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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 Marse Samuel's plantation, how were the slaves awoken in the morning?
(a) By a triangle being rung at the Big House.
(b) By the foreman.
(c) By Nat running through the slave cabins waking everyone.
(d) By Abraham's trumpet call.

2. What year did Nat's grandmother die?
(a) 1782.
(b) 1781.
(c) 1783.
(d) 1780.

3. What does Nat compare his life as a slave child to?
(a) Colt.
(b) Yearling mule.
(c) Calf.
(d) Trained monkey.

4. Who eventually catches Nat with the stolen book?
(a) Samuel Turner.
(b) Abraham.
(c) Nat's mother.
(d) Little Morning.

5. After dinner, what does Miss Nell do?
(a) Give the cooks their orders for the next day's meals.
(b) Go out to the smokehouse.
(c) Ask that dessert be served on the veranda.
(d) Take a poultice to a sick Negro child in the cabins.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Part 2, what does Nat say is the most futile thing a man can do?

2. Who does Nat identify as a white man who was "unconditionally monstrous"?

3. What type of hinges are on the privy door?

4. What does Nat remember seeing after getting to Major Ridley's place?

5. What is a smudge pot used for?

Short Essay Questions

1. After Nathaniel Francis forces Will and Sam to fight, Nat feels called to preach for the first time. Why do you think that was the event that brought Nat out in public as a preacher? Quote at least one reason from the book.

2. In Part 2, Nat talks about Samuel Turner's tampering with a slave's destiny by educating him. Immediately afterward, he talks about what his life might have been like if he had not been the subject of Marse Samuel's "experiment." What do you think of this description of his might-have-been life? Is it something that appeals to him?

3. Early in Part 2, the traveling salesman asks Nat to spell a word. This is the second time in the book that a spelling request has frightened Nat. What are some of the reasons Nat gives for his terror?

4. In Part 1, Marse Samuel speaks to Dr. Ballard about the existence of slavery in the South. He says "it is evil to keep these people in bondage, yet they cannot be freed. They must be educated!" Samuel's brother Benjamin does not agree with him and argues the other point. Who makes the better argument?

5. When Nat preaches in town in Part 3, he does not use proper English. Why do you think he does that?

6. Nat's vision in Part 3 involves a white angel and a black angel fighting. The black angel wins, casting the white angel down. When Nat questions this vision, he says he received no answer at all "save the answer in my brain." What did he interpret this vision as, and why?

7. In Part 2, Nat describes two events: "one causing me the bitterest anguish, the other premonitions of joy." What were these two events, and why might they have been told together?

8. Miss Nell calls Nat "you smart little tar baby" in Part 1. Please explain what is meant by that name, and how it compares to what a white child would be called for the same reason.

9. The scene with Major Ridley's fiancee is very strong. A northern white woman, newly arrived in town, can't find her way around and can't understand the Negroes speech. According to Nat, she left, never to return. Why might Styron have had her interact with Arnold, an elderly slave who had been freed, but with no education and worse elocution?

10. When Nat imagines his grandmother's thoughts as a captured Coromantee slave girl, he describes Marse Samuel's smile as looking to her like "fiendish smirk." Why would he would describe the kindest master he had in this way?

(see the answer keys)

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