American History: A Survey (Brinkley), 13th Edition

Chapter 11: COTTON, SLAVERY, AND THE OLD SOUTH

Multiple Choice Quiz

1
The Southern failure to create a flourishing commercial or industrial economy was in part the result of
A)a lack of business talent in the South.
B)an unwillingness on the part of the Southerners to take risks.
C)a set of values distinctive to the South that discouraged the growth of cities and industry.
D)a slave labor force that could not work successfully in industry.
E)All these answers are correct.
2
The most important economic development in the mid-nineteenth-century South was the
A)invention of the cotton gin.
B)shift of economic power from the "upper South" to the "lower South."
C)increased agricultural diversity of the region.
D)decline in the price of slaves.
E)spread of railroads.
3
The expansion of Southern agriculture from 1820 to 1860 was due to the expanded cultivation of
A)western rice.
B)tobacco in Kentucky.
C)Louisiana sugar.
D)short-staple cotton in the Black Belt.
E)long-staple cotton on the Carolina-Georgia coast.
4
The South in 1860, in contrast to 1800, had become
A)a primarily rural and agricultural region.
B)increasingly unlike the North and increasingly sensitive to criticism.
C)a region where political power rested in the hands of small farmers.
D)more urban and more industrialized.
E)densely populated.
5
A minority of Southern whites owned slaves,
A)and nonslaveholders dominated the political system in the region.
B)but the slaveholding planters exercised power and influence far in excess of their numbers.
C)so slavery was not very important in the lives of most whites.
D)and most whites were happy with it that way.
E)and they treated the slaves as equals.
6
The South had a "colonial" economy in that
A)most of its land was owned by outside interests.
B)it employed slave labor.
C)it produced raw materials and purchased finished products.
D)it had little political power.
E)it was taxed without representation.
7
According to the "cavalier" image, Southern planters were
A)mostly horse breeders.
B)really a rough-and-tumble group of people.
C)genteel aristocrats.
D)successful agricultural businessmen.
E)womanizers.
8
The Southern concept of honor
A)mirrored that of the North.
B)resulted in the adoption of an elaborate code of chivalry.
C)had little to do with slavery.
D)did not extend to the practice of dueling.
E)encouraged widespread cohabitation between planters and their female slaves.
9
Most Southern white "ladies" were
A)less subordinate to men than in the North.
B)relatively isolated from people outside their own families.
C)better educated than their Northern counterparts.
D)more likely to engage in public activities or income-producing employment than their Northern counterparts.
E)None of these answers is correct.
10
The typical white Southerner was
A)a planter with many slaves and a lot of land.
B)a small-town merchant or professional man.
C)extremely poor.
D)a modest yeoman farmer.
E)a hunter/trapper.
11
Although most whites did not own slaves, most supported the plantation system because
A)it controlled the slaves.
B)they had economic ties to it.
C)slaveholder and nonslaveholder were often related.
D)they identified with fierce regional loyalties.
E)All these answers are correct.
12
Which of the following was NOT a condition of slave life in the South?
A)an adequate if rough diet
B)hard work, even for women and children
C)the freedom to use the time after work as they wished
D)isolation and control
E)the ability to keep their families intact
13
The slave codes of the Southern states
A)imposed a uniformly harsh and dismal regime for Southern slaves.
B)allowed slaves a great deal of flexibility and autonomy.
C)created a paternal and benevolent relationship between master and slave.
D)contained rigid provisions but were unevenly enforced.
E)allowed slaves to buy their freedom.
14
Slaves seemed to prefer to live on larger plantations because
A)masters supervised workers personally and often worked alongside them.
B)they had more opportunities for privacy and for a social world of their own.
C)masters seemed more concerned with their health and welfare.
D)the work was lighter and provisions were more abundant.
E)it was easier to loaf on the job.
15
Which of the following statements about Southern slavery is true?
A)Most of the slaveowners owned more than ten slaves.
B)Most of the slaves lived on farms with less than ten slaves.
C)The majority of slaveowners were small farmers, but the majority of slaves lived on plantations of medium or large size.
D)The majority of slaveowners lived on medium or large plantations, but most slaves lived and worked on small farms.
E)most slaves had some unsupervised time during the workday.
16
Slave resistance in the South often took all of the following forms EXCEPT
A)armed revolts.
B)petty thievery.
C)work slowdowns.
D)running away.
E)All these answers are correct.
17
Slaves used music
A)primarily to entertain whites.
B)solely as a means of entertaining themselves.
C)that was influenced heavily by American music.
D)as a means of expressing their dreams and frustrations.
E)to pass the time of day.
18
African-American religion
A)was condoned by the masters.
B)emphasized deliverance in the next world.
C)sometimes combined Christianity with traditional African religions.
D)primarily occurred under the guidance of white ministers.
E)encouraged slave revolts.
19
The historical debate over the nature of plantation slavery demonstrates
A)the difficulty in researching a field in which few documents exist.
B)the extent to which historians are influenced by the times in which they write.
C)basic agreement that slavery was a brutal, savage institution that dehumanized all participants.
D)that black slaves in the South were generally content and happy with their lot.
E)slavery was an American invention.
20
In The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom (1976), Herbert Gutman argues that
A)slave families were better treated and lived in greater comfort than did Northern industrial workers.
B)the black family survived slavery with impressive strength.
C)slavery destroyed the significance of the father in the black family.
D)slaves were unable to establish strong family ties.
E)slavery promoted strong family ties.
21
The only "successful" slave insurrection in the nineteenth-century South was led by
A)Gabriel Prosser.
B)Denmark Vesey.
C)Nat Turner.
D)Frederick Douglass.
E)Dred Scott.
22
Black adaptation to slavery
A)revealed a passive contentment with bondage.
B)produced a rich and complex culture in support of racial pride and unity.
C)undermined black conversion to Christianity.
D)resulted in the loss of all cultural elements of African life.
E)created the image of the hard-working laborer.
23
Slave families
A)consistently operated on the model of the "nuclear family."
B)condemned premarital pregnancies.
C)generally lived on a single plantation.
D)did not place much emphasis on extended kinship networks.
E)emulated white family values.
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