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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What distinctive marking did John Wilkes Booth's horse have on her body?

2. What noise finally led David Herold to flee the scene in the getaway carriage before Lewis Powell had emerged from the house?

3. What two weapons did John Wilkes Booth carry with him the night of the assassination?

4. What did David Herold say was a condition of helping Lewis Powell with the plot to assassinate William Seward?

5. What was the subject of Lincoln's dream the night before the assassination, as recorded by Secretary Welles in his diary?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did John Wilkes Booth's knowledge of Ford's Theater facilitate his assassination of Abraham Lincoln?

2. How did the North celebrate when Richmond, Virginia fell to Union forces on April 3, 1865?

3. How did Mary Todd Lincoln's letter to the Ford Theater's proprietors unwittingly help Abraham Lincoln's would-be assassins complete their goal?

4. In the scene of Abraham Lincoln being moved from the theater, how does James L. Swanson get across the message of how damaging people's morbid curiosity can be?

5. What is James L. Swanson's purpose when he describes John Wilkes Booth's passions as including "the romance of lost causes"? (2)

6. How does James L. Swanson use the words of Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley, to foreshadow the coming death of Abraham Lincoln?

7. How does James L. Swanson demonstrate Fanny Seward's courage and ferocity within the scene of Lewis Powell's attempt to take her father's life?

8. How does James L. Swanson characterize the personality of the actress Laura Keene, who was present at the scene of John Wilkes Booth's shooting of Abraham Lincoln.

9. What action did David Herold take at the scene of William Seward's home that James L. Swanson imagines to have inspired the ire of John Wilkes Booth?

10. In what ways is Lewis Powell portrayed as a pathetic character after his attempt to take William Seward's life?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the author's treatment of race relations within the events of the book? How does he get across to the reader the complexities of the country's conflicts without devoting entire chapters to the topic of race? Craft a specific and clear claim regarding the author's treatment of the race relations theme and use textual details to support your claim.

Essay Topic 2

Choose one of the conspirators whose sentence you consider unjust in some way, either by being too harsh or too lenient. Write an argumentative essay in which you prove why this person's involvement warranted a different punishment. Use concrete details from the book and from outside research in order to prove your argumentative claim.

Essay Topic 3

How does the author's use of the omniscient third person point of view serve his purposes over the course of the book? Discuss how his choice of point of view helps to advance his treatment of at least three particular themes within the novel. Use concrete details from the text to support your points.

(see the answer keys)

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