View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is Jeremiah Cobb?
(a) A neighbor of Joseph Travis, Nat's master.
(b) A white man who survived by hiding from the slaves.
(c) The judge at Nat's trial.
(d) A saloon keeper.

2. How does Gray say the "band" resisted when the white people finally caught up to them?
(a) Feebly.
(b) Feverishly.
(c) With great force.
(d) Desperately.

3. What word did Cobb ask Nat to spell?
(a) Dog.
(b) Nat.
(c) Cobb.
(d) Cat.

4. Nat describes black slaves as being docile, yet filled with ______.
(a) Pain.
(b) Fury.
(c) Revenge.
(d) Fear .

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

Short Answer Questions

1. When did Nat first begin to plan his rebellion?

2. What Psalm does Nat tell Miss Margaret is his favorite?

3. What warning, if any, was given for the insurrection?

4. What does Nat wonder about after sentencing?

5. What does Gray refer to the insurgent slaves as?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. 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?

3. 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?

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

6. 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?

7. The Introduction opens in the jail, so the reader already know Nat has been caught. Why might the author have used this technique? Why not choose some other method of telling the story?

8. 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?

9. Read Nat's description of Gray when they first meet in Part 1. Read Nat's thoughts about Gray immediately after the description. What does Nat think and/or feel about Gray? Does that have an effect on Nat's decision to confess? What does he think whites expect of him?

10. 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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,363 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample