Teaching Hard History: American Slavery Student Quiz 2.0

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* 1. At one time or another prior to the Civil War, slavery was called all of the following by its defenders EXCEPT:

The “peculiar institution”

A “necessary evil”

The “Devil’s necessity”

A “positive good”

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* 2. Frederick Douglass, Henry “Box” Brown, and Harriet Jacobs were all

Defenders of slavery

Enslaved people who escaped captivity

Leaders of slave revolts

Conductors on the Underground Railroad

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* 3. Which was NOT a reason for the mass relocation of enslaved people from the upper to the lower South in the first half of the 19th century?

Decline of tobacco in Virginia

Invention of the cotton gin

Laws passed in Virginia and the Carolinas to gradually end slavery

Military defeats of Choctaw and Creek nations led them to cede fertile territory to the United States

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* 4. What is the Black Belt?

A southern extension of the Underground Railroad

A Deep South region known for its rich, dark fertile soil

Something every enslaved person had to wear to identify themselves

Site of a slave rebellion that sparked the Civil War

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* 5. What has been called the Second Middle Passage?

The domestic U.S. slave trade

The trip from the West Indies to the British North American colonies

The time it took for an enslaved African to adjust to plantation labor

The migration of black people out of the South in the 20th century

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* 6. Which colony became the first to legalize slavery, in 1641?

Massachusetts

New York

Virginia

North Carolina

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* 7. What was the impact of the Three-Fifths Compromise in the U.S. Constitution?

It meant that slave states had fewer seats in the House of Representatives.

It decreased the Electoral votes assigned to slave states.

It ensured that slave states had disproportionate influence on the presidency, the speakership of the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court.

It had no political effect on the nation.

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* 8. In what British colonial city did enslaved men revolt in 1712, setting a fire to signal others and starting a riot that killed nine people?

New York

Baltimore

Richmond

Charleston

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* 9. Enslaved people across the British colonies maintained aspects of their African culture in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

Maintaining burial traditions, such as including ritual objects in the grave.

Continuing to communicate with each other in their home language.

Crafting musical instruments using gourds, skins and other objects.

Cooking with rice, yams, okra and black-eyed peas.

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* 10. Approximately what percentage of southern households owned enslaved people in 1860?

10 percent

25 percent

33 percent

50 percent

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* 11. What grade are you in? (optional)

6th

7th

8th

9th

10th

11th

12th

Other (please specify)

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* 12. What state do you live in? (optional)

State