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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. How does Nat encounter Jeremiah Cobb the first time?
(a) Cobb stops by to visit Joseph Travis.
(b) Cobb needs repairs to his dogcart.
(c) Cobb is considering buying Nat.
(d) Cobb requests water from the Travis well.

2. What is Joseph Travis's profession?
(a) A judge.
(b) A farmer.
(c) A wheelwright.
(d) A lawyer.

3. According to Nat's statements, the insurrection was ______.
(a) Confined to five farms.
(b) Local.
(c) Spread across twelve miles.
(d) Confined to two counties.

4. When Gray speaks of understanding Nat's mind, what does he say about it?
(a) Nat had sociopathic tendencies and would have killed more people if he hadn't been caught.
(b) Nat's mind snapped at the thought of being sold again.
(c) Nat was trying to grapple with things beyond his mind's reach.
(d) Nat had a mental condition and couldn't understand what he was doing.

5. What does T. R. Gray mean by "this population"?
(a) Shopkeepers.
(b) Slaves.
(c) Slave owners.
(d) White people.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Gray say the "band" resisted when the white people finally caught up to them?

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

3. How does Gray say Nat will be punished?

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

5. Who is Gray?

Short Essay Questions

1. In the Introduction, Gray talks about an "annexed certificate of the County Court of Southampton" to prove the authenticity of Nat's "confession." Yet no one from the court, besides Gray, heard Nat's statements. Why might Gray have included the certificate?

2. Prejudice is "an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought or reason". (Dictionary.com) Do you think Gray displays prejudice toward Nat? Toward blacks in general? How? List specific examples from the Introduction.

3. 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?

4. In Part 1, Nat gets very angry at Hark and chastises him for being so subservient to the whites. But Hark is a slave. Hark is doing what the whites expect, and being well treated because of it. Was Nat justified in what he did? Why or why not?

5. Gray tries to calm the fears of the people in Southampton County with his statement that's included in the Introduction. Yet he says "if Nat's statements can be relied upon." Why would he include a statement like this when he's trying to calm people?

6. Gray says that all the other insurgents who were examined tried to exculpate themselves. What does that mean? And why Nat didn't do it?

7. 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?

8. In Part 1, Gray reads back Nat's account of the killings, and Nat yells at him to stop. Why did Nat say that? Did he feel remorse? Nat says, "We done what had to be done!" Was he was talking about his "visions" and what they told him, or what Nat, personally, felt needed to be done?

9. Near the middle of Part 1, Nat says that treating blacks badly will make them "your for life", but treat him nice, and "he will want to slice your throat." What does Nat mean by that?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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