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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. According to Gray, how many slave uprisings had there been in the area prior to Nat Turner's?

2. While in church with Hark, Nat makes plans to gather with other blacks where?

3. Nat describes black slaves as being docile, yet filled with ______.

4. Southampton is located in what state?

5. According to Gray, what excuse did Nat give for his participation in the rebellion?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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. 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?

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 the Introduction, Gray talks about an "annexed certificate of the County Court of Southampton" to prove the authenticity of Nat's "confession." Yet no one from the court, besides Gray, heard Nat's statements. Why might Gray have included the certificate?

6. At the end of the introduction, it states that the confession was read to Nat, and when asked if he had anything further to say, he said no. The rebellion was a complicated affair that involved planning. Why do you think Nat declined to say anything further?

7. Gray says that all the other insurgents who were examined tried to exculpate themselves. What does that mean? And why Nat didn't do it?

8. In Part 1, Nat gets very angry at Hark and chastises him for being so subservient to the whites. But Hark is a slave. Hark is doing what the whites expect, and being well treated because of it. Was Nat justified in what he did? Why or why not?

9. By the middle of Part 1, readers have met four white people: Gray, Kitchen, Miss Maria Pope, and Jeremiah Cobb. None of them are described positively. Why might that be? Since the book is supposedly written from Nat's point of view, why might he only describe white people (to this point in the book) in negative terms?

10. 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?

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

In Part 1, Samuel Turner discusses things with Nat on his ride to Jerusalem as if Nat were an equal. Yet he refers to Nat in that same discussion as a "darky," a derogatory term. Describe other instances in the book when a white person was being derogatory to a black, but was unaware of this. Are there instances when a white speaks to a black in a derogatory manner and is aware of it? How did whites use their conversations with blacks in various manners in the book, and what result were they expecting? Be sure to use at least one specific example from the book in your discussion.

Essay Topic 3

Near the end of Part 2, Nat reflects on the fact that the other slaves "cared nothing about themselves or where they were going." They weren't concerned about the future, and their sale didn't seem to bother them. Why were they unconcerned? Use at least one specific example from the book in your essay.

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