Deck 11: Slavery and the Old South 1800-1860

Question 1

Before 1800, slavery was associated with all of the following cash crops EXCEPT:

A) rice.
B) tobacco.
C) short-staple cotton.
D) long-staple cotton.

Answer 1

short-staple cotton.

Question 2

Which of the following is NOT a state in the Lower South?

A) North Carolina
B) Florida
C) Louisiana
D) Mississippi

Answer 2

North Carolina

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT a state in the Upper South?

A) Kentucky
B) Tennessee
C) Virginia
D) Georgia

Answer 3

Georgia

Question 4

What percentage of the white southern population belonged to the plantation-owning class?

A) 5%
B) 12%
C) 20%
D) 32%

Question 5

The most-valued slaves in the slave market of 1815-1850 were male field hands and:

A) older males who had years of experience working in cotton fields of the Lower South.
B) males who possessed the skills of an artisan, such as carpentry and engraving.
C) older females who acted as matriarchs within slave communities.
D) females of child-bearing age used as a means of increasing the slave population.

Question 6

In 1808, the United States Congress:

A) passed national slave codes.
B) ended the African slave trade.
C) required that slaves be Christians.
D) classified slaves as citizens.

Question 7

A particularly cruel aspect of the internal slave trade was that it:

A) required minimum sale prices.
B) resulted in the passing of slave codes.
C) separated slaves from their families.
D) only sold slaves from the Upper South.

Question 8

All of the following statements about urban slavery are true EXCEPT:

A) it increased dramatically in the years leading to the Civil War.
B) urban slaves often lived apart from their owners.
C) it allowed slaves much more freedom of social interaction.
D) urban slaves could sometimes hire out their labor for wages.

Question 9

Southern planters believed that the system of slavery would be weakened by:

A) urbanization and industrialization.
B) an increase in the internal slave trade.
C) the use of short-staple cotton.
D) government subsidies.

Question 10

In the period 1800-1840, the Upper South experienced all of the following trends EXCEPT:

A) the need for agricultural reforms in the effort to improve profits.
B) soil exhaustion and wasteful farming techniques.
C) a large amount of emigration to the western regions of the Lower South.
D) eventual adaptation of the land to the wide-scale growth of cotton.

Question 11

In 1860, corn was most likely to be grown in:

A) Missouri.
B) Alabama.
C) Georgia.
D) Texas.

Question 12

In 1860, tobacco was an important crop in:

A) Texas.
B) Louisiana.
C) Florida.
D) Virginia.

Question 13

Marl was used in the attempt to:

A) build an industrial base in the South.
B) pay off debts owed on farm mortgages.
C) resume an economy based on long-staple cotton.
D) replenish the soil in the Upper South.

Question 14

This country led the cause to ban the slave trade.

A) United States
B) Great Britain
C) Spain
D) Portugal

Question 15

All of the following statements about slave codes are true EXCEPT:

A) many slave states declared it was illegal to teach slaves to read or write.
B) they authorized whippings as a common form of punishment.
C) most codes did not recognize marriages between slaves as legal.
D) they were only enacted in the cotton kingdom of the Lower South.

Question 16

The general health of slaves included all of the following factors EXCEPT:

A) a diet that provided ample calories but poor nutrition.
B) a life expectancy that was roughly the same as their white contemporaries.
C) chronic suffering of intestinal disorders.
D) an extraordinarily high infant mortality rate.

Question 17

The housing of slaves revealed that:

A) housing was meager and provided little more than basic shelter.
B) slaves' homes were larger than middle-class dwellings in the North.
C) owners, in this area, tried to create an atmosphere of individuality.
D) owners tried to keep slaves pleased about their living conditions.

Question 18

One of the biggest differences between the life conditions of slaves and poor whites was:

A) poor whites ate food that was much like the diets of the planter class.
B) all slaves lived in larger living quarters than poor whites.
C) slaves worked much longer hours under much harsher conditions.
D) poor whites lived in dwellings that were usually four times bigger than slave cabins.

