Deck 19: African Kingdoms, the Atlantic Slave Trade, and the Origins of Black America, 1450-1800

Question 1

The following order is correct:

A) Proprietors of Barbados establish Colony of Carolina; first African slaves in England's North American colonies; first African slaves land in Hispaniola; first African slaves land in Brazil.
B) First African slaves in England's North American colonies; proprietors of Barbados establish Colony of Carolina; first African slaves land in Hispaniola; first African slaves land in Brazil.
C) First African slaves land in Hispaniola; first African slaves land in Brazil; first African slaves in England's North American colonies; proprietors of Barbados establish Colony of Carolina.
D) First African slaves land in Brazil; first African slaves in England's North American colonies; proprietors of Barbados establish Colony of Carolina; first African slaves land in Hispaniola.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Some Catholic monks in the kingdom of Kongo denounced ngangas as:

A) Immoral women such as prostitutes.
B) Wives who refused to take care of their children.
C) Witches.
D) Men who left their families in order to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

One of the ports that benefitted most from the slave trade was:

A) Barbados, where slaves were exchanged for molasses
B) Williamsburg, where molasses was processed into rum.
C) Liverpool, where manufactured goods, such as guns, knives, textiles, and other wares would sail to Africa where the goods would be exchanged for slaves.
D) Capetown, from whence most slaves were exported.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

All of the following statements are true of the Portuguese interaction or contacts in West Africa EXCEPT:

A) African agriculturalists became much more productive after adopting Portuguese iron plow shears.
B) By the 1440s, Portuguese mariners raided the West African coast for slaves.
C) In early skirmishes with Africans, the precisely aimed poisoned arrows of the Africans were more effective than the Portuguese muskets.
D) The Portuguese gained rights to trade and build posts through treaties with local African leaders.

Question 5

All of the following are true of the Americas soon after the Spanish arrived EXCEPT:

A) The population of Taínos and Caribs all but disappeared.
B) As many Europeans died from American diseases as Americans from European diseases.
C) Smallpox epidemics ravaged the Native peoples.
D) African slaves were imported to supplement the labor force.

Question 6

"Presentism" is

A) The belief that we can judge the past through an analysis of the long-term impact of the decisions and actions of past societies.
B) A belief that modern humans can only learn from the past by looking at it through the lens of modern knowledge.
C) A bias toward present-day attitudes as we interpret history.
D) The belief that the events of the past inevitably led to today's reality.

Question 7

In South Central Africa (on the southern side of the rainforest, the eastern part of the southern savanna, and the Great Lakes area of Central Africa):

A) Muslim influence arrived early in the fifth century.
B) Protected by their remote location, societies tended to grow in population.
C) Increases in population led them to participate in the European slave trade by the sixteenth century.
D) Because of their remote location, there was never a need to develop political organization, such as chiefdoms.

Question 8

All of the following are true of the system of slavery in the Americas EXCEPT:

A) An estimated 12 percent died in transit.
B) There is no general agreement as to the exact number of Africans brought to the Americas as slaves, but it is estimated that around 12.5 million were shipped from Africa.
C) Half the slaves brought to the Americas were shipped to Brazil.
D) The greatest number of slaves was imported into the southern part of the United States.

Question 9

The United States Supreme Court "Dred Scott Decision" ruled:

A) That African slaves had human rights that must be respected, such as the right to adequate nutrition and a safe place to sleep.
B) That black African slaves "had no rights which a white man was bound to respect".
C) That children born to a slave and a free person took the same status as the higher status parent.
D) That enslavement could last only a maximum of three generations.

Question 10

The first slaves sold in the English colonies of North America were:

A) Captured as a part of the cargo of a Portuguese ship en route to Vera Cruz, Mexico.
B) Brought to New York as tobacco plantation workers.
C) Sold with the justification that their souls would be saved after their owners led them to Christianity.
D) Sold by a Spanish privateer as the spoils of war with the French.

