Deck 11: Cotton, Slavery, and the Old South

Question 1

Most "plain folk" of the Old South

A)owned at least one slave.
B)were subsistence farmers.
C)were passionately anti-slavery.
D)were subsistence farmers who owned at least one slave.
E)were subsistence farmers who were passionately anti-slavery.

Answer 1

were subsistence farmers.

Question 2

Between 1840 and 1860, the American Southern slave population

A)could not meet the labor needs.
B)changed little.
C)dramatically shifted into the Southwest.
D)declined in overall numbers.
E)became concentrated in the upper South.

Answer 2

dramatically shifted into the Southwest.

Question 3

The historian who wrote "The South grew, but did not develop" prior to the Civil War meant

A)the Southern population increased but new technology had bypassed the region.
B)agriculture remained the leading industry of the south but the plantation system was declining.
C)the South had failed to move from an agrarian to an industrial economy.
D)the South had expanded as a geographic region but had developed little prosperity.
E)the South had created a prosperous plantation system but had not expanded its borders.

Answer 3

the South had failed to move from an agrarian to an industrial economy.

Question 4

In the late 1850s, many of the great landholders of the lower South were

A)still first-generation settlers.
B)part of a wealthy leisure class.
C)from longstanding aristocratic families.
D)rooted to one plantation for many generations.
E)former Old World aristocrats emigrated from Europe.

Question 5

Most white Southerners owned

A)no slaves.
B)one slave.
C)two slaves.
D)three to five slaves.
E)six to ten slaves.

Question 6

Sexual relationships between white Southern men and female slaves was

A)virtually unheard of.
B)against the law in all slave states.
C)encouraged by proponents of slavery such as George Fitzhugh.
D)an accepted cause for divorce in the Southern court system.
E)a common practice.

Question 7

Prior to 1860, Southern white women

A)had about the same access to education as Northern white women.
B)were not expected to engage in manual labor whatever their social standing.
C)generally lived lives that were isolated from the wider world.
D)had a birth rate that was lower than the national average.
E)were more likely to see their children grow to adulthood than Northern white women.

Question 8

Tobacco cultivation in the antebellum South

A)was easy on the soil.
B)was gradually moving westward.
C)enjoyed a stable market.
D)was centered in the lower South.
E)never made a profit.

Question 9

In the 1850s, the Southern social theorist George Fitzhugh wrote that women

A)had an obligation to obey.
B)were like children.
C)had the single right to be protected.
D)All the answers are correct.
E)None of the answers are correct.

Question 10

By 1860, the textile manufacturing sector of the American South

A)was nonexistent.
B)had increased threefold in value over the previous twenty years.
C)had declined in value throughout the 1840s and 1850s.
D)was equal to one-third of the value of cotton exported that year.
E)had come to dominate the Southern economy.

Question 11

Short-staple cotton

A)helped to keep the South a predominantly agricultural region.
B)was less coarse than long-staple cotton.
C)was easier to process than long-staple cotton.
D)was more susceptible to disease than long-grain cotton.
E)was only grown in the coastal regions of the upper South.

Question 12

The massive and traumatic relocation of African Americans in the antebellum period has been called

A)the Great Migration.
B)the Second Great Awakening.
C)the Trail of Tears.
D)the Road to Canaan.
E)the Second Middle Passage.

Question 13

Prior to 1860, affluent Southern white women

A)had created the most significant challenge to slavery in the South.
B)occupied a significantly different role from their Northern counterparts.
C)commonly held income-producing jobs.
D)typically played an important role in public activities.
E)centered their lives in the home.

Question 14

Prior to 1860, Southern women differed from Northern women in that they

A)tended to have more formal education.
B)were expected to be more subordinate to men.
C)had fewer children.
D)generally had a lesser engagement in the economic life of the family.
E)were more likely to take a role in public activities.

Question 15

Which of the following statements about the Southern aristocratic ideal is FALSE?

A)wealthy Southern whites adopted an elaborate code of "chivalry."
B)dueling became a prominent facet of southern planter life.
C)wealthy Southern whites prided themselves on their egalitarianism.
D)wealthy Southern whites pretended to avoid such "coarse" occupations as trade and commerce.
E)wealthy Southern whites often gravitated toward the military.

Question 16

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the "Cotton Kingdom"

A)was already losing ground to other staples, such as rice and tobacco.
B)saw wealthy planters outnumber small planters.
C)did not rely on large numbers of slaves imported directly from Africa.
D)was the dominant source of income of the lower South.
E)still had not adopted the cotton gin, despite the time and resources it saved.

Question 17

The South failed to develop a large industrial economy for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

A)the humid climate.
B)little access to liquid capital.
C)the profitability of cotton.
D)the cultural values.
E)a shortage of labor.