Question 19

Slave owners commonly used all of the following incentives to motivate hard work EXCEPT:

A) the insincere promise of eventual freedom.
B) the transfer from field slave to house slave.
C) the promises of extra rations or time off.
D) the spread of fear through whippings.

Question 20

Roughly one-third of slave marriages were:

A) recognized as legal by southern law.
B) ended by informal consent of the married couple.
C) broken up by sales or forced removals.
D) based on a family unit that included a permanent father.

Question 21

Slaves followed West African customs in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

A) keeping alive a rich folklore and oral tradition.
B) rejecting extended kinship ties.
C) prohibiting marriages between cousins.
D) fusing the natural and spiritual worlds in religious beliefs.

Question 22

Slaves who converted to Christianity discovered:

A) that its monotheism was similar to religions in West Africa.
B) that owners often let them worship without the presence of whites.
C) very little connection between the Old Testament and their lives.
D) a powerful message of equality that deemed slavery to be immoral.

Question 23

The plan for a huge slave rebellion in Charleston, South Carolina failed when:

A) the Haitian government refused to accept the rebellious slaves.
B) its leader decided to back away from the plan.
C) the slaves failed to recruit a large number of rebels.
D) two domestic servants betrayed the plan.

Question 24

The first large-scale plan of slave rebellion was led by:

A) Thomas Day.
B) Nat Turner.
C) Gabriel Prosser.
D) Denmark Vesey.

Question 25

All of the following statements about Denmark Vesey's planned rebellion are true EXCEPT:

A) Vesey encouraged rebels by telling them that a conjurer had cast spells on their enemies.
B) Vesey had read the Bible and was aware of antislavery sentiments expressed in Congress.
C) whites executed or banished over 70 conspirators and destroyed a black church.
D) the plan failed because it did not direct the rebels to seize specific buildings.

Question 26

Over sixty whites in Virginia were killed in a rebellion led by:

A) Gabriel Prosser.
B) Denmark Vesey.
C) Thomas Day.
D) Nat Turner.

Question 27

All of the following statements about Nat Turner are true EXCEPT:

A) he was caught and executed within two days by authorities in Virginia.
B) the first person caught in his rebellion was his master.
C) he was a literate field hand who had read the Bible.
D) he believed that signs from heaven revealed he was to do God's work against slavery.

Question 28

It was difficult for American slaves to mount armed rebellions because:

A) they did not believe in the use of firearms.
B) Christianity taught them that slavery was morally justified.
C) they lacked the numbers to overpower whites.
D) most slaves were satisfied with their lives on plantations.

Question 29

Which religious group was largely involved in beginning the Underground Railroad?

A) Southern Presbyterians
B) Baptists
C) Quakers
D) Irish Catholics

Question 30

Henry Brown gained his freedom by:

A) saving wages he had earned as a carpenter.
B) disguising himself as a preacher.
C) shipping himself in a box to Philadelphia.
D) escaping to Canada.

Question 31

Ellen Craft gained her freedom and her husband's freedom by:

A) arranging that they be bought by a white abolitionist.
B) winning a lottery that allowed her to buy their freedom.
C) escaping to Boston and then to England.
D) disguising herself as the slaveholder of her husband.

Question 32

Approximately ___ percent of southern black families were free in 1860.

A) 3
B) 10
C) 17
D) 28

Question 33

____________ were the wealthiest class in America in 1860.

A) Large plantation owners
B) Merchants
C) Industrialists
D) Artisans

Question 34

Which statement about the wives of southern planters is NOT true?

A) In many respects, they worked harder than their husbands.
B) They were never allowed to be familiar with the financial accounts of the plantation.
C) They often assisted in the religious instruction of slaves.
D) They commonly felt anger regarding their husbands' affairs with female slaves.

