Deck 6: Life in the Cotton Kingdom

Question 1

Which new states led the production of cotton, in what was called the "Black Belt"?

A) Virginia and North Carolina
B) Georgia and Tennessee
C) Tennessee and Kentucky
D) Alabama and Mississippi

Answer 1

Alabama and Mississippi

Question 2

Which slave-dependent crop was by far the most important to the country as a whole?

A) sugarcane
B) rice
C) cotton
D) tobacco

Answer 2

cotton

Question 3

Which slave group had the highest status on the plantation?

A) house servants
B) skilled slaves
C) the fastest worker in the field
D) the women, who bore children

Answer 3

skilled slaves

Question 4

Where was tobacco cultivation important?

A) Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina
B) Virginia and small areas of Pennsylvania
C) Kentucky and Alabama
D) New York and New Jersey.

Question 5

Which crop employed the largest number of slaves on a single plantation?

A) cotton
B) rice
C) indigo
D) silk

Question 6

What is true about women's labor in agricultural work in the South?

A) They were not allowed to work outside the house, although their labor was very difficult.
B) They often did the same, physically demanding, backbreaking work as the men.
C) Black women were actually valued far more than men for their work.
D) Black women were sometimes allowed to learn to read and write, so they could teach the white children.

Question 7

Why was it difficult to use advanced technology on cotton crops?

A) Masters in the south could not afford it.
B) Cotton ripened at different times, and machines couldn't tell if it was ready or not.
C) Masters wanted to keep their slaves busy, so they wouldn't rebel, so they deliberately avoided any time-saving equipment.
D) Only the North made technological advances, and since the North didn't raise cotton, they lacked an incentive to develop the technology.

Question 8

Which of the following is not true about African-American slave ownership?

A) It was always for the purpose of freeing the slaves they bought.
B) Some women owned slaves.
C) Blacks sometimes owned slaves for economic purposes, rather than purchasing the members of their family.
D) Blacks owned slaves sometimes as a way to keep families together.

Question 9

Why did cotton farmers use so many slaves?

A) Cotton farming involved very intensive, laborious care and cultivation over the entire season.
B) Cotton planting and culture was spread over a very extensive area.
C) Cotton farmers generally were in Alabama and Mississippi, where racism was strongest.
D) Cotton farmers tended to be the wealthiest, and generally hated to do manual labor themselves.

Question 10

What crop did most agricultural slaves tend?

A) cotton
B) potatoes
C) hemp
D) rice

Question 11

Which very profitable crop pushed owners to work their slaves very hard, under very difficult time and weather conditions?

A) sugarcane
B) cotton
C) rice
D) silk

Question 12

Which state had the largest slave population during the period 1820-1860?

A) Alabama
B) Mississippi
C) Louisiana
D) Virginia

Question 13

Kentucky raised a significant quantity of hemp, a plant related to marijuana. What was hemp used for?

A) medicine and painkillers
B) helping to start fires for iron production
C) feeding cows
D) rope and bagging for cotton bales

Question 14

Which of the following is true about slave ownership in the Old South?

A) About half of the white population in the South owned slaves.
B) Most slaveholders owned more than twenty slaves.
C) Slave holding was practiced by more people in 1860 than in 1830.
D) A small percentage of African Americans owned slaves.

Question 15

How was life different for slaves in the city than on the plantation?

A) Skilled urban slaves could purchase their freedom more easily.
B) There were generally very few slaves in the cities.
C) There was less opportunity for a city slave to make money, as they were more closely watched.
D) There were more freed blacks in rural areas near plantations.

Question 16

What was a primary advantage of being a skilled slave?

A) They had authority and power over the other slaves, and could limit punishment.
B) They were often looked at by other slaves as religious leaders.
C) It was possible for them to get a taste of freedom and independence through their skills.
D) It was quite easy for them to buy their own freedom with the wages they earned.

Question 17

Which crop replaced tobacco as the main cash crop of Virginia and Maryland?

A) cotton
B) sugarcane
C) potatoes
D) wheat

Question 18

Which state experienced the highest growth rate in slaves between 1820 and 1860?

A) Alabama
B) Mississippi
C) Louisiana
D) Virginia

Question 19

What percentage of slaves did not have to work primarily as field hands?

A) 5%
B) 25%
C) 80%
D) No statistics have been found regarding slaves' work.

Question 20

Where was rice cultivation important?

A) in the swampy regions of Georgia and Florida
B) along the banks of the Mississippi River
C) in certain areas of South Carolina and Georgia
D) in Virginia and Maryland

Question 21

What reason did white southerners not use to justify the sexual exploitation of black women?

A) It helped white women stay pure.
B) The black women were inherently promiscuous.
C) Black women were responsible, since they seduced the white men.
D) That black women were better at producing strong babies when mixed with white men.

Question 22

What was the importance of the animal trickster folktales?

A) They helped show slaves that sometimes the weaker, but cleverer, character wins.
B) They demonstrated that slaves were adopting white culture.
C) They helped children learn lessons of obedience and subservience.
D) They often made slaves some extra money on "festival days."

