Midterm

Question 1

Which continents were part of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade?

Answer 1

The Americas, Europe, Africa

Question 2

The Middle Passage was the journey from:

Answer 2

Africa to the Americas

Question 3

Why did the British take over the slave trade in the late seventeenth century?

Answer 3

They needed labor for tobacco and sugar cultivation in North America and the Caribbean

Question 4

Certain slaves were more valuable than others because:

Answer 4

They possessed agricultural expertise

Question 5

What steps did Europeans take to reduce the risk of rebellion on ships, American plantations, and in slave factories in Africa?

Answer 5

Families and ethnic groups were separated

Question 6

How would an African most likely become a slave?

Answer 6

Their town or village was conquered by another African army

Question 7

What was a common characteristic of a typical slave ship?

Answer 7

Slave captains packed ships tight to maximize profit

Question 8

What does the story by Olaudah Equiano reveal about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade?

Answer 8

It was a brutal, perilous, death-encountering experience

Question 9

What did the first European slave traders trade for stolen Africans, and who were these Africans taken from?

Answer 9

Food and the Dutch

Question 10

What important finding was revealed via Isaac Jefferson’s memoir?

Answer 10

Information about the Hemmings’ Family Tree

Question 11

In the 1940s, what room constructed right next to Thomas Jefferson’s bedroom in the Monticello Mansion?

Answer 11

A men’s public restroom right over Sally’s room

Question 12

Who led Cato’s Conspiracy / Rebellion aka the Stono Rebellion?

Answer 12

Jemmy

Question 13

Who took a leading role in the events that led up to the famous Boston Tea Party?

Answer 13

Samuel Adams

Question 14

Who was one of the first Africans in America that earned his freedom, gained land, and even owned African and European slaves?

Answer 14

Anthony Johnson

Question 15

According to Frederick Douglass, slavery turns masters (both old and new) into:

Answer 15

Inhumane, immoral, brutal people

Question 16

According to Frederick Douglass, the one thing his second master despised is what he committed his life to. What was it?

Answer 16

Education, specifically literacy

Question 17

According to Booker T. Washington, who was his father and what is his response to this?

Answer 17

A master at a nearby plantation, an unfortunate circumstance of the institution of slavery

Question 18

What material artifact did Booker T. Washington cherish most?

Answer 18

His first cap/hat, given to him by his mother

Question 19

What did Booker T. Washington do in order to arrive at school on time?

Answer 19

Change the time on the work clock

Question 20

The title “Brotherly Love,” according to African Americans’ historical experiences represents all of the following except for:

Answer 20

Freedom, liberty, and justice for all

Question 21

The title “Brotherly Love” represents what?

Answer 21

The city of Philadelphia; the supposed love shared between brothers and sisters in Christ; hypocritical contradictions embedded in the origins of the US

Question 22

What are 3 paradoxes of Thomas Jefferson?

Answer 22

He proposed all men are created equal, but was only referring to rich white men with property; he produced public and private writings about slavery that insisted blacks are inferior beings, simple, and child-like; he proposed blacks and whites could never live together as equals

Question 23

Who was the black American preacher who helped start the Free African Society and the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Bethel) because blacks were ousted from full inclusion in white American churches?

Answer 23

Richard Allen

Question 24

All are aspects of slave marriages in the early 1800s, except for:

Answer 24

Slaves had no interest or saw any value in family or community

Question 25

What are 3 aspects of slave marriages in the early 1800s?

Answer 25

White ministers omitted in the slaves wedding ceremony till death do you part and those who God joins together let no man come between; slaves celebrated weddings by jumping over a broom; slaves were not legal citizens and could be sold at any moment

Question 26

Which was not a historical aspect of the cotton gin?

Answer 26

It allowed for half of the world’s cotton production (it allowed for 75%)

Question 27

What are 3 historical aspects of the cotton gin?

Answer 27

It was a machine used for separating the seeds from cotton fibers; it was invented by Eli Whitney, a school teacher; it allowed two workers to do the work of 100 men in one day

Question 28

Who gathered about 1,000 rebellious slaves outside of Richmond, but was betrayed by 2 followers before the uprisings began?

Answer 28

Gabriel Prosser

Question 29

What is not true of the Napoleon and the Louisiana Territory sale?

Answer 29

Napoleon sold it to Jefferson for 5 million dollars (actually 15 million)

Question 30

What are 3 aspects of the Louisiana Territory sale?

Answer 30

Napoleon had no choice but to sell land because he lost it to Haiti; Napoleon lost his French military navel ground in the Americas and lost all interest in North America and the New World; the French architecture and cultural influence made a significant impact on the Southeastern region of the US

Question 31

What anti-slavery newspaper written by William Lloyd Garrison drew attention to abolitionists about the horrors of slavery?