Question 11

The long-range impact of a Muslim invasion of northern Sub-Saharan Africa in the sixteenth century:

A) Strengthened the drive toward centralization in the area as societies organized for war.
B) Brought empire-building in the northern Sub-Saharan African societies to a halt.
C) Caused the societies in the savanna region of Central Africa to scatter and decentralize.
D) Put most of Africa under Sharia law.

Question 12

Between the years 1492 and 1888:

A) More than 250 slave revolts took place in the Americas and Caribbean.
B) Fewer than 200 slave revolts took place in the Americas and Caribbean
C) More than 2000 slave revolts took place in the Americas and Caribbean.
D) There were about 26 slave revolts in the Americas and Caribbean.

Question 13

Trade between Europeans and Africans during the period 1500 to 1800:

A) Was largely motivated by food shortages during the cold period known as "the little ice age", and was generally comprised of wheat, rice, or other grains necessary to sustain life.
B) Was generally an exchange of luxury goods rather than basic necessities, geared toward enhancing elite power through a display of conspicuous consumption.
C) Almost always included quantities of alcoholic beverages to entice Africans to enter into trade with Europeans.
D) Primarily involved the exportation of slaves during the first two centuries.

Question 14

All of the following are true of Songhay EXCEPT:

A) It was initially a tributary state of Mali.
B) It was centered on the city of Gao, on the Niger River.
C) They amassed the wealth to embark on a drive of military conquest by raiding caravans and other trade missions.
D) In the time of Mali's greatest power, the Songhay were an ethnic group of herders, villagers, and fishermen.

Question 15

The only founder of an English colony in North America who lived to see it become part of the United States was:

A) James Oglethorpe
B) Martin Lewis
C) Thomas Jefferson
D) William Penn

Question 16

After 1434, the following discovery accelerated European contacts with the African west coast:

A) The adverse currents and prevailing winds along the west coast of Africa that impeded the return journey were overcome by sailing across the Atlantic to the Americas, thence to Europe in what is now known as the triangle trade.
B) The adverse currents and prevailing winds along the west coast of Africa that impeded the return journey were overcome by sailing toward the Atlantic islands such as the Canaries, Madeira, and Azores.
C) The new merchant ships were equipped for both rowing and sailing, using slaves being transported for sale as rowers, keeping them fit as well as expediting the journey.
D) The Portuguese learned new navigation techniques that allowed them to round the southern tip of Africa and sail across the Indian Ocean.

Question 17

All of the following is true of indentured laborers EXCEPT:

A) English planters in Barbados imported English and Irish indentured laborers for tobacco, cotton, indigo, and ginger production.
B) After English and Irish workers became unwilling to migrate as indentured laborers, law courts sentenced those accused of crimes to "transportation" to serve as indentured labor.
C) Many poor English and Irish people were tricked or kidnapped into being "transported" for that purpose.
D) Indenture was abandoned because African slaves quickly proved a better source of labor.

Question 18

In the opening vignette of the chapter, Dona Beatriz is portrayed as all of the following EXCEPT:

A) A deeply religious woman who believed that she was the reincarnation of St. Anthony of Padua.
B) A committed pacifist, determined to prevent violence at any cost.
C) God's providential agent sent to restore the Catholic faith.
D) A critic of the Catholic faith in the efficacy of the sacraments.

Question 19

All of the following were true of Ethiopia in the 15th and 16th centuries EXCEPT:

A) The Ethiopian economy was based on plow-based agriculture, with the king controlling a trade in gold, ivory, animal skins and slaves.
B) By the early 16th century, Ethiopians were contending for a port on the Red Sea with the Muslim sultanate of Adal.
C) The Portuguese aided Ethiopia in its war with Adal.
D) The Ottoman Empire at first aided Adal, but eventually retreated when faced by Ethiopian determination and Portuguese military might.

Question 20

"Creole" cultures emerge:

A) When two or more distinct cultures exist in proximity and absorb influences from each other.
B) Generally only when societies are militarily defeated by a stronger society and have the customs of the conqueror forced upon them.
C) When indigenous religions are eradicated.
D) Generally only when subordinate people imitate the manners and language of dominant societies.