Question 18

The New Orleans magazine publisher, James B.D.De Bow, championed

A)Southern economic independence from the North.
B)Southern commercial and agricultural growth.
C)closer economic ties with the North.
D)Southern economic independence from the North and Southern commercial and agricultural growth.
E)closer economic ties with the North and Southern commercial and agricultural growth.

Question 19

Rice and sugar production in the antebellum South

A)had short growing seasons.
B)were concentrated in a relatively small geographic area.
C)had difficulty sustaining profits for growers.
D)was in considerable decline by the 1850s.
E)threatened to overwhelm cotton production in the lower South.

Question 20

Prior to 1860, the center of economic power in the South

A)was in Charleston, S.C.
B)remained as it had been primarily within the upper South.
C)remained as it had been primarily within the lower South.
D)shifted from the lower South to the upper South.
E)shifted from the upper South to the lower South.

Question 21

Which of the following statements regarding urban slavery is FALSE?

A)Some urban slaves were skilled trade workers.
B)Urban slaves were prohibited from having contact with free blacks.
C)Urban slaves were less supervised than rural slaves.
D)Urban slaves had little working competition from European immigrants.
E)The line between slavery and freedom in cities was less distinct.

Question 22

To "manumit" means to

A)purchase.
B)punish.
C)work by hand.
D)deny.
E)free.

Question 23

The chance of a runaway slave making a successful escape from the American South was

A)highly likely.
B)likely.
C)unlikely.
D)highly unlikely.
E)impossible.

Question 24

Which of the following statements regarding slave life is TRUE?

A)Slaves had to grow all of their own food.
B)Slaves were not given medical care except by their own efforts.
C)Slave children did no work until they turned twelve years old.
D)It was uncommon to divide slave families for long periods of time.
E)After 1808, the proportion of blacks to whites in the nation steadily declined.

Question 25

Perhaps the single strongest unifying factor of pre-Civil War Southern whites was their

A)kinship relationships.
B)contempt of Northern capitalism.
C)perception of white racial superiority.
D)fear of federal authority.
E)intense national pride.

Question 26

Southern white lower-class resentment of the aristocratic system was most likely to be found in

A)the cities.
B)river and ocean port towns.
C)the upper South.
D)the mountain regions.
E)the Deep South.

Question 27

Most enslaved blacks lived

A)on small farms.
B)on medium- to large-size plantations.
C)in urban areas.
D)in rigidly controlled circumstances.
E)in Virginia and the Carolinas.

Question 28

The "peculiar institution" was a Southern reference to

A)the plantation.
B)manufacturing.
C)capitalism.
D)slavery.
E)democracy.

Question 29

From the selections below, the most common form of resistance to slavery was

A)group rebellions.
B)arson.
C)running away.
D)subtle defiance.
E)poisoning.

Question 30

One actual slave revolt in the nineteenth-century South was led by

A)Nat Turner.
B)Denmark Vesey.
C)Gabriel Prosser.
D)Frederick Douglass.
E)Harriet Tubman.

Question 31

Which of the following statements about the poorest class of white Southerners is FALSE?

A)They often felt affinity with slaves as members of another oppressed class.
B)They were known variously as "crackers" or "sand hillers."
C)They supported themselves by foraging or hunting.
D)They suffered from pellagra, hookworm, and malaria.
E)They were forced to resort at times to eating clay.

Question 32

The name given to the effort by whites and blacks to help runaway slaves escape was the

A)Frederick Douglass road.
B)underground railroad.
C)Fugitive Slave Act.
D)Cumberland passage.
E)Second Middle Passage.

Question 33

In 1850, outside of the United States, slavery in the Western Hemisphere existed in

A)Colombia.
B)Brazil.
C)the Virgin Islands.
D)Haiti.
E)no other country.

Question 34

Within the American South, the institution of slavery

A)isolated blacks and whites from each other.
B)created a unique bond between masters and slaves.
C)encouraged blacks to develop a society and culture of their own.
D)All the answers are correct.
E)None of the answers are correct.

Question 35

In general, slaves had more privacy and a social realm of their own

A)on large plantations.
B)on small plantations.
C)as household workers as opposed to field workers.
D)in rural areas as opposed to urban areas.
E)in the western territories.

Question 36

Southern whites who did not own slaves

A)rarely married into the families living on large slave plantations.
B)openly opposed the planter elite.
C)were forced to move west to maintain a livelihood.
D)generally opposed the institution of slavery.
E)were largely dependent on the plantation economy.

Question 37

The slave codes of the American South

A)defined anyone with a trace of African ancestry as black.
B)legalized slave marriages.
C)were rigidly enforced.
D)considered it a crime for an owner to kill a slave.
E)banned blacks from attending church.

Question 38

Among the features of their religion, American slaves

A)were expected to worship in black churches separate from whites.
B)had mostly converted to Islam by the early nineteenth century.
C)were usually not allowed to attend a church at all.
D)shunned Christianity in favor of the polytheistic traditions of Africa.
E)often incorporated African features into their Christianity.

