Deck 10: The Rise of the South, 1815-1860

Question 1

Largely as a result of having become a slave society, the Old South

A) rejected wealth as a determinant of one's social position.
B) accepted the concept that there was honor in all labor, even manual labor.
C) rejected the wage labor system of the North and West.
D) accepted the concept of democracy more readily that the North.

Answer 1

rejected the wage labor system of the North and West.

Question 2

In the 1840s and 1850s, the political power base of the South shifted to

A) old southern states like Virginia and South Carolina.
B) yeoman farmers and away from planters.
C) planters who wanted to modernize southern society.
D) southwestern boom states such as Mississippi and Arkansas.

Answer 2

southwestern boom states such as Mississippi and Arkansas.

Question 3

The largest antebellum southern industry was

A) clothing.
B) fishing.
C) lumbering.
D) shipbuilding.

Answer 3

lumbering.

Question 4

Which of the following was a major demographic characteristic of southern society between 1830 and 1860?

A) The population became increasingly urban.
B) The number of foreign-born residents equaled that of the North.
C) The region's population density was low.
D) The region had many more women than men.

Question 5

Until the 1840s, the North and the South were similar in which of the following ways?

A) Both regions tried to apply the states' rights doctrine against federal authority with nearly equal frequency.
B) Both regions had an equal commitment to industrialization.
C) Slavery was clearly profitable in both regions.
D) Both regions invested heavily in the building of canals and railroads.

Question 6

Small southern farmers who migrated into the area west of the Appalachians in the early nineteenth century wanted to

A) take advantage of the expanding market economy by becoming commercial farmers.
B) establish a nonslaveholding agrarian society.
C) take advantage of the lucrative fur trade in the region.
D) acquire rich, fertile farmland.

Question 7

This Cherokee invented a system of writing for his people.

A) Sequoyah
B) Tecumseh
C) Prophet
D) Chief John Ross

Question 8

When the removal policy of the 1830s was completed,

A) many Native Americans became dependent on government payments for survival.
B) a sense of peace, harmony, and renewal among the Cherokee led to the Cherokee Renaissance.
C) the Native Americans received an amount of land west of the Mississippi equal to the amount of land they had surrendered in the East.
D) no Native Americans remained east of the Mississippi.

Question 9

Which of the following arguments was most likely to have been used by southerners in the 1830s and 1840s to defend the institution of slavery?

A) It is true that slavery is an evil within human society, but for economic reasons it is presently a necessary evil.
B) Society is ordered in a particular way by the dictates of nature, and nature has ordained that blacks are born to be slaves.
C) All whites are born to be free and equal, but all nonwhites are frowned on by God and were born to be slaves.
D) Human beings are equal in the sight of God only if they have accepted the tenets of Christianity; therefore, non-Christians may be enslaved.

Question 10

Which of the following arguments was offered by southerners as a defense of slavery?

A) Blacks as a race are more physical and less intellectual than whites; therefore, slavery is the natural condition of blacks.
B) By climate and geography, the South is destined to be and to remain a slave society.
C) Slavery is the major means by which all nonwhites throughout the world may ultimately be lifted to a more civilized state.
D) God has decreed that slavery be used to carry His message to the infidels of the world.

Question 11

The absence of highly developed schools, churches, and libraries in the South between 1800 and 1860 may be explained by which of the following?

A) Southerners did not enjoy socializing as much as their northern counterparts.
B) Most southerners were far too busy to devote time to nonwork activities.
C) Southerners were afraid that the presence of such institutions would lead to a mixture of the races.
D) The South's low population density meant that financing and operating such institutions was difficult.

Question 12

In their defense of slavery, southerners often demonstrated a belief in

A) egalitarianism among all whites.
B) maintaining the social order as God and nature prescribed it.
C) the eventual emergence of a truly integrated society.
D) education as a way to achieve the goal of equality among all people.

Question 13

In the period from 1830 to 1860, the North and the South were different in which of the following ways?

A) The South, unlike the North, did not experience the booms and busts of the market economy.
B) Entrepreneurs in the South, unlike those in the North, operated outside the newly emerging market economy.
C) Urban growth was slower in the South than in the North.
D) Wealth and property were more evenly divided in the North than in the South.

