Deck 13: The Entrenchment of Slavery and Regional Conflict

Question 1

Legally speaking,the geographic concentration of slavery in the southern part of the U.S.is explained by all of the following except

A)provisions in the Northwest Land Ordinance of 1787.
B)provisions in the constitutions of some northern states.
C)laws allowing for gradual emancipation in some northern states.
D)an amendment to the U.S.Constitution that allowed importation of slaves only through the port of Charleston after 1800.

Answer 1

an amendment to the U.S.Constitution that allowed importation of slaves only through the port of Charleston after 1800.

Question 2

According to estimates by Richard Vedder,rates of exploitation for slaves

A)are similar to those of antebellum manufacturing workers.
B)indicate that slaves received nearly the full value marginal product of their labor.
C)equaled 50-65 percent of their value marginal product.
D)cannot be determined due to inadequate data on maintenance costs of adult slaves.

Answer 2

equaled 50-65 percent of their value marginal product.

Question 3

The majority of slaves that were brought to the New World during the colonial period were used in the production of:

A)cotton.
B)sugar.
C)tobacco.
D)rice.

Answer 3

sugar.

Question 4

With the adoption of the U.S.Constitution in 1787,
an importation of slaves was allowed,but only for the next 20 years.

A)importation of slaves was made illegal.
B)importation of slaves from the Caribbean was prohibited,but importation of African slaves was allowed.
C)importation of slaves was allowed only on federally-approved vessels that met minimum crew sizes.

Question 5

Approximately how many slaves were brought from Africa to the New World during the operation of the transatlantic slave trade?

A)50,000
B)700,000
C)5 million
D)10 million

Question 6

By 1825,what area in the New World had the greatest portion of slaves?

A)Spanish colonies
B)The West Indies
C)The United States
D)Brazil

Question 7

Which region in the New World received the smallest share of slaves brought to the New World?

A)Brazil
B)Colonial America
C)Spanish America
D)French Caribbean

Question 8

Approximately how many slaves were brought to the colonial U.S.from Africa during the operation of the transatlantic slave trade?

A)50,000
B)700,000
C)5 million
D)10 million

Question 9

Which did not contribute to the rise of "King Cotton"?

A)Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793
B)soils and climate of the new Southwest
C)large shifts in slave populations
D)declines in slave populations that drove mechanical innovation

Question 10

The first actions taken socially to compel conformity to abolitionist sentiments was taken by

A)the Puritans.
B)various Plains Indian tribes.
C)the Quakers.
D)Roman Catholics.

Question 11

New Jersey adopted a policy of gradual emancipation slaves that freed male slaves when they reached age 25.This policy meant that slave owners earned a rate of return ______.

A)of zero,because profits during the slave's working years about equaled the costs of rearing a slave.
B)that was about equal to the normal return,because the profits earned up to age 25 exceeded rearing costs by a substantial margin.
C)a very high rate of return because slaves were generally unproductive after their peak years.
D)that cannot be calculated because of a lack of data.

Question 12

Which statement is most correct: According to new research by Olmstead and Rhodes in 2008,productivity gains in cotton

A)included a nearly 10 percent per annum increase in labor productivity.
B)were accomplished by mechanical innovations.
C)were accomplished by biological innovations.
D)were entirely due to the depletion of Eastern soils,which drove production to the Southwest.

Question 13

According to Walton and Rockoff,large slave plantations were _____ efficient than farms without slaves because (among several reasons)_______.

A)more,the great intensity per hour with which slaves were forced to worked.
B)more,large plantation owners used political power to control the best land.
C)less,free men work harder than slaves.
D)less,slaves frequently sabotaged production.

Question 14

What is not correct about the Northern U.S.abolitionist movement?

A)Northern slaveholders could sell their slaves to the south.
B)Slave owners in the North suffered significant economic loss because slaves were given their freedom much sooner than in the South.
C)Most Northern states freed slaves after they had reached a minimum age.
D)In most northern states freedom was granted over a gradual period of time.

Question 15

From the 1ate 1780s to immediately before the Civil War,the U.S.slave population

A)increased from roughly 300,000 to over 6 million.
B)increased from roughly 600,000 to almost 4 million.
C)stayed roughly the same.
D)increased by nearly 10 million.

Question 16

By 1850,the single largest U.S.commodity export (in terms of value)was

A)iron railroad tracks.
B)wheat.
C)cotton.
D)slaves.

Question 17

Which region in the New World received the largest share of slaves brought to the New World?

