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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 were Marse Samuel's "grander plans" for Nat?
(a) Going to secondary school.
(b) An apprenticeship in carpentry.
(c) Becoming head butler.
(d) An apprenticeship in blacksmithing.

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

3. What does Nat find in Mrs. Whitehead's library that furthers his plans for a slave uprising?
(a) A sharp knife.
(b) A Bible lying open to Judges 15:14, where Sampson kills a thousand men.
(c) A book about famous murderers.
(d) A map of Southampton County.

4. What was the companion book to the one Nat stole?
(a) The Life and Death of Mr. Goodman.
(b) Letters of John Adams.
(c) Wuthering Heights.
(d) Grace Abounding.

5. Who ends up killing the first victim in the insurrection?
(a) Hark.
(b) Nat.
(c) Will.
(d) Sam.

Short Answer Questions

1. On Marse Samuel's plantation, how were the slaves awoken in the morning?

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

3. Shortly after the trial, what happens to Nate?

4. When Gray questions Nat, does Nat say he feels any remorse over the killings?

5. Which of Nat's followers was deaf?

Short Essay Questions

1. As the book progresses, the descriptions of white slave owners grow worse and worse, until we reach Nathaniel Francis, introduced in Part 3. Why did Styron make each owner he described, whether the owner of Nat or other slaves, an uglier, meaner character than the one before?

2. 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?

3. 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?

4. 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.

5. 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?

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

7. 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?

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. When Nat talks with Mrs. Whitehead in Part 3 after tracing the map, she alternately praises him and treats him as property, stating that she'd offered one thousand dollars for him. How did that make Nat feel?

(see the answer keys)

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