Question 14

When President Monroe first proposed the policy of Indian removal to the West, he did so in response to pressure from

A) the state of Georgia.
B) Christian missionaries.
C) the Department of War.
D) the Native Americans themselves.

Question 15

In Worcester v. Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall

A) ruled that matters pertaining to Indian tribes should be settled by Congress rather than the courts.
B) ruled that the laws of Georgia had no force in the Cherokee nation.
C) upheld the removal of Native Americans from the South.
D) declared that the state government of Georgia could seize Indian lands within its borders.

Question 16

The case of John F. Flintoff demonstrates which of the following?

A) Southerners from the mountains generally held antislavery views.
B) Evangelical Christianity caused a significant number of white southerners to question the morality of slavery.
C) Availability of land and capital in the 1840s made it easy for most nonslaveowning southern farmers to become slaveowners.
D) Yeomen farmers generally aspired to become slaveowners.

Question 17

Research indicates that in the forty-five years before the Civil War, slavery

A) caused boom-and-bust economic cycles to occur more frequently in the South than they occurred in the North.
B) made it impossible for southern planters to participate in the emerging market economy.
C) was a profitable labor system.
D) caused a greater maldistribution of wealth in southern society than that found in northern society.

Question 18

For which of the following reasons may the South be considered "distinctive" in comparison to the rest of the United States in the period from 1830 to 1860?

A) Most southerners were Protestants while most northerners were Catholics.
B) The South was committed to the institution of slavery.
C) The South was geographically much smaller than the North.
D) Southerners for the most part did not participate in the westward expansion of the nation.

Question 19

A yeoman farmer in the South between 1800 and 1860 was a small farmer who

A) was engaged in the market-oriented production of farm goods.
B) lived on and worked the land of another.
C) generally owned no slaves.
D) owned some land but primarily worked for wages as a farm laborer.

Question 20

The Seminole War between 1835 and 1842 ended with

A) the Seminoles surrendering and ceding their lands to the United States.
B) the extermination of the Seminoles.
C) the forcible removal of the Seminoles from Florida to the West.
D) the United States allowing some Seminoles to remain in Florida.

Question 21

Which of the following is true of landless whites in the South between 1830 and 1860?

A) They usually relied on public relief agencies for food, clothing, and shelter.
B) They often struggled to save enough money from their meager wages to buy land.
C) They were usually able to obtain steady employment.
D) Their economic status was comparable to that of most yeoman farmers.

Question 22

Slave cabins were usually

A) crowded but sanitary.
B) clean and spacious.
C) unhealthy.
D) comfortable.

Question 23

The paternalistic ideology of the plantation elite

A) masked the harsher beliefs of rich planters concerning the inferiority of blacks and the importance of making money.
B) was nothing more than a myth advanced by southern writers.
C) was used to hide the belief by slaveowners that slavery was morally wrong.
D) was openly questioned by religious leaders in the South.

Question 24

Which of the following was the main determinant of a man's wealth and social position in the South?

A) The size and furnishing of his home.
B) The amount of land and the number of slaves he owned.
C) The value of his stockholdings and the amount of money readily available to him in his bank account.
D) The Extent of his involvement in community affairs.

Question 25

Most planters in the boom states of Alabama and Mississippi in the 1840s

A) were descended from old Virginia and South Carolina families.
B) lived in grand plantation mansions.
C) had begun to see the slave-labor system as a hindrance to economic progress.
D) were newly rich.

Question 26

Which of the following was true of free blacks in the South between 1830 and 1860?

A) They often owned land.
B) They usually worked as skilled laborers.
C) They were legally required to move to a free state or face being enslaved.
D) They were not legally permitted to own a gun.

Question 27

Which of the following is true of southern society between 1830 and 1860?

A) The increased opportunities that accompanied the cotton boom led to a more nearly even distribution of wealth.
B) Slaveholders became less and less concerned about the loyalty of nonslaveholders.
C) The percentage of white southern families owning slaves steadily declined.
D) As southern society became more democratic, it also became more tolerant of dissent.