Question 23

Slave clothing was generally

A) Very beautiful, as the slave women wove their own cloth for their families and made all of their own clothes.
B) Plentiful, but often not very warm in colder regions of the South.
C) Pretty sparse, as they generally only got clothing from the master twice a year.
D) The same for all ages and genders of slaves.

Question 24

How did slaves' general health compare with the slave populations in the rest of the New World?

A) American slaves' health was much worse, since masters gave them inadequate diet, and medical knowledge was so poor.
B) American slaves' death rates were generally much worse than both white southerners' and other slaves' death rates.
C) American slaves' health was generally better - they were the only slave group to grow through natural reproduction.
D) Generally about the same as other slave groups, since they all practiced the same folk remedies for illness.

Question 25

What does the example of Celia and Robert Newsom in 1855 tell us about sexual exploitation of black women?

A) The court refused to accept that Celia had a right to defend herself from rape.
B) White men could be held accountable for the murder of their slaves, especially female slaves.
C) Sexual exploitation rarely happened, since generally the slave women instigated the matter.
D) Sometimes sexual relationships between white men and black women could be consensual.

Question 26

A slaves' diet in the period between 1820 and 1860

A) was equal to whites' diet, and not far from today's standards, since they got a lot of fresh vegetables.
B) was poor by today's standards, but not by the standards of the rest of the world at that time.
C) generally was very European in style, since the master refused to let them cook anything else.
D) Was close to today's standards in nutrition, but not in quantity of food.

Question 27

What percentage of slaves from the upper South moved into the Southwest as the cotton trade opened up?

A) Very few. Since slaves generally reproduced well in the Southwest, few imports were needed.
B) Almost all of them, as slavery began to die in the upper South.
C) People kept no statistics on the movements of slaves at this time.
D) Fifty percent between 1820 and 1860.

Question 28

Who was the most famous of the animal tricksters found in African-American folktales?

Question 29

"Jumping the broom" was

A) a European wedding custom, practiced by slaves at times.
B) an ancient African custom which informally joined a couple.
C) a method of punishing slaves.
D) a method of determining who one's mate would be.

Question 30

What elements of Christianity did white masters choose to present to their slaves?

A) Slaves must obey their masters, just like they were supposed to obey God.
B) White masters refused to allow their slaves any access to Christianity.
C) White masters emphasized Jesus' love for all mankind.
D) They generally allowed the slaves to practice Christianity in any way they pleased.

Question 31

What health problem did Europeans have to worry about, but African Americans were generally immune to?

A) food poisoning
B) lactose intolerance
C) dysentery
D) malaria

Question 32

Which of the following is not true about slave marriages?

A) Women and men were more equal as husband and wife than white couples.
B) Many masters allowed slaves to have legal, formal wedding ceremonies.
C) Couples sometimes did not live on the same plantation, and could only visit each other when the master allowed it.
D) Slaves tended not to take marriage very seriously, since they could be broken up at any time.

Question 33

Which of the following statements is true about punishment for slaves?

A) Punishment was really overstated - most slaves were never physically punished in any way.
B) Southern whites thought that blacks would not work unless they had the threat of physical punishment.
C) Generally, women and children were exempt from the more vicious forms of physical punishment.
D) All of these statements are true.

Question 34

What city served as a major slave market for slaves moving through the Southwest?

A) New York
B) St. Louis
C) New Orleans
D) Atlanta

Question 35

As cotton expanded as a cash crop, the slave trade

A) became more humane, as owners wanted to keep slaves alive for work.
B) brought in more slaves from Africa to help meet the increased demand.
C) grew tremendously within the United States, with owners selling slaves to the newly opened up cotton areas.
D) Slavery was reintroduced in the North to perform labor in the textile factories.

Question 36

Most victims of the slave trade moved by foot, usually chained or roped together, in groups called _______________.

Question 37

Which statement is true about slave childhood?

A) Slave children, since they were highly valued by the master, were well taken care of. Fewer slave children died than white children.
B) Slave children rarely played with white children, since the master would not allow it.
C) Slave childhood was short; slave children were usually doing adult work between the ages of 8 and 12.
D) Slave children generally could only rely on their own mother and father for help growing up.

Question 38

Why did slaves prefer even dirty, menial industrial labor to plantation work?

A) They were paid steady, high wages.
B) There was less freedom in industrial work, but they could socialize more with friends.
C) Generally, they had more autonomy on the job.
D) They could enjoy the repetition of the work, and not worry about advancement.

Question 39

What elements did slaves not incorporate into their Christian religious practices?

A) indigenous African traditions
B) self-called, often illiterate preachers
C) an emphasis on Moses and the lesson of deliverance from bondage
D) an emphasis on obedience

Question 40

Which of the following historians felt that slavery was a generally beneficial institution where slaveholders cared for happy slaves?

A) Kenneth Stampp
B) Stanley Elkins
C) Ulrich B. Phillips
D) Eugene Genovese