Question 21

All of the following is true of the Carolina colony EXCEPT:

A) It began under the authority of the Lords Proprietors in Barbados.
B) It was intended as a place to transport religious dissenters as well as a bulwark against the Spanish in Florida.
C) The settlers there realized very quickly that Native Americans were not a viable source of slaves.
D) It was a source for vital supplies necessary for building ships.

Question 22

The Hausa kingdoms:

A) Were located in the far south, near the Horn of Africa.
B) "Hausa" were named for the three kingdoms that formed around 1500.
C) Formed at the height of the Mali-dominated trans-Saharan trade.
D) Successfully prevented the spread of Islamic religious beliefs into their territories.

Question 23

All of the following is true of the trade between Portuguese mariners and the kingdom of Benin EXCEPT:

A) The king of Benin allowed the Portuguese to build a fort on the coast in 1487.
B) At first the trade consisted of an exchange of palm oil, ivory, woolens, beads, pepper and slaves in exchange for European guns, powder, metalware, salt, and cottons.
C) When a later king ordered the halt of the slave trade, the Portuguese agreed, and turned to European sources of labor.
D) The admission of missionaries and Portuguese envoys allowed members of the royal court to learn about Portuguese culture.

Question 24

"Mercantilism" is a political/economic theory that holds that:

A) Merchants enrich their society, and should therefore occupy political leadership positions.
B) A thriving import business is vital to national interests.
C) Nations are weakened by excessive export.
D) The security of a nation depends on the supply of precious metals it controls.

Question 25

All of the following were important economically in the Carolinas EXCEPT:

A) Sugar cane and molasses
B) Rice
C) Indigo
D) Woven cotton cloth.

Question 26

All of the following are true of the Dutch in Africa EXCEPT:

A) A few wealthy landowners imported the first black slaves to the colony in 1658.
B) The built a fort on the South African coast in 1652.
C) The first settlers were craftsmen and traders, but by 1750 there were about 10,000 Dutch farmers in the Cape Colony.
D) A Dutch settler society gradually emerged, particularly when they offered a haven to English Catholics seeking refuge.

Question 27

___________ was an African empire during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries:

A) Benin
B) Ethiopia
C) Kanem-Bornu
D) Songhay

Question 28

The Moroccan sultans who invaded the Songhay Empire in 1591 had recently:

A) Declared a jihad on the non-Muslim leaders of Songhay.
B) Sent Ibn Battuta as a surveillance agent to report on their customs and defenses.
C) Dismissed this minor kingdom in Africa's interior as not worth conquering.
D) Driven the Portuguese from their Atlantic coast and worried about similar incursions elsewhere.

Question 29

In contrast to their counterparts in West Africa, the Fur and Funj federations between Lake Chad and the Nile ____________

A) Were only partially converted to Islam, particularly in their ruling and merchant classes.
B) Were fully converted to Islam, from the royal clans down to the commoners.
C) Smelted and forged metals like copper, iron, and steel.
D) Preferred the title "Christian emperor" to the title "sultan".

Question 30

Portuguese mariners initially sailed up the Congo River in the 1480s in hopes of:

A) Finding a passage to the Indies across Africa.
B) Conquering the land of Mozambique on the East African coast.
C) Linking up with Prester John, who could help with the conquest of Jerusalem.
D) Converting the powerful King of Kongo to Christianity.

Question 31

__________ would have been destroyed in a Muslim holy war had it not been for the timely arrival of a Portuguese fleet with artillery and musketeers in 1541.

A) Kongo
B) Yemen
C) Adal
D) Ethiopia

Question 32

African rulers sold slaves to the Europeans as:

A) A means of preventing their conversion to Islam.
B) A form of terrorizing their rivals in other African kingdoms.
C) Luxury items to be exchanged for other luxury items.
D) A competition with the Islamic slave traders on the East African coast.

Question 33

The rulers of Benin did all of the following except:

A) Actively resisted the encroachment of Portuguese cultural values.
B) Limited the traffic in slaves to about 30% of the total trade volume.
C) Permitted some Portuguese missionaries into their domains.
D) Sought to sell slaves to the Portuguese in exchange for firearms.

