protection from the courts.
B)confiscated slaves from masters who were shown to treat their slaves in a "cruel and inhumane" manner.
C)imprisoned black sailors for the duration of their ship's stay in the port of Charleston.
D)prohibited the importation of slaves from other states into South Carolina.

Question 14

Approximately what percentage of slaves lived on plantations with holdings of more than fifty slaves?

A)80
B)55
C)25
D)15

Question 15

Slave codes in the United States generally included all of the following provisions EXCEPT

A)slaves were not allowed to offer testimony in court against white people.
B)the rape of an enslaved woman was never a crime,regardless of who assaulted her.
C)white people could arrest any slaves found walking along a public highway without a pass from their masters.
D)slaves could not hire themselves out or buy and sell goods without permission from their masters.

Question 16

All of the following events can be ascribed directly to the rising influence of "King Cotton" EXCEPT

A)America's war with Mexico in the late 1840s.
B)the acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819.
C)the outlawing of the international slave trade in 1808.
D)the annexation of Texas in 1845.

Question 17

Which of the following statements about slave codes in the early United States is LEAST accurate?

A)Slave codes defined slaves as property,not persons.
B)After the ratification of the Constitution,the U.S.developed a single,national slave code.
C)Slave codes were designed not only to maintain control over slaves,but also to protect white populations from potential harm from slaves.
D)Under the slave codes,the killing of a slave rarely constituted murder.

Question 18

Which state stood at the forefront of the movement to reopen the Atlantic slave trade?

A)South Carolina
B)Mississippi
C)Virginia
D)Alabama

Question 19

What development in 1794 played the most significant role in the rapid expansion of slave labor in the United States?

A)Eli Whitney's patenting of the cotton gin
B)the development of the first party system
C)the Supreme Court decision that slaveholders' ownership of slaves could not be constitutionally limited by state or national legislation
D)an act of Congress which reopened the international slave trade for the first time since the American Revolution

Question 20

Approximately what percentage of slaveholders in 1860 owned fewer than 20 slaves?

A)90
B)70
C)55
D)35

Question 21

Which of the following statements about slaves' diets is LEAST accurate?

A)The diets of slaves on large plantations almost always consisted solely of whatever foods were produced on the plantation itself.
B)Some slaves had the opportunity to supplement their diets by hunting and fishing.
C)The staple of slaves' diets was meal and salt pork,occasionally supplemented by more savory foods,especially on holidays.
D)Domestic slaves sometimes stole food from their masters' pantries both for their own benefit and to distribute among family and friends.

Question 22

What was the most common overt form of slave resistance?

A)murdering masters
B)self-mutilation
C)breaking tools
D)running away

Question 23

Most slaves were granted a suspension of all non-essential work in celebration of

A)Independence Day.
B)their birthdays.
C)Christmas.
D)election days.

Question 24

Which of the following statements about interracial relationships in antebellum Louisiana is LEAST accurate?

A)Young white men sometimes kept long-term black mistresses in a practice known as plaçage.
B)Marriages of conscience between black and white partners sometimes took place under the auspices of the Catholic Church.
C)Unlike elsewhere in the South,interracial marriages were recognized by the state's civil law.
D)Although consensual interracial relationships did exist,coercive relationships were more common.

Question 25

Which of the following statements about Denmark Vesey's conspiracy is LEAST accurate?

A)Although Vesey himself was a free man,he conspired with an African conjuror to win freedom for other southern blacks.
B)Vesey was inspired by congressional debates over the admission of Missouri as a slave state as well as international revolutionary ideologies.
C)Vesey's plot was the first major insurrection of the nineteenth century,and the only one which federal troops had to assist in putting down.
D)White authorities thwarted the conspiracy before it could be effectively begun,and executed almost 50 blacks for their involvement.

Question 26

Which of the following statements about nonagricultural slave laborers is LEAST accurate?

A)In Charleston South Carolina,slaves outnumbered whites in some skilled trades.
B)Most planters and proslavery advocates opposed teaching slaves skills because they feared it would lead to calls for greater independence.
C)Slaves worked in southern mills,factories,salt-works,and railroads.
D)White southern artisans bitterly resented competition from skilled slaves trained in their craft.

Question 27

Which of the following statements about African-American religion in the antebellum period is LEAST accurate?

A)Masters were sometimes wary of religion's effect on their slaves,and insisted that their slaves attend the masters' own churches.
B)African Americans identified with the biblical story of Exodus,and saw themselves as God's chosen people enduring an unjust form of bondage.
C)Slaves' spirituals conveyed not only a spirit of resistance but also at times covert plans for active resistance.
D)By the second quarter of the nineteenth century,African folk traditions had disappeared from black religion.

