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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How would you describe Sarny's perception of life outside of the plantation in Chapter 2?
(a) Sarny views life outside the plantation as harsher than life within the plantation.
(b) Sarny has no knowledge of life outside of the plantation.
(c) Sarny's experiences outside the plantation have led her to desire freedom.
(d) Sarny experienced a brutal life outside the plantation when she was bought by Mr. Waller.

2. In Chapter 1, Sarny says that some believed she brought Nightjohn to the plantation by what manner?
(a) Train.
(b) Begging the master.
(c) Witchery.
(d) Acting intelligent.

3. How does Mammy notate the ages of the slave children that she raises?
(a) By scratching marks on the floor.
(b) By marking notches on sticks.
(c) By putting stakes in the ground.
(d) By collecting pebbles in a jar.

4. What euphemism does Sarny use to describe menstruation in Chapter 1?
(a) The spots.
(b) Womanhood.
(c) The trouble.
(d) Aunt Mary.

5. What kind of work does Sarny say she is not yet old enough to do on the plantation in Chapter 1?
(a) Helping with the young ones.
(b) Gathering eggs.
(c) Field work.
(d) Yard work.

6. "Partus sequitur ventrem" was a legal doctrine adopted widely into the laws of slavery in the American colonies. What did this law dictate?
(a) That escaped slaves must be returned to their master.
(b) That the child of a slave was a slave.
(c) That slaves were forbidden from reading and writing.
(d) That slaves be forbidden from attending church.

7. From what device do Sarny and the other slaves eat their meals at the plantation?
(a) From a long table.
(b) From a trough.
(c) From a cauldron.
(d) From a grill.

8. Mammy says in Chapter 1 that Sarny's mother sold for the value of how many field hands?
(a) 4.
(b) 2.
(c) 6.
(d) 3.

9. 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) 1865.
(b) 1739.
(c) 1826.
(d) 1794.

10. What does Sarny enjoy doing every evening after the slaves eat?
(a) Singing songs that she learned in church.
(b) Laying in bed thinking about what she's learned.
(c) Drawing pictures in the sand in the chicken shed.
(d) Playing a harmonica that she found in town.

11. How old is Sarny in Chapter 1?
(a) 10.
(b) 8.
(c) 12.
(d) 15.

12. How old was Sarny when her birth mother was sold?
(a) 6.
(b) 12.
(c) 4.
(d) 2.

13. When Sarny overhears the mistress of the plantation in Chapter 2, the mistress is complaining that her husband spends too much money buying slaves. What is she concerned that she will not have enough money to purchase due to her husband's overspending?
(a) Farm supplies.
(b) Dresses.
(c) A new house.
(d) Livestock.

14. What does Sarny recall Mammy telling her to do with the coin that she found in the dirt in Chapter 2?
(a) To spend it.
(b) To hide it.
(c) To give it to her.
(d) To give it to the master.

15. Where are the flower beds described that Sarny tends from time to time in Chapter 1?
(a) Below the big window on the white house.
(b) In the back garden of the slave quarters.
(c) By the roadside under the elm tree.
(d) In the front entrance to the slave quarters.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of flowers is Sarny working on in the flower bed in the beginning of Chapter 2?

2. What does John call out for from the slaves in the sleeping quarters on his first night at the plantation in Chapter 3?

3. What historical figure "owned, raised, and subsequently used" the slave that the novel is dedicated to by the author?

4. What does John tell Sarny she will have to learn before she can learn to read in Chapter 3?

5. What major theme of the novel emerges in Chapter 3?

(see the answer keys)

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