8th Chapter 12 Exam
Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
____
1. Why did the value of slaves drop in the South before the invention of the cotton gin?
a. Prices for crops were low, so some farmers decreased production and
demand for slaves declined.
b. When the North abolished slavery, many Southern slaves became disruptive
and all slaves lost value.
c. As economic conditions in the South worsened, slaves were more likely to run
away to the booming North.
d. The popularity of slavery was low, so farmers grew ashamed of the practice
and auctioneers reduced starting bids.
____
2. Planters felt cotton would be a profitable “cash crop” for all of the following reasons,
except which?
a. It was easy to grow.
c. It could be stored over time.
b. It was cheap to market.
d. It resisted disease.
____
3. What was most responsible for increasing the domestic slave trade in the early 1800s?
a. The freeing of slaves in the North led to a decline in the slave population.
b. An act of Congress banned the importation of slaves into the country.
c. Cotton planters hungry for profits began using slaves rather than paid
workers.
d. Slaveholders in Virginia and Maryland gained economically by selling slaves.
____
4. What does “crop rotation” involve?
a. Moving seedlings from one plot of land to another to maximize light-exposure
and minimize disease.
b. Raking fertilizer into the ground around the roots of young plants to mix air
and nutrients into the soil.
c. Changing the type of plant grown on a given plot each year in order to protect
the land from mineral loss.
d. Turning the soil over after a harvest to prevent insects from spending the
winter underground and infesting next season’s plants.
____
5. What did cotton planters call the people who made deals for them with merchants,
arranged passage for their crops aboard trading ships, and provided them with financial
advice?
a. proctors
c. factors
b. brokers
d. managers
____
6. Cash crops hurt the South’s economy because they
a. took capitalists’ attention away from southern industry.
b. greatly benefited the South’s northern competitors.
c. required costly shipping to avoid passage over land.
d. made crop rotation attractive to farmers.
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8th Chapter 12 Exam
____
7. Steam power benefited the South in all of the following ways, except which?
a. Louisiana’s lumber industry benefited from the steam-powered saw mill.
b. Tredegar’s Iron Works produced steam engines for locomotives.
c. Southern farmers and planters poured their profits into southern industry.
d. Textile mills no longer had to be built near Northern rivers and waterfalls.
____
8. How did the poorest white southerners survive?
a. by using their small plots of land to grow cash crops
b. by hunting, fishing, and doing odd jobs for money
c. by committing burglary and other criminal acts
d. by getting permanent positions in plantation households
____
9. Why did many southern cities and states pass laws to limit the rights of free slaves?
a. White governments thought former slaves could not balance freedom with
responsibility.
b. White southerners feared former slaves would try to encourage slave
rebellions.
c. White churches worried about losing members to the independent church
movement.
d. White lawmakers felt free slaves were less than human because of the color of
their skin.
____ 10. Which of the following is not an example of the effect of laws passed to limit the rights of
free slaves in the South?
a. Most free slaves could not vote, travel freely, or hold certain jobs.
b. A free slave could not be married to a white husband or wife.
c. Free slaves could not live in some states without special permission.
d. Some free slaves had to be represented by a white person in business.
____ 11. What would a slave have worried about most when coming up for auction?
a. the kindness or cruelty of the new master
b. the type of work required by the new master
c. the fate of parents, brothers, sisters, and children
d. the religious life of the new community
____ 12. Other than death, what was the greatest threat to family bonds among slaves?
a. auctions
c. work
b. kidnapping
d. runaways
____ 13. Religion boosted the spirits of slaves in all of the following ways, except which?
a. They sang emotional Christian songs called “spirituals.”
b. They came to see themselves as God’s chosen people.
c. They understood that God wanted them to obey slaveholders.
d. They gained faith that they would one day live in freedom.
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8th Chapter 12 Exam
____ 14. “Spirituals” most inspired what later musical form?
a. ragtime
c. folk
b. jazz
d. gospel
____ 15. How did enslaved parents pass their culture down to their children?
a. They read African stories to their children every night.
b. They told folktales with customary characters and morals.
c. They taught emotional Christian songs about freedom.
d. They showed their children how to outsmart slaveholders.
