Deck 11: Cotton,Slavery,and the Old South Key

Question 1

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

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

Answer 1

Wealthy southern whites prided themselves on their egalitarianism.

Question 2

Prior to 1860,affluent southern white women

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

Answer 2

centered their lives in the home.

Question 3

By 1860,the textile manufacturing sector of the American South

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

Answer 3

had increased threefold in value over the previous twenty years.

Question 4

During the first half of the nineteenth century,the "cotton kingdom"

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

Question 5

Most "plain folk" of the Old South

A) were subsistence farmers who owned at least one slave.
B) were subsistence farmers who were passionately antislavery.
C) were never able to move into the planter class.
D) owned at least one slave.
E) were passionately antislavery.

Question 6

Tobacco cultivation in the antebellum South

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

Question 7

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) were more likely to take a role in public activities.
E) generally were less engaged with the economic life of the family.

Question 8

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

A) None of these answers is correct.
B) should be the manager of home affairs, while men managed business affairs.
C) had an obligation to speak their minds.
D) possessed as many rights as men.
E) were like children.

Question 9

By the time of the Civil War,cotton constituted nearly ________ of the total export trade of the United States.

A) two-thirds
B) half
C) one-fourth
D) one-tenth
E) one-third

Question 10

Most white southerners owned

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

Question 11

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

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

Question 12

Between 1840 and 1860,the American South's slave population

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

Question 13

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

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

Question 14

Rice and sugar production in the antebellum South

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

Question 15

Short-staple cotton

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

Question 16

Prior to 1860,southern white women

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

Question 17

The South may have failed to develop a large industrial economy due to all the following factors EXCEPT

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

Question 18

Sexual relationships between white southern men and female slaves was

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

Question 19

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

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

Question 20

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

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

Question 21

Within the American South,the institution of slavery

A) created a unique bond between masters and slaves.
B) encouraged blacks to develop a society and culture of their own.
C) created a unique bond between masters and slaves, while isolating blacks and whites from each other and encouraging blacks to develop a society and culture of their own.
D) None of these answers is correct.
E) isolated blacks and whites from each other.

Question 22

Prior to 1860,free blacks in the South

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

Question 23

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

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

Question 24

When emancipation came after the Civil War,it was often the ________ who were the first to leave the plantation of their former owners.

A) head drivers
B) field hands
C) subdrivers
D) house servants
E) craftsmen

Question 25

Though the trade and sale of slaves continued to be legal inside the U.S.until the Civil War,the "slave trade"-that is,the importation of slaves from Africa or any other foreign locale-was made illegal in

A) 1812.
B) 1808.
C) 1809.
D) 1815.
E) None of these answers is correct.

Question 26

To "manumit" means to

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

Question 27

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

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

Question 28

Of the following,the most common form of resistance to slavery was

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

Question 29

Which of the following statements regarding slave life is true?

A) It was uncommon to divide slave families for long periods of time.
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) After 1808, the proportion of blacks to whites in the nation steadily declined.
E) Slaves had to grow all of their own food.

Question 30

The "peculiar institution" was a southern reference to

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

Question 31

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

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

Question 32

Most enslaved blacks lived

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

Question 33

One actual slave revolt that resulted in numerous white deaths in the nineteenth-century South was led by

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

Question 34

Southern whites who did not own slaves

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

Question 35

Which of the following statements regarding urban slavery is FALSE?

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

Question 36

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

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

Question 37

Regarding religion,American slaves

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

Question 38

The slave codes of the American South

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

Question 39

A runaway slave making a successful escape from the American South was

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

Question 40

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

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

Question 41

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

Question 42

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

Question 43

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

Question 44

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

Question 45

Religious services for American slaves

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

Question 46

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

Question 47

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

Question 48

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

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

Question 49

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

Question 50

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

Question 51

In the American slave family,

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

Question 52

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

Question 53

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

Question 54

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

Question 55

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 56

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

Question 57

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

Question 58

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

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

Question 59

Approximately one-third of southern whites owned slaves.

Question 60

Ways in which slaves expressed elements of their African heritage included

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

Question 61

For the most part,slaves rejected Christianity.

Question 62

What were the differences between being a slave in the city and a slave in the country?

Question 63

Compare and contrast the nature of the black slave family and culture with the free white family and culture during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Question 64

Describe the lives of most free blacks in the South and how they changed over the half-century leading up to the Civil War.

Question 65

What obstacles to industrialization existed in the South during the nineteenth century?

Question 66

Most enslaved black couples married with formal wedding vows.

Question 67

Slaves were expected by their owners to attend church.

Question 68

Prior to 1860,how did the role and status of southern women compare to that of northern women?

Question 69

The banjo was an important instrument in slave music.

Question 70

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

Question 71

In the first half of the nineteenth century,why did cotton become the major economic crop of the American South?

Question 72

Explain why the southern economy remained largely agricultural during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Question 73

What is the difference between slave resistance and slave rebellion? Why was one more prevalent than the other?

Question 74

Describe the distinguishing class features of the people who were known as "planters," "plain folk," "hill people," or "crackers."

Question 75

Between 1800 and 1860,was slavery in the American South becoming stronger or weaker? Explain.

Question 76

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

Question 77

Describe the nature of slave codes and the legal justifications that southern states and owners used for the institution of slavery.