1. White Americans were newcomers to the multiracial trade of Natchez and the Natchez Trace. Which one of the following is NOT included in that earlier group?
A. African Americans
B. Choctaws and Chickasaws
C. Spanish and FrenchAA
D. Seminoles
Answer: D
2. Expansion of cotton production through the South drew farmers into the so-called "black-belt" primarily because 
A. since cotton growing depletes the soil so quickly new land was frequently needed.
B. of liberal tariffs and regulations in the region.
C. of lack of Indian resistance in the area.
D. of easy access to ports and canals throughout the deep South.
Answer: A
3. Which one of the following is NOT a reason that their highly successful accommodation to white society failed to save the Cherokee from removal?
A. white land hunger
B. the ambiguity of literate and slave-owning "redskins"
C. their support of the Creek War
D. need of white Southerners to enforce a rigid system
Answer: C
4. Typical of the world of the southern yeoman farmer in the pre-Civil War period was
A. a community network of barter and mutual assistance.
B. isolation from the institution of slavery.
C. self-imposed isolation from other farmers.
D. large-scale commercial farming.
Answer: A
5. The yeoman class supported the planter class in its domination of politics in the South in large part because the
A. yeoman class feared economic retribution if planters were defeated.
B. yeoman class aspired to planter class status.
C. yeoman class cared little about politics.
D. lifestyle and interests of both were so similar.
Answer: B
6. The elite slaveholding population in the South exhibited a lifestyle that was modeled after the
A. pre-Revolution French court.
B. English aristocracy.
C. New England merchant elite.
D. Caribbean nabobs.
Answer: B
7. Under the paternalistic code by which slave owners claimed they conducted plantation life,
A. slaves assumed the role of children.
B. the master and his "helpmate" mistress shared equal authority.
C. the owner had no obligation to treat his "children" fairly.
D. slave owners expected their slaves to be rebellious.
Answer: A
8. Within the paternalistic plantation community, the plantation mistress
A. ran and ruled her own household.
B. expanded her world to include involvement in a variety of outside activities.
C. spent little time on the plantation.
D. faced a lonely life often isolated from friends and kin.
Answer: D
9. Which one of the following is NOT part of the maturing of the American slave system?
A. Most northern states abolished it by 1820.
B. There was a "slave drain" from the Lower South to the Upper South.
C. Most slaves lived in groups of ten or more.
D. Slavery increased in new frontier areas of the Southwest.
Answer: B
10. The most common slave experience in the American South by the mid-nineteenth century included
A. residence in the Upper South.
B. sharing plantation life with ten or more other slaves.
C. field work in tobacco, sugar, and rice fields.
D. a traumatic trip from Africa.
Answer: B
11. An examination of life expectancy rates in the South by 1850 indicates that
A. there was no difference in life expectancy for whites and blacks in the South.
B. it was not unusual for slave masters to work male field hands to death.
C. slaves in the American South suffered less illness than expected because of adequate nutrition.
D. the difficulties of slave life resulted in a shorter life expectancy than whites.
Answer: D
12. The most unpleasant aspect of the experience of slaves who worked as domestic servants in plantation households was the
A. continual exposure to the temptations of freedom.
B. lack of free time.
C. tedium of inside work.
D. constant supervision by whites.
Answer: D
13. What percentage of all slaves worked as field hands?
A. 50%
B. 25%
C. 95%
D. 75%
Answer: D
14. In contrast to a white married woman in the antebellum South, a slave wife
A. faced less isolation due to active kinship networks.
B. was expected to be submissive and dependent on her husband.
C. could expect no medical care during childbirth.
D. rarely had any real family life.
Answer: A
15. One of the most noteworthy features of the slave community in the American South was
A. its acceptance of white paternalism within its own social structure.
B. the expanded kinship network that developed within it.
C. its refusal to incorporate Christian religious practices into its experiences.
D. its animosity toward free African Americans.
Answer: B
16. Expressions of religion by the slave community
A. held little importance in the slaves' everyday life.
B. rejected Africanisms in favor of white Christian practices.
C. incited slaves to overt rebellion.
D. aided survival through small but meaningful protests.
Answer: D
17. Which of the following was most representative of a free African American in the antebellum South?
A. a tenant farmer in Maryland
B. a street peddler in Richmond
C. a laundry worker in Mississippi
D. a teacher in Tennessee
Answer: A
18. Free African Americans in the antebellum South
A. were not allowed to remain there.
B. generally owned property and lived a middle-class existence.
C. represented a challenge to the slave system that made their lives precarious within white society.
D. led the majority of slave insurrections that occurred in the South.
Answer: C
19. What was the significance of the Nat Turner rebellion?
A. It was discovered before it spread throughout South Carolina.
B. Most of its leaders were free blacks.
C. His intelligence and organized plotting increased white southerners' fears.
D. Turner evaded capture and traveled throughout the South and North preaching his message.
Answer: C
20. Who of the following has the LEAST in common with the other three?
A. Gabriel Prosser
B. Denmark Vesey
C. Nat Turner
D. Hinton Helper
Answer: D
21. After Nat Turner's revolt in 1831 Southern apologists for slavery linked slave uprisings to
A. northern antislavery opinion.
B. operation of the underground railroad.
C. free blacks in the North and South.
D. excessive restrictions on slaves.
Answer: A
22. Which of the following had the LEAST to do with the aggressive defense of slavery that developed in the South in the early 1830s?
A. the appearance of The Liberator
B. Virginia's slave revolt
C. attempts to admit Texas to the union as a slave state
D. British emancipation of slaves in the West Indies
Answer: C
23. Although debate was eventually stifled, which group of southern whites was the most likely to protest the slavery system?
A. wives of wealthy plantation owners
B. upcountry nonslaveholders
C. religious leaders
D. people with higher education
Answer: B
24. The Virginia legislature's debate on the merits of gradual emancipation of slaves and the publication of The Impending Crisis by North Carolina Hinton Helper indicated that
A. there was some dissent in the South from the defense of slavery.
B. most southerners recognized the need to loosen the restrictions on slaves to prevent rebellion.
C. most southerners by that time accepted the inevitability of an end to the institution of slavery.
D. few southerners recognized the threat of slave rebellion in the South.
Answer: A
25. Which of the following has the LEAST in common with the other three?
A. George Fitzhugh
B. James Henry Hammond
C. Angelina Grimke
D. John C. Calhoun
Answer: C
128. While slave owners dominated social and political life, two-thirds of southerners did not own slaves.
A. True
B. False
C. 
D. 
Answer: A
129. The largest group of slave owners in the South were yeoman farmers attempting to shift from subsistence to commercial agricultural production.
A. True
B. False
C. 
D. 
Answer: A
130. Since slavery was an agricultural phenomenon, southern urban centers did not experience the use of slave labor in urban occupations.
A. True
B. False
C. 
D. 
Answer: B
131. Slave masters generally encouraged marriage among their slaves because it lessened the chances for rebellion and produced more slaves.
A. True
B. False
C. 
D. 
Answer: A
132. Pro-slavery Southerners argued that northern industrial "wage slaves" lived under worse conditions than their slaves.
A. True
B. False
C. 
D. 
Answer: A