View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What year is noted in the opening of Book One, Chapter 1?

2. What symbols does Meena have carved into her cheeks?

3. What is the holy book of Islam?

4. What is the name of Meena’s baby that was taken by Mr. Appleby and sold?

5. How far along in her pregnancy does Meena surmise Fanta is in Book One, Chapter 3?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who are the visitors that Appleby brings to the plantation in Book Two, Chapter 8? What encounter does Meena have with them?

2. How does the narrator conclude the chapter in Book Two, Chapter 6? What are her thoughts focused on in this section of the text?

3. How is Aminata’s arrival at Robinson Appleby’s indigo plantation described in Book Two, Chapter 7?

4. How old is Chekura described in Book One, Chapter 3? How did he come to be among the captors?

5. How is the marriage exchange between Meena’s mother and father described in Book One, Chapter 2?

6. What does Aminata asks Chekura to do when she begins menstruating in Book One, Chapter 3?

7. Why is Aminata taken as an assistant to the white man on the slave-ship in Book One, Chapter 4?

8. Whose deaths does Meena describe hearing about through the fishnet in the beginning of Book Two, Chapter 10?

9. Why is Aminata given the name “Meena” by the other slaves on the plantation in Book Two, Chapter 7?

10. What is Meena’s full name? Why is she located in her current setting in Book One, Chapter 1?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and analyze the narrative style of the story. Is the narrator involved directly in the action of the story? Is the story related in present or past tense? What effect does each of these choices have on the reader?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the history and customs of Islam in Africa and on the setting of Bayo in 1745. In what region of Africa is Bayo said to be located? Near what city is Bayo? How many residents of this region were Muslim in 1745? How far away is the next village from Bayo?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the perceptions of the slaves upon arriving at Sullivan’s Island. How different is this setting from their native Africa? How were the slaves dressed when they arrived here? How were they treated?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 902 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample