Deck 11: Slaves and Masters

Question 1

What was the primary source of income for most yeoman farmers?

A) sugar
B) rice
C) whiskey
D) livestock
E) lumber

Answer 1

livestock

Question 2

What was one goal of the American Colonization Society?

A) to enact gradual voluntary emancipation for slaves
B) to force an immediate end to slavery
C) to settle the West with freed slaves
D) to reunite former slaves with their families
E) to bring slavery to every state in the union

Answer 2

to enact gradual voluntary emancipation for slaves

Question 3

Slave marriages tended to last longer on ________.

A) plantations in the upper South
B) small farms
C) smaller plantations
D) large plantations
E) urban estates

Answer 3

large plantations

Question 4

What was the Underground Railroad?

A) a train line that many white Southerners used when hunting for escaped slaves
B) a formal network that helped return fugitive slaves to their masters
C) an organization that helped fugitive slaves escape to Mexico
D) an informal network of people that helped return fugitive slaves to their masters
E) an informal network that helped fugitive slaves make their way to the North

Question 5

Slave religion was typically ________.

A) the same as indigenous African religion
B) a version of Christianity shaped by African traditions
C) overseen by the established white churches
D) shaped by white evangelization
E) underdeveloped because of slaves' work schedule

Question 6

The most profitable commodity bought and sold in the upper tier of the southern states was ________.

A) tobacco
B) cotton
C) slaves
D) wheat
E) corn

Question 7

The majority of slaves worked ________.

A) in industry
B) as skilled tradesmen
C) as house servants
D) as field workers
E) in restaurants, hotels, and saloons

Question 8

Planters who owned large plantation houses with at least fifty slaves made up about ______ percent of the white population in the South in 1860.

A) 1
B) 75
C) 25
D) 40
E) 90

Question 9

What did the young children of plantation slaves do while their parents worked?

A) They often accompanied their parents and were cared for by older children.
B) They often went to segregated schools before they were old enough to work.
C) They were often cared for at home by their mothers.
D) They were often sent to nurseries where other slaves cared for them.
E) They often played with the young children of the plantation owners.

Question 10

How did southern opinion about the morality of slavery change during the 1830s?

A) People began to describe slavery as a positive good.
B) People began to describe slavery as a necessary evil.
C) People began to describe slavery as a doomed institution.
D) People began to describe slavery as a simple business arrangement.
E) People began to describe slavery as a sinful enterprise.

Question 11

At the time of the Civil War,there were approximately ________ slaves in the South.

A) 200,000
B) 400,000
C) 1,000,000
D) 2,000,000
E) 4,000,000

Question 12

Most southern whites ________.

A) owned at least one slave
B) were nonslaveholding yeoman farmers
C) were poor people who sympathized with the slaves
D) owned at least five slaves
E) favored abolishing slavery

Question 13

How did apologists describe the institution of slavery before the 1830s?

A) as a benefit to the slaves themselves
B) as a necessary evil
C) as an inevitable institution
D) as a neutral business arrangement
E) as a sinful enterprise

Question 14

Who was the typical small slaveholder?

A) an urban merchant
B) a wealthy land owner
C) a small business owner
D) a shopkeeper
E) a farmer

Question 15

If a former slave could not prove he or she had been legally freed,then he or she was likely to be ________.

A) reenslaved
B) deported
C) arrested
D) fined
E) executed

Question 16

The leader of the 1831 slave uprising in Southampton County,Virginia,was ________.

A) Denmark Vesey
B) Hinton R. Helper
C) George Fitzhugh
D) Daniel Webster
E) Nat Turner

Question 17

At the time of the Civil War,________.

A) almost all Southerners owned at least one slave
B) most white Southerners owned three or more slaves
C) most white households had a house slave
D) one-quarter of white Southerners owned slaves
E) one-half of white Southerners owned slaves

Question 18

The typical way for most slaves to express discontent was ________.

A) political protest
B) open, armed rebellion
C) passive resistance
D) participation in conspiracies
E) organizing boycotts

Question 19

The yeoman farmers of the South ________.

A) were typically slave owners
B) did not own the land they worked
C) were located primarily in the backcountry
D) were clustered around the large plantations
E) were quite different from their northern counterparts

Question 20

Why were slave families in the upper South so often headed by women?

A) They were following African traditions.
B) Husbands often worked elsewhere.
C) Mortality rates were unusually high there.
D) Women tended to work inside the house.
E) Industry was more common in that region.

Question 21

The prosperity of the southern yeoman was limited by the lack of ________.

A) cash crops
B) land
C) transportation facilities
D) educational facilities
E) entrepreneurial spirit

Question 22

The institution of slavery became even more entrenched in the South because of the increasing importance of ________.

A) rice
B) indigo
C) long-staple cotton
D) short-staple cotton
E) sugar cane

Question 23

The invention that permitted the great expansion of cotton cultivation was the ________.

A) railroad
B) cotton gin
C) cotton reaper
D) steel plow
E) mechanical seed planter

Question 24

The typical great planter of the pre-Civil War South was ________.

A) most likely a self-made man
B) looked down on by most southern whites
C) well-educated
D) born to wealth and position
E) descended from the colonial elite

Question 25

Which description best identifies how Christian slaveholders justified the enslavement of other human beings?

A) The prosperity of many was necessitated by the suffering of a few.
B) Suffering in slavery helped African Americans earn a place in Heaven.
C) People of African descent were demons and therefore should be enslaved.
D) People of African descent needed to be taken care of.
E) Being enslaved would help convert African Americans to Christianity.

Question 26

Which identifies an advantage to slaves living on large plantations with stable slave populations?

A) Families stayed intact and the mother typically raised the children alone.
B) Families stayed intact and the father typically raised the children alone.
C) Families stayed intact and both parents typically shared in the child-rearing duties.
D) Children were usually raised by distant family members, allowing a large social network to develop.
E) Children usually began working as soon as they could walk, cutting down on behavioral problems.

Question 27

Which practice provides some support for the idea that planters were benevolent parents to their slaves?

A) The masters of large plantations had close relationships with most of their slaves.
B) Planters generally treated their slaves like their own children.
C) Slaves in the American South were treated better relative to slaves in Brazil and the West Indies.
D) Planters, as Christians, acknowledged the validity of slave marriages.
E) Planters made sure that slaves were given a rudimentary education.

Question 28

Why would most slaves typically prefer living and working on a plantation rather than a small farm?

A) Plantation owners often worked alongside their slaves.
B) There were often better living conditions on plantations, and more possibilities for social interaction.
C) Slaves often enjoyed a sense of camaraderie with plantation owners.
D) Rich planters usually avoided breaking up families on their plantations.
E) Working hours were always shorter on plantations than on small farms.

Question 29

In which way did the richest plantation families resemble a traditional landed aristocracy?

A) Planters were poor businessmen.
B) Planters collected taxes from the peasants who worked their land.
C) Planters' sons chose military or law careers rather than going into trade.
D) Planters lived lives of leisure.
E) Most planters were descended from titled families.

Question 30

Which best describes the "gang" labor performed by many slaves on large plantations?

A) A group of white overseers pushed a small group of slaves to work around the clock.
B) Large groups of slaves worked side by side with their masters.
C) Groups of slaves worked from sunrise to sunset under a white overseer.
D) Slaves worked at their own pace with little supervision during an eight-hour day.
E) Large groups of slaves worked together to accomplish major projects.

Question 31

Which identifies an important effect of the violent slave rebellion of 1831?

A) White Southerners became more committed to quashing antislavery ideas.
B) Many slaves were freed because their masters were afraid to remain part of the system.
C) Organized, violent rebellions began happening with more frequency.
D) White Southerners began to question the legitimacy of slavery.
E) Many slaves were sold to the West Indies to decrease the population in the South.

Question 32

Who profited most from the union of slavery and cotton production?

A) inventors and entrepreneurs
B) small business owners
C) non-slaveholders
D) small slaveholders
E) large plantation owners

Question 33

During the Second Seminole War of 1835-1842,________.

A) most slaves rebelled against their masters
B) many escaped slaves fought with the Native Americans against the U.S. soldiers
C) slaves slaughtered Seminole Indians in large numbers
D) many whites killed their slaves in fear of an alliance between slaves and Native Americans
E) many escaped slaves hiding in Florida were found and returned to their owners

Question 34

The internal slave trade in the United States ran from ________.

A) the West to the upper South
B) the upper South to the West
C) the upper South to the lower South
D) the lower South to the upper South
E) the lower South to the West

Question 35

Which correctly describes the attitudes of southern yeoman farmers?

A) They were staunch supporters of abolitionism even though they owned slaves.
B) They listened sympathetically to abolitionist ideas but remained neutral.
C) They paid little attention to the slave system even though it supported them.
D) They were staunch supporters of slavery even though they rarely owned slaves.
E) They were staunch supporters of slavery even though they were Christians.

Question 36

During the nineteenth century,the center of cotton production ________.

A) moved westward
B) moved eastward
C) moved northward
D) remained in the Southeast
E) remained in the upper South

Question 37

Which description best describes the "task" labor that many slaves performed on large plantations?