Question 35

A Southern Baptist minister who opposed slavery admitted that "Without slaves a man's:

A) children stand but poor chance to marry in reputation."
B) reputation is judged as being noble."
C) soul has a chance for redemption."
D) acceptance as a permanent southerner has little possibility."

Question 36

Yeoman farmers of the Lower South:

A) wanted to limit the authority of government.
B) never allowed their wives or daughters to work in the fields.
C) bolstered the northern economy by buying many factory-made goods.
D) acted with great deference towards planters.

Question 37

Which statement about southern whites without property or slaves is NOT true?

A) They were hated by most members of the planter class.
B) They lacked self-reliance and depended on government welfare.
C) Northerners believed their existence showed another bad aspect of southern society.
D) They often squatted on land and managed to supply themselves with what they needed.

Question 38

All of the following statements about black codes are true EXCEPT:

A) they existed in the North as well as the South.
B) they applied only to slaves and not free blacks.
C) they denied blacks nearly all rights as citizens.
D) they denied blacks the right to testify against whites.

Question 39

Most free blacks in the South lived in:

A) the Lower South.
B) South Carolina.
C) Texas.
D) the Upper South.

Question 40

In the late 1850s, several southern states sought to:

A) free all slaves.
B) re-enslave free blacks.
C) force all free blacks to live in cities.
D) send free blacks back to Africa.

Question 41

Sectional tensions over slavery increased when:

A) Protestant sects permanently split apart over the issue of slavery.
B) the federal government vowed to abolish slavery in the 1840s.
C) runaway slaves were never returned by Northerners.
D) northern whites largely declared that blacks were equal in every way to whites.

Question 42

Southern evangelicals who supported slavery used all of the following to support their arguments, EXCEPT:

A) the slave-owning patriarchs of Israel.
B) the prevalence of slavery in the Roman Empire in the first century a.d.
C) the preaching of the apostles to adhere to secular laws, including those regarding slavery.
D) the teachings of Jesus as presented in the Bible.

Question 43

In Review of the Debates in the Virginia Legislature of 1831 and 1832, Thomas R. Dew:

A) called for the gradual emancipation of slaves.
B) wanted to divide white Southerners over the issue of race.
C) provided a defense of slavery in the South.
D) denounced the Republican Party.

Question 44

By the 1850s, southern planters felt threatened regarding slavery for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:

A) they were making very low profits.
B) slavery was declining in the Upper South.
C) abolitionists were intensifying their moral objections to slavery.
D) free labor was spreading rapidly in the Border South.

Question 45

Which event happened first?

A) Texas admitted as a slave state
B) Congress banned the African slave trade
C) Virginia's legislature considered gradual emancipation
D) Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin

Question 46

In what year did Nat Turner lead a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia?

A) 1822
B) 1825
C) 1831
D) 1832

Question 47

Which of the following happened last?

A) Britain abolishes the slave trade
B) slavery divides some churches into separate sections
C) publication of The Impending Crisis in the South
D) Florida admitted to the Union

Question 48

Why did slavery not exist in the mountainous regions of the South?

Question 49

Describe the three-tiered hierarchy of race that existed in the South.

Question 50

What factors made it almost impossible for American slaves to stage an armed rebellion?

Question 51

Describe the responsibilities and lifestyle of women who were married to plantation owners.

Question 52

Which slaves were regarded as most valuable on the slave market?

Question 53

What conditions personified the typical lifestyle of a plantation slave?

Question 54

In what ways did slaves nurture the survival of West African culture as a part of their African-American
culture?

Question 55

What profound changes in slavery occurred in the period 1815-1860? What were the causes and consequences of this significant shift?

Question 56

What changes occurred in the southern economy in the first half of the nineteenth century? What factors accounted for these changes?

Question 57

How did southern whites attempt to defend slavery and reconcile it with their Christian beliefs? Why did they feel compelled to express these defenses?