Answer 31

The Liberator

Question 32

Who was stolen/kidnapped and placed into slavery, but later escaped after a little more than a decade?

Answer 32

Solomon Northup

Question 33

What did Eli Whitney supposedly invent?

Answer 33

The cotton gin

Question 34

What slave revolt was victorious that led to the expansion of the US? (occurred on one of the Caribbean islands)

Answer 34

Toussaint Louverture’s Revolution, Saint-Domingue

Question 35

What city did Walter White’s story take place?

Answer 35

Atlanta

Question 36

How did Walter White say he became conscious of his race, namely what is meant for him to be a black boy in white America?

Answer 36

Being hunted in his neighborhood by a mob

Question 37

What are the self-ascribed characteristics of Walter White?

Answer 37

White-looking; middle class; somewhat neat and orderly (like his mother); curious but non-confrontational when it comes to violence

Question 38

What is not a self-ascribed characteristic of Walter White?

Answer 38

Sneaky and deceptive

Question 39

Richard Wright was born on a plantation in Mississippi, but left the US and died where?

Answer 39

Paris, France

Question 40

Richard Wright came to understand that whites and blacks lived very separately where?

Answer 40

In schools; in church; in the jobs they worked; in the sexual relations they had

Question 41

Richard Wright learned that blacks and whites lived separately, except for:

Answer 41

In the violence they engaged in

Question 42

Where did Richard Wright’s story take place when he began to investigate and question race relations?

Answer 42

On a train

Question 43

What did Richard Wright learn about his grandparents from his mother?

Answer 43

They were slaves

Question 44

T or F: scientific racism corresponded with religious racism to keep blacks out of white churches, but place them in white homes as cooks, servants, and medical caretakers.

Answer 44

True

Question 45

US Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney made what major decision about Africans in 1857?

Answer 45

Dred Scott v. Sandford decision

Question 46

What was the name of the 21 year old who hid in the floor boards for 7 years (in NC) who saw her children and slave master from a small hole in the wood?

Answer 46

Harriet Jacobs

Question 47

A text/book called ‘an appeal’ written by _________ around the 1930s called for slaves to rise up against their masters (it was smuggled from the north to the south by black sailors)

Answer 47

David Walker

Question 48

The smuggling of an appeal by Walker resulted in what?

Answer 48

A bounty was put on the writers head; southern states outlawing the teaching of blacks to read; a rise in abolitionism

Question 49

The smuggling of an appeal by Walker did not result in what?

Answer 49

The lynching of David Walker

Question 50

What was the name of the man from Kansas who avenged the free soil killings in his state? (His sons were also involved)

Answer 50

John Brown

Question 51

T or F: In the 1830s, colored people in the north were barred from voting, attending white schools, unable to testify against whites, sign a binding contract with whites.

Answer 51

True

Question 52

T or F: in the mid 1830s, the word “white” became part of the legal language in many local, state, and federal documents, which continued to keep Negroes in social bondage.

Answer 52

True

Question 53

T or F: during the 1830s, most whites in the south knew slavery in the US was wrong, but thought it would be worse to eradicate slavery because the US socioeconomic System was built on it.

Answer 53

True

Question 54

What was the peanut gallery that Gordon Parks mentioned?

Answer 54

The section where black people had to sit in public

Question 55

What was Gordon Parks looking for in the river and why?

Answer 55

A dead body, the policeman offered him money to find it

Question 56

According to Gordon Parks, who is Capt’n Tuck?

Answer 56

An old dead man at the morgue

Question 57

What was the advice Gordon Parks’ brother gave him on his deathbed?

Answer 57

Use your head/brain

Question 58

About how many slaves were sold in the largest slave auction in the US?

Answer 58

450

Question 59

What was the significance of Anthony Burns’ trial?

Answer 59

It showed deference to the south

Question 60

T or F: the Free Soil Movement enabled anybody who moved west past the Mississippi River to obtain free land, a mule, and exercise the right to vote.

Answer 60

False

Question 61

T or F: the Emancipation Proclamation freed all enslaved people in the US.

Answer 61

False

Question 62

T or F: Frederick Douglass fought and died at Harpers Ferry alongside free and enslaved Negroes?

Answer 62

False

Question 63

Southern whites who aligned with the Republican Party in the south were called what by southern Democrats?

Answer 63

Scalawags

Question 64

Which former Confederate state had the least number of blacks holding office during Reconstruction?

Answer 64

Tennessee

Question 65

What is true about black officeholders during Reconstruction?

Answer 65

Some had been free before the war, some had been slaves

Question 66

What is not true about black officeholders during Reconstruction?

Answer 66

They were always well-qualified for their offices; a large majority had attended college; farmers and workers were poorly represented

Question 67

What was a major problem faced by Republicans in establishing schools during Reconstruction?

