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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What word from Chapter 3 refers to a person who manages slaves on a plantation?
(a) Vestibule.
(b) Dunce.
(c) Maestro.
(d) Overseer.

2. To whom does Mammy pray when Sarny witnesses her in Chapter 2?
(a) Allah.
(b) Lord Jesus.
(c) Saint Mary.
(d) The Great Buddha.

3. What does Sarny say her last name is in Chapter 1?
(a) Freeman.
(b) Thomas.
(c) Smith.
(d) Waller.

4. What is Mrs. Waller's first name?
(a) Alice.
(b) Alaine.
(c) Delie.
(d) Margaret.

5. What term refers to efforts toward procuring economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchised group?
(a) Abolition.
(b) Eclecticism.
(c) Emancipation.
(d) Suffragism.

6. What is the name of the slave that raises Sarny?
(a) Margaret.
(b) Alice.
(c) Alaine.
(d) Old Delie.

7. In what year did the United States Congress pass a Slave Trade Act which prohibited the building or outfitting of ships in the U.S. for use in the slave trade?
(a) 1826.
(b) 1865.
(c) 1739.
(d) 1794.

8. What kind of coin does Sarny describe finding in the dirt in Chapter 2?
(a) A quarter.
(b) A penny.
(c) A dime.
(d) A nickel.

9. What does Sarny say that the slaves call the master and mistress when they are in the slave quarters and out of hearing in Chapter 2?
(a) The perpetrator of evil.
(b) Witches and warlocks.
(c) Dog droppings or horse crap.
(d) The kind and queen of the castle.

10. What is foreshadowed by Sarny's story about finding the coin in the dirt in Chapter 2?
(a) Sarny's death.
(b) Sarny's education.
(c) Sarny's marriage.
(d) Sarny's eventual wealth.

11. What major theme of the novel emerges in Chapter 3?
(a) The pain of betrayal.
(b) The importance of literacy.
(c) Longing and forbidden love.
(d) Political corruption.

12. What does Sarny compare the color of John's skin with in Chapter 3?
(a) Marble.
(b) Porcelain.
(c) Coffee.
(d) Copper.

13. What kind of flowers is Sarny working on in the flower bed in the beginning of Chapter 2?
(a) Pansies.
(b) Daffodils.
(c) Crocuses.
(d) Roses.

14. What does John tell Sarny she will have to learn before she can learn to read in Chapter 3?
(a) How to be quiet.
(b) The alphabet.
(c) How to count.
(d) The rules of grammar.

15. What does Sarny describe Mammy putting her head into in order to pray in Chapter 2?
(a) A holy veil.
(b) A cooking pot.
(c) A burlap sack.
(d) A fireplace.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author assert about the events in the story at the opening of the novel?

2. In what century was the Atlantic slave established?

3. What does Sarny remark about her birth in Chapter 1?

4. What does Sarny recall Mammy telling her to do with the coin that she found in the dirt in Chapter 2?

5. What does Sarny say is forbidden in the slaves' sleeping quarters in Chapter 3?

(see the answer keys)

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