Deck 11: Slavery Expands South and West

Question 1

What did the execution of Nat Turner and his followers in 1831 signal to African Americans?

A) That only free blacks should organize against slavery
B) How far whites would go to protect slavery
C) That whites were right and Nat Turner was wrong
D) That the American justice system was fair

Answer 1

How far whites would go to protect slavery

Question 2

What were the two largest southern cities in 1850, with populations over 100,000?

A) Charleston and Atlanta
B) New Orleans and Charleston
C) Atlanta and Baltimore
D) Baltimore and New Orleans

Answer 2

Baltimore and New Orleans

Question 3

What recourse did most plantation mistresses have on discovering their husbands were having sexual relations with slave women?

A) None really; most pretended they did not know it was happening.
B) Most of these women filed for divorce on grounds of adultery.
C) Mistresses were able to have the alleged lover sold or traded out of the household.
D) Mistresses often filed rape charges against their husbands on behalf of the slave women.

Answer 3

None really; most pretended they did not know it was happening.

Question 4

How did laboring in the field together benefit slaves?

A) They were part of a community, forming strong bonds through work and music with other African Americans.
B) They often received the greatest portions of food because their work was so arduous and required so much energy.
C) There really weren't any benefits; labor in the fields was the most arduous and exploitative of all, far worse than work in the house or in a skilled trade.
D) Field work was often done under the supervision of other blacks, so they didn't have to interact with white people for days or weeks at a time.

Question 5

Which slaves were most likely to successfully run away in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries?

A) Young men and women from the fields
B) Skilled male slaves with greater mobility
C) Single men without ties
D) Female domestics with the trust of their mistress

Question 6

News of Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831 was especially frightening to slaveholders because Turner

A) managed to unite free blacks and slaves.
B) managed to inspire slaves to kill their owners.
C) seemed to be an obedient, submissive slave prior to this event.
D) recruited poor whites to help in his rebellion.

Question 7

According to the following passage, why does Edward Strutt Abdy describe the slave pen as "right against" the Capitol, when it was a half-mile away?

A) People measured distances differently at that time, so a half-mile did not seem so far.
B) The slave pen was "against" the liberty that the Capitol was supposed to represent.
C) The pen was located at a 90-degree angle from the Capitol building.
D) There were no buildings between the Capitol and the pen, which made it seem closer.

Question 8

Why were harsher methods of discipline introduced after 1840 on plantations in South Carolina and Mississippi?

A) Slaves in those areas frequently organized riots and other more minor rebellions.
B) Slaveholders in those areas were inexperienced and overcompensating.
C) Slaves proved impervious to more mild punishments.
D) Slaveholders feared blacks because they outnumbered whites.

Question 9

At what age were slave children put to work full-time?

A) As soon as they could walk, talk, and follow instructions
B) Eleven or twelve
C) Eight or nine
D) Depended on the philosophy of the slaveholder

Question 10

What foods were the staples of a slave's diet?

A) Fruits and vegetables they grew themselves
B) Lots of protein and some fat
C) Primarily high-calorie fats and carbohydrates
D) Mainly meat with occasional vegetables

Question 11

What development led slaveholders to treat slaves better and increasingly view them as "valuable property"?

A) Exposure of planters' violent practices
B) Realization that planters' behavior was inhumane
C) The end of the international slave trade
D) The increase in demand for cotton

Question 12

What caused a dramatic increase in the value of cotton in the 1840s and 1850s?

A) The booming textile industry in New England
B) A decrease in available fertile land
C) An increase in the value of slave labor
D) A crop shortage in Europe

Question 13

How did slavery stunt the development of other important industries and institutions in the South?

A) Slavery was so controversial that Northerners did not want to do business with the South.
B) Wealthy people invested all of their money in slavery and nothing else.
C) The plantation economy required rural settlements and deterred the development of great cities.
D) Southerners agreed to rely on the North for manufacturing and education in exchange for their reliance on southern goods.

Question 14

How did slaves bring West African culture into Christian worship services?

A) Through the use of drums, conch shells, and dancing
B) By invoking the names of their African gods rather than the Christian God
C) By worshiping in the evening, through sundown, as was practiced in Africa
D) By refusing to say Christian prayers but rather praying softly in their native tongues

Question 15

Why did slave women generally fail at their runaway attempts?