____ 16. Which of the following statements about the life of Harriet Jacobs is false?
a. She was born into slavery in 1813. c. She said she “had a determined will.”
b. She bore no children.
d. She was a runaway slave.
____ 17. In what small way would slaves often rebel against their masters?
a. They slowed down their work in the fields to protest long hours.
b. They hid the masters’ whips and chains to prevent harsh punishments.
c. They prayed for God to teach masters the virtue of equal treatment.
d. They stole books from their masters and taught themselves to read.
____ 18. What event prompted many states to strengthen their slave codes?
a. Vesey’s Conspiracy
c. Haiti’s Revolution
b. Turner’s Rebellion
d. Gabriel’s Uprising
____ 19. One goal of scientific agriculture was to
a. increase the production of crops by introducing the use of fertilizers.
b. protect the land used to grow sugar, hemp, and corn.
c. get southern planters to focus exclusively on cotton production.
d. perfect a method for quickly curing tobacco before shipment.
____ 20. What was Tredegar Iron Works?
a. a northern company that specialized in turning iron into steel by heating it
b. a northern mine that provided coal to manufacturers of iron products
c. a southern factory that turned iron into useful products for industry and the
military
d. a southern manufacturer that was one of many to produce locomotives for the
government
____ 21. 1.What invention launched the cotton boom in the South?
a. steam engine
c. weaving loom
b. slave trade
d. cotton gin
____ 22. What was one disadvantage of growing cotton?
a. It cost too much to market.
b. It could not be grown on the same soil year after year.
c. It could only be stored a short time after harvesting.
d. It cost more to transport than other staple crops.
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8th Chapter 12 Exam
____ 23. Because of cotton farming in the South,
a. other cash crops were not necessary.
b. tobacco was no longer produced.
c. slavery became an institution in the South.
d. there was no development of industry in the South.
PRACTICING SOCIAL STUDIES SKILLS
Study the pie graphs below and answer the questions that follow.
____ 24. What percentage of southerners were slaves?
a. 34 percent
c. 16 percent
b. 1 percent
d. 47 percent
Completion
Complete each statement.
25. ____________________ served as the center of the social lives of free African Americans living in
cities. (Churches/Libraries)
26. Slave supervisors, known as ___________________, were sometimes slaves themselves even though
they carried out punishments on fellow slaves. (drivers/butlers)
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8th Chapter 12 Exam
27. Because family was the most important aspect of slave communities, slaves feared being
separated by slave ____________________. (arguments/auctions)
28. Slaves told family histories and ____________________ to preserve their heritage and help them
survive slavery. (jokes/folktales)
29. Christian slaves identified with the Hebrew slaves in ancient Egypt and used ____________________
to express their religious beliefs. (paintings/spirituals)
30. Some historians have called slave religion the ____________________ institution. (invisible/tragic)
31. Southern authorities executed slave ____________________ as the leader of a planned slave rebellion
in Charleston, South Carolina. (Denmark Vesey/Nat Turner)
32. As a result of slave revolts, many states strengthened their ____________________. (religious
beliefs/slave codes)
Matching
In the space provided, write the letter of the term or place that matches each description. Some
answers will not be used.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
Atlantic coast
border states
Christianity
Cotton Belt
Eli Whitney
free African Americans
gang labor
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.
m.
Islam
Nat Turner
planters
slave codes
spirituals
yeomen
____ 33. He led a violent slave revolt in Virginia in 1831
____ 34. Strict laws passed by state governments to control slaves
____ 35. System used on most plantations in which all field hands worked on the same task at the same
time
____ 36. The largest and most important cities in the South were located here
____ 37. Group in southern society that had limited rights and faced discrimination
____ 38. Emotional religious songs that blended African and European music
____ 39. His machine revolutionized the cotton industry
____ 40. Wealthiest and most-influential class in southern society
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