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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. What is a smudge pot used for?
(a) Keeping the house fires lit.
(b) Providing heat on the veranda.
(c) Keeping mosquitoes away.
(d) Lighting gentlemen's cigarettes.

2. Nat took four slaves to be hired out to Vaughan's for two weeks. When Nat met the men at the trace, what happened?
(a) The slaves were sold.
(b) Nat felt the presence of the Lord.
(c) Nat took the slaves to the revival instead.
(d) The Vaughans didn't need them and sent them back.

3. Who were the two oldest of Nat's "inmost four"?
(a) Nat and Hark.
(b) Hark and Henry.
(c) Hark and Nelson.
(d) Nelson and Henry.

4. When Gray questions Nat, does Nat say he feels any remorse over the killings?
(a) A lot.
(b) At little.
(c) He'd like to go back in time and stop himself.
(d) None at all.

5. What was the first stop for the initial band of men on the insurrection?
(a) Joseph Travis's farm.
(b) Jeremiah Cobb's plantation.
(c) The Barnett plantation.
(d) Benjamin Turner's homestead.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Hark and Nat go to town on market day, what happens?

2. Where does Nat hide the stolen book immediately after taking it?

3. What did Miss Nell give Nat one year for Christmas?

4. After five days in the woods with Hark, what happens to Nat?

5. Why can't Nat carry out the rebellion on the date he originally chose?

Short Essay Questions

1. The story of Hark's escape and eventual return takes up a large section of Part 3. Why might Styron have devoted so much time to this story? What was he trying to show? What do readers learn from Nat's telling of the story?

2. Why might Part 3 be titled "Study War"? Is it appropriate?

3. 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.

4. In Part 2, Nat tells of Little Morning spying on him as a jealous response to the realization that Nat could read. This is the first time Nat tells of a negative reaction to his reading and learning. Why might Little Morning have reacted like this?

5. After Nat describes his ideas about his grandmother, he switches to describing what he knows about his father--mainly that he ran away, and, at least in Nat's mind, is free now. How does Nat's description of his grandmother differ from his description of his father?

6. 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?

7. One of the slaves chained by the drover tells Nat that he's "just like him." Do you think this is true? Why or why not?

8. 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?

9. After Nat spells the word columbine, he lies awake that night thinking about it. He says it's a dream filled with 'inchoate promise'. What does he mean by that? How can one word be a promise?

10. Nat equates Isham to John the Baptist. Nat speaks of a warning after the incident with Isham. Is this related?

(see the answer keys)

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