A) They often returned to visit family.
B) They weren't as strong or fast as men.
C) They weren't highly motivated because they weren't treated badly.
D) Women were more likely to get lost in the woods.

Question 16

What contributed to record-breaking profits by planters from the early 1840s onward?

A) A dramatic increase in the value of slave labor
B) Vast profits from cotton, rice, and sugar
C) A decrease in the value of European currency
D) Greater reliance on the labor of slave women and children

Question 17

What labor system often left some slaves time to cultivate gardens, fish for supper, make quilts, or repair furniture in the evenings?

A) Gang system
B) Row system
C) Rake system
D) Task system

Question 18

After 1840, planters went to great measures to discipline and punish slaves because

A) slaves rarely worked as hard as they could for even eight hours a day.
B) slaveholders became paranoid of a group over whom they exerted an incredible amount of authority.
C) slave rebellions were so frequent and violent during the period.
D) whites were so racist that slavery gave them an excuse to beat blacks.

Question 19

Why were most plantations in the South relatively small prior to the 1840s?

A) The availability of fertile land was limited.
B) The availability of slave laborers was limited.
C) No one had the resources to finance a vast, expansive plantation.
D) No one product was in such great demand so as to necessitate a large plantation.

Question 20

James Henry Hammond viewed himself as a progressive master, and he

A) believed that slaves deserved to be treated with respect and rarely used violence.
B) adopted nonviolent means of punishment such as solitary confinement.
C) whipped his slaves excessively regardless of his self-image.
D) restricted his use of whipping to males over the age of twelve.

Question 21

The relationship between yeomen farmers and neighboring plantation owners was that they were

A) generally friendly but economically independent of each other.
B) hostile neighbors and economic competitors.
C) often relatives who tried not to mix business with family.
D) often related to one another, with the farmers relying on the plantation owners.

Question 22

In his approach to Indian/white relations, Cherokee leader John Ross

A) advocated peaceful but separate coexistence.
B) called for mutual respect of cultural traditions.
C) promoted Indian diet and lifestyle as valuable to whites.
D) promoted "Americanization" of the Indians.

Question 23

How did the United States eventually win the Second Seminole War?

A) It outspent Seminoles $30 million to $5 million.
B) The military enlisted the help of slaves.
C) The Seminoles were largely destroyed by a smallpox epidemic.
D) It offered the Seminole leader peace but captured him instead.

Question 24

Regarding the Treaty of New Echota, which authorized the exchange of 100 million acres of Cherokee land for $68 million and 32 million acres in Indian Territory, the majority of Cherokee people were

A) happy with the terms because they voted for it.
B) unhappy with the terms and did not authorize it.
C) happy with the terms even though they did not authorize it.
D) unhappy with the terms even though they authorized it.

Question 25

In the early nineteenth century, which group of Southerners allied most closely with slave owners?

A) Yeomen farmers
B) Middle-class people
C) Religious leaders
D) Poor whites

Question 26

Who fit the description of a "yeoman farmer"?

A) Small-scale farmers who owned fewer than six slaves
B) Independent landowners who did not own slaves
C) Landowners of any scale who owned fewer than ten slaves
D) Farmers who worked leased land without slave labor

Question 27

What moved planters to promote the ideology of white supremacy in the 1830s?

A) Slaves were getting too tricky and rebellious.
B) Other nations began to abolish slavery.
C) Poor whites turned against the planters and they needed to win the poor whites back.
D) Free blacks failed to show they could be as successful as whites.

Question 28

What Virginian(s) spoke passionately in defense of slavery, ensuring its continuation in the wake of Nat Turner's rebellion?

A) Thomas Jefferson, former president of the United States
B) Mr. Travis, slaveholder and target of insurrection
C) Thomas Dew, president of the College of William and Mary
D) The Ladies of Augusta, representing the western counties

Question 29

Which country abolished slavery without bloodshed in 1834?

A) Great Britain
B) France
C) Brazil
D) United States

Question 30

Where did many middle-class Southerners receive their education in the early nineteenth century?

A) Local public schools
B) Local private schools
C) Northern private schools
D) Home schools

Question 31

Why did the Cherokee march from their land in the Southeast to Indian Territory become known as the Trail of Tears?

A) They were so sad at having to move.
B) They were beaten and tortured by the U.S. army along the way.
C) Their leader, Chief Big Tears, died along the way.
D) It took longer than expected and many people died.