Question 28

In 1858,the attorney general decided that,if a slave designed a new invention,

A)neither the slave nor his or her master could patent the invention.
B)the government would hold a patent for the invention in the name of the slave,until sufficient proceeds from the invention accrued to purchase the slave's freedom.
C)the slave's master would own the patent for the invention and all proceeds obtained from it.
D)the slave would be able to patent the invention,but the proceeds obtained from it would pass to the slave's owner.

Question 29

Harriet Powers exemplified some enslaved women's ability to express their creativity through

A)quilt-making.
B)song-composing.
C)painting.
D)cooking.

Question 30

Out of a slave population of 3.9 million in 1860,approximately how many were recorded as being mulattoes?

A)1 million
B)850,000
C)400,000
D)150,000

Question 31

Young slave children on large plantations generally

A)were put to work in the fields as soon as they could walk.
B)were free to run around and perhaps play with white children until they grew old enough for light chores.
C)were not allowed to leave the slave quarters until they reached adolescence and could work in the fields.
D)were exempt from any sort of work until they reached their early teens.

Question 32

A slave named Dave used which trade,prominent in Edgefield,South Carolina,to express his creativity and his thoughts?

A)pottery
B)carpentry
C)blacksmithing
D)cabinetmaking

Question 33

Which of the following statements about overseers is LEAST accurate?

A)They sometimes received assistance in maintaining discipline from trusted slaves known as drivers.
B)Their employers rarely chastened them for cruelty unless the punishment they meted out was excessively brutal.
C)They generally consisted of the sons of wealthy planters who spent a few years on a neighboring plantation learning how to manage slaves.
D)They sometimes were forced off of plantations by slaves who rebelled against their excessive cruelty.

Question 34

Which of the following statements about sexual relationships between slaves and masters is LEAST accurate?

A)White men often justified the sexual exploitation of black women by attributing hypersexuality to them.
B)White fathers sometimes exhibited great affection for the children they produced with enslaved women.
C)Although interracial sexual relations were usually coercive,evidence suggests that some enslaved women sought their masters' advances and some relationships between masters and slaves were based on genuine affection.
D)Because of the patriarchal nature of authority in the South,the desire of masters who wished to free their interracial children upon their death was almost never successfully challenged by their white heirs.

Question 35

Which of the following statements about slave labor is LEAST accurate?

A)During times of economic hardship,masters generally required less work from their slaves because the demand for cash crops was so low.
B)Slaves on small farms often had to complete the duties of both field hands and domestic servants,whereas slaves on large plantations generally either did one or the other.
C)Masters who owned only a couple of slaves might often be found working side by side with their slaves in the fields.
D)Slaves who worked on cotton plantations usually worked longer and harder hours than slaves who worked in tobacco fields.

Question 36

Which of the following statements about slaves running away from their masters is LEAST accurate?

A)Slaves sometimes ran off after a master's death,either to escape being sold off or to take advantage of a confused period in the slaveholding household.
B)Slaves often ran off in search of family members from whom they had been separated.
C)In order to maintain an aura of authority,masters rarely issued public notices when their slaves ran away,and southern society generally ignored the problem.
D)For some slaves,running away was a tactic used to escape punishment or to extort concessions from their masters.

Question 37

Generally speaking,enslaved women on large plantations

A)performed different,but no less arduous,tasks from what enslaved men did.
B)worked the same tasks and chores as men,though for shorter hours.
C)were punished with brief periods of confinement rather than by whipping.
D)usually worked as domestics and were only rarely found in their fields.

Question 38

Which of the following statements about the practice of slave hiring is LEAST accurate?

A)Since slaves could not enter into contracts,their masters and employers contracted between themselves.
B)Some communities set aside specific hiring days at the beginning of the year to make it easier for owners and hirers to meet.
C)Although it was illegal for slaves to self-hire,their masters often allowed them to do so for the sake of convenience and profit.
D)Only male slaves were involved in slave hiring because southern mores dictated against the practice of hiring out enslaved women.

Question 39

Generally speaking,slaves put up for sale on auction blocks would

A)scrutinize potential buyers and alter their own demeanor to attract kind ones and discourage cruel ones.
B)fall into a state of blank numbness imposed by the shock of separation from family and friends.
C)express their resentment against the slave system by adopting a hostile attitude toward any potential buyer.
D)compete with one another for the "honor" of being the first slave of the day to be sold.

Question 40

Perhaps the most frightening event for white southerners in the antebellum period was an 1831 uprising led by whom?

A)Denmark Vesey
B)David Walker
C)Gabriel Prosser
D)Nat Turner