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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. On what date was Nat captured?
(a) November 1, 1831.
(b) October 30, 1831.
(c) October 31, 1831.
(d) October 29, 1831.

2. What does Nat remember during Gray's speech to the court?
(a) Hearing God order him to kill.
(b) A song Miss Margaret wrote.
(c) A stern lecture from his master.
(d) The twenty-third Psalm.

3. What is the nickname T. R. Gray gives to Nat in the "To the Public" section of the book?
(a) Powerful Slave.
(b) Black Bandit.
(c) Great Bandit.
(d) Insane Instigator.

4. What weapon does Nat carry?
(a) A sword.
(b) A knife.
(c) A shotgun.
(d) A bow and arrow.

5. According to Nat, Hark's name might be short for what?
(a) Harken.
(b) Hank.
(c) Hercules.
(d) Hector.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which Biblical prophet did Nat feel "spoke" to him most clearly about the rebellion?

2. What reason does Gray give in his introduction for publishing Nat's confessions?

3. According to Nat's confession, he had originally intended the rebellion to begin on what day?

4. According to Gray's "Introduction" people in the Southampton area were __________.:

5. Who is Gray?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Judge Cobb first appears in the book, Nat describes his face as "blighted, ravaged by sorrow." When considering his eventual killing spree, Nat decides to spare Cobb. Why might he have done that?

2. Nat tells Gray in the Introduction, "I don't think you understand about this business and I don't know but whether it's too late to make it all plain". If Gray took down what Nat said and is reading it back to him, why would Nat think Gray didn't understand?

3. In Part 1, when Nat is cleaning rabbits with Hark and Jeremiah Cobb stops to talk after getting a drink, Nat becomes nervous when he feels Cobb's question needs an answer. Nat doesn't want to give away a hint of what he's planning, but there's something else that pulls him in two directions when he considers whether to answer Cobb or not. Describe why Nat is so worried.

4. In Part 1, Nat says "a white man's discomfiture, observed on the sly, has always been a Negro's richest delight." Is this true? If so, why? If not, why would Nat think such a thing? Either way, what does that quote suggest about Nat?

5. While in jail, Nat describes Kitchen and thinks of him in one way, yet speaks to him in a completely different manner. Describe the differences and what this tells readers about Nat.

6. Describe the world that Nat lived in from a slave's perspective. Now describe it from a white person's perspective.

7. In the introduction, Gray refers to the insurrection as a "conspiracy." Do you agree with that term? Why or why not?

8. By the middle of Part 1, readers have met four white people: Gray, Kitchen, Miss Maria Pope, and Jeremiah Cobb. None of them are described positively. Why might that be? Since the book is supposedly written from Nat's point of view, why might he only describe white people (to this point in the book) in negative terms?

9. Styron published this book in 1967, 136 years after Nat Turner's rebellion and during a time of unrest in the United States over equal rights and race relations. In the Author's Note he says "the year 1831 was, simultaneously, a long time ago and only yesterday." What might he mean by that?

10. When Gray addresses the court, he blames "pure Negro cowardice" as a partial reason for the rebellion's failure, but then later in that same paragraph, Gray describes devoted slaves fighting "as bravely as any man" against Nat and his band. Why is he saying these things? Is he trying to confuse the justices?

(see the answer keys)

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