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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. Who was the only other person in William Seward's bedroom besides William Seward and Fanny Seward?

2. What literary device is James L. Swanson using when he refers to John Wilkes Booth's passion for lost causes?

3. When Lewis Powell got outside and found that Herold had fled with the getaway carriage, what did he do?

4. What was the title of the play during which Abraham Lincoln was assassinated?

5. How many stories did William Seward's house have, making Lewis Powell's task of finding him difficult?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does James L. Swanson create suspense in the scene when Lewis Powell attempts to assassinate William Seward?

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

3. 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?

4. What were the reasons that Dr. Charles Leale wanted to move Abraham Lincoln from the theater, even though he had just proclaimed his wounds sure to be fatal?

5. How was Frederick Seward injured during Lewis Powell's attempt to assassinate Secretary of State William Seward?

6. What is the author's purpose in relating the events of Mary Lincoln Todd's and Abraham Lincoln's afternoon together on the date of the assassination?

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

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

9. What tone does James L. Swanson use in second paragraph of Chapter I when he writes, "The very next day, the tyrant Abraham Lincoln had visited his captive prize and had the nerve to sit behind the desk occupied by the first and last president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis"? (2)

10. What qualities of William Seward's situation caused him to chosen by the assassins as the third target in the assassination plot, in addition to Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose a symbolic object from the novel, such as Booth's pistol, Laura Keene's dress, or some other symbolic object and discuss its overall meaning and its connection to themes within the text. Use concrete details from the book to support your points.

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author's decision to include a variety of primary documents within the text. What purpose did he have when including images of real documents such as newspaper clippings, photographs, pamphlets, and other ephemera? Back up your strong, specific claim about the author's use of primary documents with concrete details from the ephemera he includes in the book.

(see the answer keys)

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