View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How many slaves had Dr. Samuel Mudd owned before The Emancipation Proclamation was enacted by Abraham Lincoln?

2. What does the word secede mean?

3. Where in John Wilkes Booth's room at the National Hotel did investigators find a letter outlining the plot against the government?

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

5. How old was William Seward's daughter Fanny on the night of the assassination attempt?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

3. Over what issues was the American Civil War fought?

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

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. 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)

8. 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?

9. What are two themes touched upon within Abraham Lincoln's inauguration day speech of 1865?

10. 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?

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

What is the book's message regarding the tendency for humans to be fascinated with macabre subjects? Create a strong, specific, arguable claim and back it up with quotes from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Examine James L. Swanson's use of characterization methods to portray Abraham Lincoln. How does he help the reader to know who Abraham Lincoln was as a person, both before and after his murder? What effect do these characterization methods have on the book's inherent themes and messages? Use concrete details from the text to support your claims.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,419 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample