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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where does Jefferson attend college?
(a) At the College of Wiliam and Mary.
(b) At New York University.
(c) At Oberlin College.
(d) At the University of Virginia.

2. Who accompanied Jefferson to France?
(a) John Adams and Ben Franklin.
(b) Sally Hemings.
(c) His daughter Martha, known as Patsy, and a slave named James Hemings.
(d) His three daughters.

3. Who does Patsy confess to loving more than her husband?
(a) Her father.
(b) Her sister.
(c) Her nanny.
(d) Her mother.

4. What illustrates two central features of Jefferson's personality?
(a) The address called the "Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms."
(b) His relationship with his children.
(c) His friendships with John Adams and Ben Franklin.
(d) The amended version of the "Declaration of Independence."

5. How is having an affair and fathering children with a slave viewed by people of Jefferson's day?
(a) Unimportant.
(b) Unethical.
(c) Normal.
(d) Not unusual.

6. What is the reason the author gives for the contradiction between Jefferson's opinion of slavery and his owning of slaves?
(a) He believes in human dignity for those that are of European descent, as long as they do not own slaves.
(b) He believes in human dignity and freedom, as long as it does not conflict with his own wealth and comfort.
(c) He enjoys an easier life by owning slaves, therefore he is pro-slavery.
(d) He is against slavery but owns them because he feels pressure to do so.

7. Jefferson's nail-making laborer's are compared to what author's characters?
(a) Emily Dickinson.
(b) Charles Manson.
(c) Charles Dickens.
(d) Jane Seymour.

8. Why does Jefferson retire to Monticello by 1794?
(a) To spend time with his daughters.
(b) To work on the design for a new home.
(c) To get away from John Adams.
(d) To heal his considerable political wounds.

9. How many slaves does Jefferson own at this point in his life?
(a) Between 10 and 20.
(b) Between 100 and 200.
(c) Between 50 and 100.
(d) Between 5 and 10.

10. What does the author find surprising about an evening devoted to Jefferson in 1993?
(a) The audience has little respect for Jefferson as a president.
(b) The audience is very argumentative about Jefferson's stand on slavery.
(c) 40 people attend, rather than the estimated 400.
(d) 400 people attend, rather than the estimated 40.

11. What promise does Martha extract from Jefferson?
(a) A deathbed promise to not remarry.
(b) To go back to Philadelphia to be a member of the Continental Congress.
(c) To end his affair with Sally.
(d) To send his children to expensive boarding schools.

12. Who does Polly marry?
(a) John Wales Eppes.
(b) Thomas Payne.
(c) John Smith.
(d) Thomas Mann Randolph Jr.

13. What governmental position does Alexander Hamilton hold?
(a) Secretary of the Treasury.
(b) Surgeon General.
(c) Secretary of State.
(d) Secretary of the Interior.

14. What is the nickname Ellis gives for Sally Hemings?
(a) Silly Sally.
(b) White Sally.
(c) Sally Forth.
(d) Black Sal.

15. Of what does Ellis feel it is unfair to accuse a man of Jefferson's time regarding women?
(a) Nudity.
(b) Family.
(c) Marriage.
(d) Sexism.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do both William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow claim about Jefferson?

2. How does Jefferson react to the invasion by Benedict Arnold's troops?

3. What test proves that Ellis's belief that a dalliance is completely out of character for Jefferson is incorrect?

4. When he is elected president, what does George Washington offer Jefferson?

5. How would Jefferson have gone through life, if his pamphlet had not been published?

(see the answer keys)

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