Question 39

The conditions of a slave's life

A)depended in part on the size of the plantation.
B)were generally the same throughout the slave states.
C)were explicitly determined by the slave codes.
D)were defined by the largest plantation owner within a region.
E)were generally more restricted in large cities.

Question 40

Prior to 1860, free blacks in the South

A)were concentrated in the Deep South.
B)were required by law to leave the South.
C)increased in number in the 1850s as laws encouraged owners to free "surplus" slaves.
D)occasionally attained wealth and prominence and owned slaves themselves.
E)avoided urban centers such as New Orleans or Natchez where they might attract attention.

Question 41

The Southern planter class exercised power far in excess of its numbers.

Question 42

In the American slave family

A)most couples did not formally marry.
B)black women typically began bearing children later than white women.
C)premarital pregnancy was uncommon.
D)extended kinship networks were strong and important.
E)premarital cohabitation was frowned upon.

Question 43

As compared to nineteenth-century white practices, religious services for American slaves

A)were not allowed by law to mention freedom.
B)were often more emotional.
C)were generally more despondent and melancholy than white services.
D)denied all references to their African heritage.
E)emphasized subservience and submission to God.

Question 44

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the center of economic power in the South shifted from the upper South to the lower South.

Question 45

In the South, the most significant opposition to the slave system came from the poorest of Southern whites.

Question 46

The North, unlike the South, experienced great economic growth in the mid-nineteenth century.

Question 47

Approximately, one-third of Southern whites owned slaves.

Question 48

Southern white women had less access to education than their Northern counterparts.

Question 49

Prior to 1860, the Southern aristocratic ideals were largely myths.

Question 50

Ways in which slaves expressed elements of their African heritage included

A)singing songs and playing musical instruments such as the banjo.
B)keeping family diaries and other written personal records.
C)wearing clothing which incorporated traditional African designs or colors.
D)speaking in their native African languages when out of the presence of whites.
E)celebrating traditional African feasts and rites of passage, in defiance of white law.

Question 51

James De Bow argued that the South should pursue agricultural development, while relying on the North for industrial goods and capital.

Question 52

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the South underwent a much less fundamental transformation than did the North.

Question 53

Southern women generally had final authority on issues related to the home and children.

Question 54

The Southern planter class was quite similar to the landed aristocracies of Europe.

Question 55

In the South, small farmers, often as much as great planters, were committed to the plantation system.

Question 56

The South had an inadequate transportation system and only a rudimentary financial system as late as the middle of the nineteenth century.

Question 57

Society in the antebellum South placed the plantation owner at the top of the social order.

Question 58

The central ideology of slavery, and the vital instrument of white control, was

A)fraternity.
B)maternalism.
C)paternalism.
D)sorority.
E)egalitarianism.

Question 59

Which of the following is TRUE of American slave families in the antebellum South?

A)a child of a slave could not be sold after he or she had reached three years of age.
B)blacks typically had weaker family ties than did whites, due to the uncertainties of their lives.
C)up to one-third of families were broken apart by the sale of family members.
D)most slaves who ran away did so to avoid punishment.
E)newly arrived slaves to a plantation were often shunned by the black community.

Question 60

The mountain regions were the only parts of the South to resist the movement toward secession when it finally developed.

Question 61

Most often, resistance to slavery took the form of open rebellion.

Question 62

From the 1830s on, state laws governing slavery became gradually less rigid.

Question 63

Slave codes prevented slaves from owning property, but they encouraged slaves to marry.

Question 64

Household servants were often the first to leave plantations of their former owners when emancipation came after the Civil War.

Question 65

Evidence suggests that slaves preferred to live on smaller, rather than larger, plantations.

Question 66

Slave spirituals were written down and passed on to generations of African Americans.

Question 67

By the mid-nineteenth century, slavery in the Western world existed only in the American South.

Question 68

The slave system may have created separate spheres for blacks and whites, but each race was nonetheless dependent on the other.

Question 69

Within the slave family, women had special burdens, but also a special authority.

Question 70

Slaves were expected by their owners to attend church.

Question 71

It was common for slaves to hold an entirely hostile attitude toward their owners.

Question 72

In Southern cities, slave tasks might include mining, lumbering, blacksmith, or carpentry.

Question 73

On the eve of the Civil War, ____________ was the major means of transportation in the South.

Question 74

For the most part, slaves rejected Christianity.

Question 75

The nuclear family was the dominant kinship model among the slaves of the South.

Question 76

To the degree that the South developed a nonfarm commercial sector, it was largely to serve the needs of the _______________________.

Question 77

The most important new product in the South during the mid-nineteenth century was ___________.

Question 78

It is said that the South "grew, but it did not ____________."

Question 79

The banjo became an important instrument in slave music.

Question 80

Most enslaved black couples married with formal wedding vows.