Question 28

Most members of the planter aristocracy saw themselves as

A) the benevolent guardians of an inferior race.
B) capitalistic farmers pursuing their own economic self-interest.
C) self-sacrificing members of the larger community.
D) the champions of the democratic ideal.

Question 29

With regard to sexual relations between white men and slave women in the antebellum South, white southern women

A) increasingly spoke out against such liaisons in the 1830s and 1840s.
B) were supposed to pretend that they did not notice.
C) actively sought passage of laws against interracial sexual relations.
D) usually placed the blame for such relationships on slave women.

Question 30

Which of the following best describes the relations between men and women of the planter class?

A) Paternalistic
B) Honorable
C) Mutually respectful
D) Contemptuous

Question 31

Which of the following is true of the relatively typical southern yeoman farmer, Ferdinand Steel?

A) He worked so hard that he had time for neither family nor religion.
B) Although he grew cotton as a cash crop, he owned no slaves and lived a life marked by hard work and financial insecurity.
C) He spent his lifetime aspiring to become a planter.
D) He planted only cotton because doing so was the only way to acquire capital for the acquisition of land and slaves.

Question 32

Which of the following is a true statement about slaveowners?

A) Most slaveowners felt a sense of guilt for holding other human beings in bondage.
B) Many slaveowners saw slaves as a commodity that could be mortgaged and used as collateral.
C) Many slaveowners respected the cultural traditions of their slaves.
D) Most slaveowners provided their slaves with clean housing, adequate clothing, and nutritious meals.

Question 33

Which of the following is an explanation for the absence of serious conflict between slaveholders and nonslaveholders in the antebellum South?

A) Nonslaveholders recognized and accepted the superiority of the planter class.
B) Despite their wealth and power, slaveholders did not expect special privileges.
C) They closely relied on each other economically.
D) Socially and economically the two groups operated independently of each other.

Question 34

The wife in an upper-class antebellum southern family was

A) legally subordinate to her husband.
B) usually responsible for managing the budget.
C) frequently the real, if hidden, authority in the family.
D) roughly equal to the husband in influence and responsibility.

Question 35

Approximately what percentage of white southern families owned no slaves in 1860?

A) 25 percent
B) 45 percent
C) 55 percent
D) 75 percent

Question 36

What impact did slavery have on the southern value system?

A) The presence of slave labor created an egalitarian value system among the white majority.
B) Slavery created constant tension between slaveowners and nonslaveowners.
C) The availability of slave labor had the effect of devaluing free labor in the South.
D) Slavery created a strong sense of community responsibility among the white majority.

Question 37

The mulattos of New Orleans, Charleston, and Mobile differed from most other southern mulattos in that they

A) formed a society of their own and were recognized as a distinct class.
B) were allowed to vote in city elections.
C) were descended from slaves who were emancipated in the era of the American Revolution.
D) were immigrants from Haiti who fled their homeland in the 1790s.

Question 38

Which of the following best describes the diet of most slaves in the antebellum South?

A) It was monotonous and lacked proper nutritional value.
B) It was healthy and nutritious.
C) It was so inadequate that many slaves lived on the verge of starvation.
D) It was usually devoid of meat.

Question 39

During the 1820s and 1830s, the state governments in the recently settled states of the Old Southwest became

A) more and more corrupt.
B) less representative of the masses.
C) more democratic.
D) less democratic.

Question 40

Which of the following is true of the average southern slaveholder?

A) He was born into plantation aristocracy.
B) He was a man of great wealth.
C) He was refined in manner and generally well educated.
D) He was an aspiring farmer rather than a wealthy aristocrat.

Question 41

Which of the following statements about the slave family is true?

A) Masters rarely broke up slave families.
B) Masters usually discouraged slaves from forming family units.
C) Most southern states had legalized slave marriages by 1860.
D) Children were often named after relatives of past generations as a way of emphasizing family history.

Question 42

Which of the following is true of Nat Turner?

A) He was convicted and executed in the early 1830s for having planned and executed a violent slave revolt.
B) He became an outspoken abolitionist after escaping to the North.
C) He regularly conducted raids into the slave states to help blacks escape to freedom.
D) He conducted extensive interviews with runaway slaves in writing antislavery pamphlets published in the 1830s.