A) A group of white overseers pushed a small group of slaves to work around the clock.
B) Large groups of slaves worked side by side with their masters.
C) Large groups of slaves worked from sunrise to sunset under a white overseer.
D) Slaves worked at their own pace with little supervision during an eight-hour day.
E) Large groups of slaves worked together to accomplish major projects.

Question 38

Most southern planters considered their slaves to be ________.

A) hard working and industrious
B) children who required constant supervision
C) skilled and motivated
D) dangerous malcontents
E) mere property

Question 39

Free blacks in the South faced each of the following limitations EXCEPT ________.

A) being prohibited from transacting business
B) being required to carry documentation of their free status at all times
C) being forced to register or have a white guardian who was responsible for their actions
D) having their meetings or organizations blocked by the authorities
E) having to get official permission to move from one county to another

Question 40

The Brer Rabbit stories ________.

A) showed how a fugitive slave could find safe haven in the underbrush
B) were fantasies which enabled slaves to forget their harsh lot for a while
C) were used to indoctrinate white children with the belief that slaves were no smarter than animals
D) showed how a defenseless animal could overcome a stronger one through cunning and deceit, a metaphor for survival as a slave
E) portrayed slaves as being happy and well-adjusted

Question 41

How did slavery define the structure of white southern society? How did it both divide and unite southerners?

Question 42

In terms of the southern economy as a whole,analyze both the advantages and the drawbacks of cotton production and slave labor.

Question 43

When tobacco prices sagged after 1820,________.

A) farmers in the upper South switched over to cotton and rice production
B) farmers in the upper South found effective ways to reverse soil depletion
C) an internal slave trade emerged from the upper to the lower South
D) planters in Virginia and Maryland turned openly to slave breeding as a business
E) Virginia and Maryland began exporting slaves to the Caribbean Islands

Question 44

White southerners in the 1830s began portraying free blacks as savages because they were trying to ________.

A) justify harsher treatment of free blacks
B) drum up support for a race war
C) raise funds for militias to defend against slave uprisings
D) put social pressure on free blacks to leave the South
E) put social pressure on all blacks, both slave and free, to leave the South

Question 45

Which statement is true of cotton agriculture in the pre-Civil War era?

A) Many planters sought to cultivate an alternative to cotton.
B) Cotton was the most famous crop in the South, but it was not the most profitable.
C) Cotton was a sure investment because cotton prices rarely fluctuated.
D) Many planters worked their land until it was exhausted.
E) Large plantation owners stopped growing cotton and turned to tobacco.

Question 46

According to the authors,inequalities based on race were exacerbated by inequalities based on ________.

A) gender
B) religion
C) country of origin
D) distribution of resources
E) education

Question 47

Southern proslavery arguments did NOT include the belief that slavery was ________.

A) the natural status for blacks
B) sanctioned by the Bible
C) supported by the United States Constitution
D) consistent with the humanitarian spirit
E) more humane than the employer-employee relationship

Question 48

Nonslaveholders in the South followed the leadership of slave owners because they ________.

A) were dependent on the institution of slavery for their livelihoods
B) thought slavery was best for the slaves themselves
C) wanted to become slave owners themselves
D) were not eligible to participate in the political process
E) feared slave owners would requisition their land

Question 49

Which statement best describes a major disadvantage of the southern economy?

A) The South lacked the infrastructure to transport all the cotton it produced, so planters were frequently forced to burn their crops.
B) Such a large percentage of arable land was devoted to cotton that there were frequent food shortages in the South.
C) The focus on a single industry that was profitable only to a small minority prevented industrial and commercial growth.
D) The excessive profits of the industry led to unchecked price inflation in southern urban centers.
E) The profits of the industry were available to everyone, so the South underwent social upheaval and class conflict.

Question 50

Southern apologists claimed the master-slave relationship was more humane than the employer-worker relationship because it offered ________.

A) job training
B) a more egalitarian relationship
C) better working conditions
D) greater long-term security
E) gender equality

Question 51

The cotton economy of the lower South ________.

A) benefited the lower classes and the upper classes equally
B) did not create uniform prosperity throughout the region
C) was free from general market fluctuations
D) led to greater southern self-sufficiency
E) encouraged industry and innovation

Question 52

What factors account for the development of community among slaves? What factors could make the development of community more difficult?

Question 53

Hinton R.Helper tried to convince southern yeoman farmers that ________.

A) they should end planter dominance and slavery with it
B) slavery increased their standard of living
C) they could someday be slave owners themselves
D) they should fight to maintain the institution of slavery
E) they should free their slaves