Question 34

The kings of Kongo demonstrated their absorption of Portuguese culture by:

A) Sending their own ships to the Indies.
B) Building a school for the study of navigation in M'banza.
C) Implementing a similarly decentralized pattern of monarchic control.
D) Sending members of the ruling family to Portugal for their education.

Question 35

In the Kongolese belief system, Portuguese Catholicism was:

A) Rejected as a foreign import and haram in the eyes of true Muslims.
B) Adapted to the indigenous African spiritual and cultural heritage.
C) Adopted by the lowest orders of society and had little impact on the elite.
D) Questioned for its apparent condoning of the slave trade.

Question 36

A culturally Dutch settler society emerged in the Cape Colony of South Africa, which included:

A) Escaped slaves from Dahomey, on the West African coast.
B) Catholics fleeing religious persecution in the Netherlands.
C) Royalist forces who had been defeated in England's Civil War.
D) Protestants fleeing religious persecution in France and Germany.

Question 37

Although the precise number of Africans transported to the Americas in the slave trade is difficult to determine, nearly half of the total were sent to ________.

A) Cuba
B) Mexico
C) Brazil
D) The North American colonies

Question 38

The popularity of rum promoted:

A) Calls for its prohibition, especially in the southern American colonies.
B) The manumission of slaves, as freedmen were considered better sources of labor.
C) The establishment of sugar cane plantations in Canada and New England.
D) The expansion of sugar planting and slavery, to their peak after 1750.

Question 39

The demand for slave labor reached new heights in Brazil when:

A) The church declared, in 1680, that Indians could be enslaved.
B) Gold was discovered in Minas Gerais in 1690.
C) Supplies of slaves dwindled as a result of the conversion of Benin to Christianity.
D) The Portuguese ceded control of the territory to the Spanish.

Question 40

The vast pine forest running from southern Virginia to northern Florida supplied material primarily for ____________.

A) The manufacture of molasses
B) Domestic furniture-making
C) The printing of books
D) Shipbuilding

Question 41

The indigo plant, which _____________, contributed to a booming economy in South Carolina starting in the 1740s.

A) Was processed into a dye
B) Became a food source comparable to rice
C) Could be dried and smoked as an alternative to tobacco
D) Was unknown until it was discovered in the Americas

Question 42

Ships leaving from their home ports in Bristol and _________ would exchange manufactured goods and household wares for slaves in West Africa.

A) Charleston
B) Calais
C) Liverpool
D) Glasgow

Question 43

Some slave-ship captains favored the "tight packing" method, deliberately overcrowding their human cargo on a Middle Passage voyage on the assumption that:

A) A higher number would survive if given marginally more room aboard.
B) A higher number would survive if the transatlantic voyage was sped up by one month.
C) A few more captives might survive than on a ship that was less crowded.
D) The crew was more likely to be overpowered by a larger number of captives and the effort aborted.

Question 44

Recent scholarship suggests that a key formative element in the development of culture and identity of Africans in the Americas lay in the influence of the:

A) West African variants of Islam
B) Central African Creoles from Kongo and Ndongo
C) Christians from Ethiopia who sent critical support to South Africans
D) The Dutch Boers who provided a haven for escaped slaves

Question 45

The slaveowners' greatest fear was:

A) The gathering influence of abolitionists in eighteenth-century society.
B) The opposition of the Catholic church to the institution.
C) That a reliance on slavery would preclude capital investment.
D) That a slave revolt would begin and spread.

Question 46

James Oglethorpe's vision for the colony of Georgia included all of the following except:

A) A ban on slavery and rum.
B) Close-knit neighborhoods built around common areas and public squares.
C) An adoption of native Creek patterns of interaction with the natural environment.
D) The welcoming of skilled craftsmen and laborers to the city of Savannnah.

Question 47

The average slave field hand on a sugar plantation was estimated to live:

A) Five or six years.
B) Until age 50 for males; slightly longer for females.
C) Until age 27 or so.
D) Twelve to fifteen years.

Question 48

After the defeat of the Songhay, much of the trans-Saharan gold trade was siphoned off by the Portuguese on what became known as the Gold Coast (modern ________).