A)Brazil
B)Colonial America
C)Cuba
D)Canada

Question 18

Productivity gains on southern cotton plantations were due to

A)improved varieties of seeds.
B)use of the gang system.
C)longer work hours.
D)All of the above.
E)Both a and b are correct.

Question 19

The colonial U.S.accounted for approximately what share of the transatlantic slave trade?

A)3 percent
B)6 percent
C)12 percent
D)36 percent
E)72 percent

Question 20

Current research on the productivity of southern cotton plantations shows that

A)output per unit of input was greater on large slave plantations than on small free-family farms.
B)the majority of the South's cotton crop was grown on farm units of less than 100 acres.
C)output per slave declined during the antebellum period.
D)plantation-style agriculture was inefficient.
E)All of the above.

Question 21

Ulrich B.Phillips's proxy for the profitability of slavery was the ratio of _____ to _____.

A)Cotton prices;slave prices.
B)Cotton prices;maintenance costs of slaves.
C)Rental cost of slaves;slave prices.
D)Price of agricultural goods;price of manufacturing goods.
E)The interest rate;maintenance cost of slaves.

Question 22

Most current economic historians believe that

A)slavery was profitable and viable.
B)slavery would have eventually ended due to its inherent unprofitability.
C)slavery was economically inefficient.
D)free labor was more productive than slave labor.

Question 23

Which statement is most accurate about the U.S.between 1840-1860?

A)The per capita income of free people in the Southwest was about twice the national average.
B)The per capita income of free people in the entire U.S.decreased.
C)The per capita income of free people in the entire U.S.increased,but increased more slowly than it did before the Revolution.
D)The Northwest was the poorest part of the nation,as measured by per capita income of free people.

Question 24

In the Dred Scott decision (1857),the Supreme Court declared that

A)Congress could not admit a free state without simultaneously admitting a slave state.
B)slavery was not legal in the western territories.
C)fugitive slaves were not legally protected from bounty hunters.
D)Congress could not prohibit slavery in the western territories.

Question 25

In examining incomes of free southerners prior to the Civil War,Walton and Rockoff conclude that,compared with northerners,free southerners were ______.

A)generally far poorer than northerners and falling further behind.
B)generally far poorer than northerners,except in the old South.
C)generally doing fairly well,even in the old South.
D)far richer than northerners but a downward trend was noticeable.

Question 26

Which of the following statements about the slave family in the U.S.is most accurate?

A)Slave owners preferred slaves who lived in intact families.
B)In most two-parent slave families,the parents lived on different plantations.
C)The father was white in about 75 percent of the households headed by single slave mothers.
D)About half of children under 15 years of age were sold away from their families.

Question 27

In the 20 years before the Civil War real per capita incomes were ___ in the South than in the North,and the growth rate was ___ in the South than in the North.

A)higher,higher.
B)lower,higher.
C)higher,lower.
D)lower,lower.

Question 28

Between 1850 and 1860 the prices of slaves ____ and the price of cotton ___.

A)rose,rose.
B)rose,fell.
C)fell,rose.
D)fell,fell.

Question 29

If the consumer price index in 2007 is 25 times that of 1860,and a slave cost $2,000,how much is that in terms of 2007 dollars?

A)$12,500
B)$25,000
C)$50,000
D)$75,000
E)$750,000

Question 30

The text compares two studies on the profitability of slavery: one by Phillips and the other by Conrad and Meyer.The main reason for the difference in their results is

A)Phillips failed to account for the effect of rising marginal product on profitability.
B)Conrad and Meyer had better data on slave prices.
C)Conrad and Meyer used data from both northern and southern farms.
D)Phillips assumed that cotton prices were falling during the antebellum period.

Question 31

Which statement is most accurate about the U.S.between 1800-1860?

A)New states were always permitted to choose whether they wanted to be free or slave states.
B)Slaves were prohibited from the western territories and new states.
C)The threat of having their jobs replaced by slaves led many southerners to unionize.
D)The total value of slaves in the U.S.increased substantially after the slave trade was stopped in the early 1800s.

Question 32

Which of the following was a major omission from Ulrich B.Phillip's proxy for the rate of return in slavery?

A)The price of cotton.
B)The price of slaves.
C)The rate of interest.
D)The productivity of slaves.
E)The maintenance cost of slaves.

Question 33

In 1860,the total value of U.S.slaves was

A)greater than GNP.
B)about $3 billion.
C)greater than $10 billion.
D)about $1 billion.

Question 34

Between 1810 and 1860,the value of slaves in the United States

A)nearly doubled.
B)tripled.
C)increased nearly fourfold.
D)increased nearly tenfold.