Answer 67

Some blacks and whites were opposed to compulsory education laws

Question 68

What was the purpose of stay laws?

Answer 68

To assist blacks by prohibiting state authorities from taking property

Question 69

How did class and social status divide blacks during Reconstruction?

Answer 69

Leaders - former slaves and free could not agree on strategy

Question 70

What did white southerners mean when they said they wanted to “redeem” their states?

Answer 70

They wanted to remove blacks and Republicans from political office

Question 71

Where was the KKK most powerful in the south?

Answer 71

In areas where blacks embodied a large minority of the population

Question 72

Why did local law enforcement fail to effectively prosecute the Klan?

Answer 72

Local law enforcement or white troops often sided with the Klan

Question 73

What is the connection between the KKK and Reconstruction?

Answer 73

The Klan promoted violence in the interest of southern Democrats who ended Reconstruction

Question 74

What is true about the Enforcement Acts of 1870-71?

Answer 74

It authorized the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus

Question 75

What is not true about the Enforcement Acts?

Answer 75

It was a misdemeanor crime to interfere with someone’s right to vote; it prevented the President from sending in federal troops if necessary; they were not put into effect because of white racism

Question 76

Why did the Freedmen’s Savings Bank fail?

Answer 76

White leaders of the bank invested poorly and lost everything in the Panic

Question 77

What was the “shotgun policy”?

Answer 77

A massive campaign of violence against blacks in Mississippi to bring the state back under “civilized” white control

Question 78

Political violence in Alabama in 1874 against blacks is symptomatic of what aspect of Reconstruction?

Answer 78

The redemption of the southern states from Republican rule

Question 79

The Colfax Massacre is an example of what pattern of violence?

Answer 79

A well-armed White mob attacked black defenders

Question 80

What is the connection between the Voices section (letter) on black leaders and the Civil Rights Act, and the main themes of thentextbook chapter?

Answer 80

Reflects the desire of black leaders for stronger civil rights laws

Question 81

How did Congress react to southern attempts to stop black political power?

Answer 81

They passed the 15th Amendment

Question 82

T or F: black leaders in the state legislature compelled the University of SC, which had been all white, to admit black students and hire black faculty, but many of the white students and faculty left, and several black politicians enrolled in the law and medical programs.

Answer 82

True

Question 83

T or F: in 1877 as part of a compromise with the Democratic Party, President Hayes withdrew the last federal troops from the south.

Answer 83

True

Question 84

What party were most blacks loyal to in the post-Reconstruction south?

Answer 84

Republicans

Question 85

How did Democrats limit black political power in the south?

Answer 85

They created oddly shaped congressional districts to prevent blacks from being elected to office

Question 86

What view did the white farmers’ alliance have on black voting?

Answer 86

They did not think that blacks should vote but ironically encouraged them to vote for certain candidates

Question 87

Why is the year 1892 significant in US history?

Answer 87

In the 1892 election, when Democrats carried every southern state and sought to destroy the Populist challenge, there was an explosion of violence: 235 people lynched

Question 88

What new twist did Louisiana add in 1898 to make sure whites voted but blacks did not?

Answer 88

The grandfather clause

Question 89

Where did the term “Jim Crow” originate?

Answer 89

It was the name of a routine in a popular white minstrel show that ridiculed black people

Question 90

What was the problem, in the views of southern states, with voting laws like literacy tests, poll taxes, and property qualifications?

Answer 90

Laws might eliminate poor illiterate white voters as well as black voters

Question 91

How did the railroad companies view segregation?

Answer 91

They opposed the idea because they did not want to pay the expense of maintaining separate cars

Question 92

What were grandfather clauses?

Answer 92

Voting restriction clauses which held that someone could vote only if his grandfather or father had been able to vote before a certain time, usually before the end of slavery

Question 93

What was the effect of the Plessy v. Ferguson decision?

Answer 93

It demonstrated that the highest court in the land accepted the racially discriminatory treatment of blacks

Question 94

What do the actions of Homer Plessy tell us about black people and segregation?

Answer 94

Blacks were testing laws by getting arrested and trying cases in court

Question 95

How did whites expect blacks to behave after the Civil War?

Answer 95

Black men were never to look at (or touch) white women

Question 96

What incident prompted the racial violence in Wilmington, NC?

Answer 96

The editor of a local black newspaper wrote an editorial that condemned white men for the sexual exploitation of black women and suggested that black men had sexual liaisons with rural white women

Question 97

What is true about the number of lynchings in the south over the period 1889-1932?

Answer 97

2 to 3 people were lynched, on average, every week for 30 years

Question 98

What was a crop lien?

Answer 98

Merchants, in exchange for goods and products needed at a general store, would have a legal claim to part of the black family’s crop

Question 99

What was the stated reason given by whites for many lynchings?

Answer 99

A black man had raped a white woman