Question 32

What caused the Panic of 1837?

A) Cotton harvests in the South failed.
B) The South had a strong dependency on British investments.
C) Northern abolitionists cut ties with southern cotton producers.
D) The Bank of America called in its loans to southern planters.

Question 33

What was the outcome of the battle at the Alamo between the Mexican government and a band of white U.S. settlers?

A) The Mexicans handily defeated the settlers.
B) The battle came to a draw when both sides retreated.
C) The settlers surprisingly defeated the larger Mexican military.
D) The U.S. government intervened and forced the settlers to stand down.

Question 34

What led many poor southern whites to support the institution of slavery?

A) Economic dependence on slaveholders
B) Competition with free blacks
C) Religious teachings and practices
D) Negative experiences with slaves

Question 35

What did southern planters rely on to expand and sustain the system of slavery?

A) States' rights
B) Federal power
C) Economic dependency
D) Presidential support

Question 36

Why was incumbent Martin Van Buren vulnerable in his 1840 reelection campaign?

A) Andrew Jackson had recovered and was running against him.
B) Van Buren endorsed the wildly unpopular "gag rule" in 1836.
C) Van Buren failed to intervene in the panic of 1837.
D) Van Buren lost all of his campaign money in the banking crisis.

Question 37

What caused the Second Seminole War in the 1830s?

A) White settlers opened fire on Seminole Indians, against terms of the Indian Removal Act.
B) The Seminole and the Cherokee fought over lucrative land along the Mississippi River.
C) The U.S. military forcibly removed Seminoles from their land.
D) The Seminole Indians attacked white settlers who came to take their land.

Question 38

According to the passages, why does Benjamin Lundy reject William Travis's notion that the Texan rebels are fighting for liberty?

A) The Texas rebels planned to expand slavery, which negated any claims about liberty.
B) Travis only mentions "his country's liberty," referring to Texas rather than the United States.
C) The Texas rebels ultimately wanted to annex the territory to the United States rather than making it independent.
D) The Texas rebels were planning to conquer Mexico.

Question 39

In the mid-nineteenth century, unlike wealthier plantation mistresses, the wives and daughters of yeomen farmers

A) did arduous household labor.
B) worked alongside their family's slaves.
C) were treated more equally in the household.
D) were more likely to be religious.

Question 40

What had Congress hoped to achieve with the Indian Removal Act of 1830?

A) The final removal of Indians from the United States
B) The removal of Indians from the Louisiana Territory
C) The settlement of Indians to land west of the Mississippi River
D) A peaceful treaty whereby Indians would move but retain ownership of their land

Question 41

What is meant by manifest destiny as touted by politicians during the 1840s?

A) The right of opposing legislative parties to debate is vital to democracy and preordained by the Enlightenment.
B) Political parties must agree to a "manifest" before each campaign cycle.
C) The United States has a God-given right to expand its borders.
D) The United States has proven its destiny as the most powerful country in the world.

Question 42

The Comanche tribe was a serious threat to Mexico after 1821 because

A) the tribe doubled in size and threat.
B) Mexico achieved independence and lacked resources.
C) Mexico was in the midst of a bloody war with Spain.
D) the Comanche won their war with white settlers and were free to focus on Mexico.

Question 43

The Wilmot Proviso, which passed in the House in 1846, proposed that

A) the territory acquired from Mexico be partly divided among Indian tribes.
B) the territory acquired from Mexico be divided between Indians, free blacks, and white settlers.
C) slavery be abolished in the territory acquired from Mexico.
D) slavery be protected in the territory acquired from Mexico.

Question 44

In 1844, Mexico, Britain, and the Comanches united in contesting newly elected President James K. Polk's position favoring

A) Texas's sovereignty from Mexico and subsequent U.S. statehood.
B) U.S. expansion into Oregon and Mexico.
C) national sovereignty for Indian nations in Indian Territory.
D) U.S. expansion into Wisconsin and parts of Canada.

Question 45

On what basis did the Free-Soil Party argue that slavery should not be permitted in the new territories?

A) Slavery empowered aristocratic men over the rights of the people.
B) Slavery was a moral injustice.
C) The nation would always be paralyzed by this debate if they didn't take a difficult stand now.
D) Northern interests would always be second to those of southern slaveholders.