A) Senegal
B) Gabon
C) Ghana
D) Morocco

Question 49

Although they were under frequent attack by Songhay and Kanem-Bornu during the period 1500-1800, the _________ kingdoms enjoyed periods of independence during which many of the ruling clans converted to Islam.

A) Loango
B) Hausa
C) Dahomey
D) São Tomé

Question 50

The unequal relations between Tutsi cattle breeders and ______ farmers froze into a caste system during the nineteenth-century colonial occupation.

A) Luo
B) Boer
C) Malian
D) Hutu

Question 51

Between 1434 and 1472, through a combination of private and public expeditions, _________ mariners explored the African coast as far east as the Bight of Benin.

A) British
B) Portuguese
C) Spanish
D) Dutch

Question 52

In the 1440s, Portuguese mariners raided the West African coast in the __________ region for slaves.

A) Senegambia
B) Congo
C) Angola
D) Mozambique

Question 53

The ruler Ewuare was the first to rise to dominance over chiefs (azuma) and assume the title of king (obo) over _________.

A) Kongo
B) Ethiopia
C) Benin
D) Chad

Question 54

With __________ inhabitants in the sixteenth century, the capital of Kongo, M'banza, was comparable in size to many European cities at the time.

A) 1,000,000
B) 100,000
C) 6000
D) 60,000

Question 55

The resourceful Queen ________ of Ndongo sometimes negotiated with the Portuguese and fought guerilla campaigns against them at others.

A) Beatriz Kimpa Vita
B) Nzinga
C) Askiya
D) Khoi

Question 56

Around 1750, there were about 10,000 Boers (Dutch for "_______") in the Cape Colony, easily outnumbered by slaves.

A) Whites
B) Foreigners
C) Farmers
D) Masters

Question 57

In "chattel" slavery, the slave is, in legal terms:

A) Communally owned by an enslaving state.
B) Temporarily contracted to work as a slave.
C) An item of moveable personal property.
D) Assigned only to agricultural labor.

Question 58

Mercantilist economic theory dictates that:

A) States should keep their economies blocked off from competitors and import as little and export as much as possible.
B) Free and open markets will result in the best result for the largest number.
C) Merchants should be in control of all political decisions in the home country.
D) People should not be bought and sold like property.

Question 59

Privateers were individual entrepreneurs who were virtually indistinguishable from:

A) Slave traders
B) Pirates
C) Communal farmers
D) Diggers

Question 60

Barbados was settled initially in 1627 by English planters, who grew tobacco, cotton, indigo, and ginger, employing English and Irish ____________.

A) Peasants
B) Sailors
C) Enslaved people
D) Indentured laborers

Question 61

In the seventeenth century, the process of manumission was:

A) A rarity that elicited much favorable response.
B) Gradually expanded, in order to facilitate social mobility across the "color line".
C) Sometimes followed by the freedman's acquisition of his own slaves.
D) Rendered impossible by prohibitive taxation.

Question 62

_______ was the only North American colony, and later state, in which African Americans outnumbered those of European descent.

A) South Carolina
B) Georgia
C) Florida
D) Rhode Island

Question 63

The Atlantic system or the "_________" trade connected the American colonies with Africa and Europe.

A) Hateful
B) Circular
C) Triangular
D) Devil's

Question 64

As part of the African ________, Africans moved to nearly all parts of the Americas primarily as a result of the transatlantic slave trade.

A) Migration
B) Resurgence
C) Passage
D) Diaspora

Question 65

An example of a Creole language that has survived for centuries is Gullah, used by the isolated communities along the coastal islands of Georgia and _______.

A) Haiti
B) The Bahamas
C) South Carolina
D) Florida

Question 66

By some estimates, there were more ________ slave uprisings involving 10 or more slaves during the four centuries of Atlantic slavery.

A) 25
B) 250
C) 55
D) 150

Question 67

The memoir of the former slave and abolitionist __________ would help push the movement of liberating slaves forward in the nineteenth century.

A) Bartolomé de las Casas
B) William Wilberforce
C) Olaudah Equiano
D) Harriet Martineau