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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is a key facet of Jefferson's personality?
(a) His sense of humor.
(b) His lifelong avoidance of conflict.
(c) His fatherly love.
(d) His abhorence of slavery.

2. How does Jefferson arrive in Philadelphia for the first Continental Congress?
(a) He arrives by horseback, as do most people at this time.
(b) He arrives in an opulent carriage with three slaves outfitted in elaborate costumes.
(c) He arrives excited and ready to lead the nation.
(d) He arrives secretly in the night, due to the high security risk.

3. What family is allowed to live at Mulberry Row?
(a) Jefferson's family.
(b) His entire slave family.
(c) The Hemings family.
(d) Those family members with dark skin.

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

5. Who is probably the most beloved and admired of American presidents?
(a) Thomas Jefferson.
(b) George Washington.
(c) George Bush.
(d) Herbert Hoover.

Short Answer Questions

1. How long did Jeffersonians rule the nation?

2. Who is reportedly the father of Sally Hemings?

3. What is presentism?

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

5. How many slaves does Jefferson own at this point in his life?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Jefferson's most successful financial enterprise operated?

2. Why might the author be surprised by the number of people who attend the evening devoted to Jefferson?

3. Why might, by the standards of Jefferson's day, having an affair with a slave and fathering children by her be considered unethical?

4. What do Polly and her mother have in common?

5. How is the relationship between Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson?

6. Why might the audience have been too polite to discuss Jefferson's slave ownership and relationship with Sally Hemings?

7. What is Jefferson's ideal Utopian society?

8. Where is the relationship between Jefferson and Hemings a topic?

9. Why does Jefferson not want to return to Philadelphia?

10. Why does Madison let Jefferson know that his name is being put forth as the Republican Party's candidate for president through coded letters?

(see the answer keys)

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