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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 does Sarny say they pour down the trough in the mornings for the slaves in Chapter 3?
(a) Buttermilk.
(b) Tea.
(c) Oatmeal.
(d) Coffee.

2. What does Sarny remark about her birth in Chapter 1?
(a) She was born premature.
(b) She was born blind.
(c) She came out backwards.
(d) She was born deaf.

3. 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) Dresses.
(b) Farm supplies.
(c) Livestock.
(d) A new house.

4. "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 slaves be forbidden from attending church.
(b) That escaped slaves must be returned to their master.
(c) That the child of a slave was a slave.
(d) That slaves were forbidden from reading and writing.

5. In whose memory is Nightjohn dedicated by the author in the opening pages?
(a) In John Brown's memory.
(b) In Sally Hemings' memory.
(c) In Frederick Douglass's memory.
(d) In Harriet Tubman's memory.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Sarny describe the financial circumstances of the master's family in Chapter 2?

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

3. 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?

4. Sarny states at the end of Chapter 2 that she knows the "people in the white house aren't richer" than whom?

5. How would you describe the treatment of the slaves on Waller's plantation?

Short Essay Questions

1. When is the first time that Sarny describes hearing the word "free" in Chapter 2? What were her perceptions of this word?

2. How does Mr. Waller behave toward John as he brings him into the plantation in Chapter 3?

3. How is Sarny's birth and early childhood described in Chapter 1? Are Sarny's experiences common for slaves at this time?

4. Why were slaves forbidden education historically? How is this depicted in the novel?

5. What does Mammy measure on the sticks that she keeps for each child on the plantation? Why?

6. How would you describe the narrator of the story? Is the narrator directly involved in the action of the narrative?

7. How is John's appearance described when he first arrives at the plantation in Chapter 3?

8. How does Sarny describe the process of meals for the slaves at the plantation in Chapter 3?

9. What is the significance of John's scars when he first appears? Why do you think Waller chose John despite those scars?

10. How does the author illustrate Sarny's only encounter with money in Chapter 2?

(see the answer keys)

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