Question 43

In addition to seeking personal salvation through their religion, slaves

A) prayed that all earthly power would be placed in their hands.
B) sought group salvation through the belief that God would deliver all slaves from bondage.
C) sought forgiveness for their masters.
D) prayed that they would receive earthly riches as a reward for their trials and tribulations.

Question 44

By the early antebellum period, American slaves

A) became more conscious of their separate tribal and ethnic differences based on their African past.
B) had cast off all cultural influences from their African past.
C) saw themselves as a single group unified by race.
D) had rejected Christianity as a white man's religion that encouraged cruelty and oppression.

Question 45

The common belief of slaves in spirits is linked to the

A) Muslim concept of the afterlife.
B) stories told by masters to frighten slaves into submission.
C) African concept of the living dead.
D) idea that God would deliver the slaves from bondage.

Question 46

"[They have] found out a fearful alchemy by which...blood can be transformed into gold. Instead of listening to the cry of agony, they listen to the ring of dollars and stoop down to pick up the coin." This 1857 quotation most likely refers to

A) a northern factory owner.
B) a southern planter.
C) a small southern tobacco farmer.
D) a cotton broker.

Question 47

Slave narratives suggest that slaves considered the worst aspect of slavery to be the

A) physical pain they endured from whippings and beatings.
B) psychological trauma of being considered inferiors.
C) unsanitary conditions in which they were forced to live.
D) coercion, lack of freedom, and little hope for change, all of which were part of the nature of slavery itself.

Question 48

African influences on slave culture

A) can be seen only in the recreational activities of slaves.
B) reminded slaves that they had a separate past and a separate identity from their oppressors.
C) survived only in areas where slaves were imported from the West Indies.
D) disappeared completely after the abolition of the international slave trade.

Question 49

Which of the following was generally true of slaves in the South Carolina and Georgia low country?

A) They worked under the task system.
B) They were free to determine their own work patterns.
C) They were separated into a strict hierarchy of field slaves and house slaves.
D) They frequently engaged in work stoppages in an attempt to improve working conditions.

Question 50

In the aftermath of the 1831 Nat Turner Rebellion, the Virginia legislature

A) approved a plan, subsequently vetoed by the governor, for the abolition of slavery.
B) approved a measure requiring all free blacks to leave the state or be enslaved.
C) began a debate on slavery that continued and grew more bitter as the years passed.
D) debated but then rejected a measure calling for the gradual abolition of slavery.

Question 51

Stories such as the 'Brer Rabbit folktales were actually stories about

A) racial violence on the plantation.
B) survival and resistance.
C) violent rebellion against the slave system.
D) the importance of family.

Question 52

In response to the Nat Turner Rebellion, many southern states passed laws

A) that forbade masters from freeing their slaves.
B) making it easier for slaves to purchase their freedom.
C) that allowed slaves more freedom of movement.
D) against educating blacks.

Question 53

Comments from former slaves reveal that the great majority of American slaves

A) had little self respect.
B) unquestioningly accepted their status.
C) retained their mental independence.
D) preferred subservience over the uncertainties of freedom.

Question 54

In 1808 Congress banned

A) the slave trade in Washington, D.C.
B) the importation of slaves.
C) the sale of slaves across state lines.
D) slavery in the Louisiana Purchase territory.

Question 55

The slave population in North America was unique in which of the following respects?

A) It was the only slave population in the New World to experience physical cruelty.
B) It was the only slave population in the New World that naturally reproduced itself.
C) It was the only slave population in the New World to have legal recourse against abusive masters.
D) It was the only slave population in the New World to have an excess of men over women.

Question 56

Which of the following is true of slave culture in the antebellum South?

A) Slave culture emerged and thrived in southern cities.
B) Slave culture was centered around religion; therefore, it did not affect the work and leisure of slaves.
C) Slave culture, especially in appearance and in forms of expression, retained many influences from the African past.
D) Slave "culture" was practically nonexistent because of the tyrannical power of slave masters.