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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many of the slaves escaped the insurrection without punishment?

2. What is Nat's execution date?

3. In Part One, Nat tells Gray that the Lord told him to confess so that "all nations will know." What was the other reason the Lord gave Nat for confessing?

4. Who gives T. R. Gray permission to talk to Nat in jail?

5. In the Introduction, Gray hopes that the description of Nat's rebellion will demonstrate policy regarding what?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. 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.

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 the "Author's Note", Styron says he has "rarely departed from the known facts about Nat Turner and the revolt of which he was the leader." But the written text of the Confession is only around twenty pages. This book is over 400 pages long. Surely this can't be all fact; Styron himself says he allowed himself the "utmost freedom" in reconstructing the events. So which is true? Do you think this book will be mostly fact or fiction?

5. 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?

6. Describe the world that Nat lived in from a slave's perspective. Now describe it from a white person's perspective.

7. Prejudice is "an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought or reason". (Dictionary.com) Do you think Nat displays prejudice toward Gray? Toward whites in general? How? List specific examples from Part 1.

8. What do readers know about Gray from the Introduction? What is implied, or what can be inferred from what Gray says? From this information, what kind of person might Gray be?

9. 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?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Nat is romantically drawn to Miss Margaret, yet his feelings for her also cause him panic. What are some of his conflicting feelings for Miss Margaret? How does he try to reconcile them? Cite specific examples from the text. Compare and contrast his feelings for Miss Margaret to his feelings for other white female characters in the book, like Mrs. Whitehead. How are they alike or different?

Essay Topic 2

1. Based on T. R. Gray's address to the public, how impartial do you think Mr. Gray was in recording the confessions of Nat Turner? What specific examples in the text of the "To the Public" section make you think that?

2. How does William Styron's portrayal of Nat and Mr. Gray compare to the "To the Public" section? Do you think Mr. Styron captured the essence of the confessions accurately Do you think Nat truly confessed? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Nat has a revelation in Part 1 when he is called a slave for the first time in his memory. The night seems longer after that, "beyond hope of ending," as Nat says. Describe how Nat's perceptions changed after hearing this. How did his perception of himself change? How did his perception of the world change? Use at least one specific example from the book in your essay.

(see the answer keys)

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