Louisiana State University - HIST 2055

Chapter 15 The Old South

TRUE/FALSE

1)One of the most realistic depictions of the Old South comes from the classic film Gone with the Wind.

2. The South’s staple crops tended to exhaust the soil and lead to erosion.

3. Agricultural diversity in the Old South was practically nonexistent.

4. Economically, the South was a sort of colonial dependency of the North.

5. Most white Northerners were anti-racist abolitionists.

6. A black overseer on a plantation was known as a driver.

7. Denmark Vesey plotted a slave insurrection in Charleston, South Carolina.

8. Men on the southern frontier tended to drink less alcohol than men in the eastern states.

9. The American Colonization Society established the African nation of Liberia as a new home for free American blacks.

10. William Lloyd Garrison published a militant anti-slavery newspaper called the Liberator.

11. White abolitionists tended to favor the formation of separate black anti-slavery organizations.

12. Frederick Douglass was a black abolitionist.

13. John Quincy Adams opposed the “gag rule” that stifled debate over slavery in Congress.

14. The northern states had little racial discrimination and segregation before the Civil War.

15. After about 1830, southern intellectuals presented slavery as a positive good rather than as a necessary evil.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. The movie Gone with the Wind:
   1. realistically portrays slavery
   2. mirrors the portrayal of the South in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
   3. presents a mythic view of the Old South
   4. has little remaining influence in our culture
   5. offended white southerners at the time of its release

2. In the antebellum period, southerners viewed their region as:
   1. a model for the world
   2. distinctive from the rest of the country
   3. a land of equality and opportunity
   4. moving from agriculture to industrial dominance
   5. a magnet for foreign immigrants

3. All the following might be used to explain the South’s distinctiveness EXCEPT:
   1. its climate
   2. its preponderance of farming
   3. its biracial population
   4. the large number of immigrants who came to the South after 1760
   5. its determination to preserve slavery

4. Despite a great diversity of origins in the colonial population, the South:
   1. drew more immigrants from Ireland than any other country after the Revolution
   2. drew more immigrants from Germany than any other country after the Revolution
   3. drew fewer immigrants from France than any other country after the Revolution
   4. drew few overseas immigrants after the Revolution
   5. banned overseas immigration after the Revolution in order to unify its white population

5. By 1860, slavery was most concentrated:

1. 1. in the Lower South
   2. in the Carolinas
   3. in the Upper South
   4. in Texas and Louisiana
   5. equally through the South

6. By the 1830s, most Baptists and Methodists in the South:
   1. condemned slavery
   2. owned slaves
   3. were wealthy planters
   4. were active in reform movements
   5. defended slavery

7. By the antebellum period, all of the following remained significant staple crops in the South EXCEPT:
   1. cotton
   2. sugar
   3. rice
   4. tobacco
   5. indigo

8. As southerners moved farther west between 1820 and 1860:
   1. cotton production soared
   2. the South became less agricultural
   3. the South became less distinctive
   4. fewer slaves were needed
   5. North–South relations got better

9. The focus on cotton and other cash crops has obscured the degree to which:
   1. the antebellum South fed itself from its own fields
   2. the South became totally dependent on the West for its food
   3. the South relied on Britain for its manufactured goods
   4. the North had to use imported cotton from overseas for its textile manufacturers
   5. most white southerners lived and worked in cities

10. The Tredegar Iron Works:
    1. was the most important single manufacturing enterprise in the Old South
    2. employed over half of the population of Cartersville, Georgia
    3. refused to use black workers
    4. paid higher wages than New England textile mills
    5. went bankrupt during the panic of 1857

11. One agricultural problem southerners increasingly faced was:
    1. a shortage of horses and mules
    2. high prices for farm machinery
    3. frequent droughts
    4. low production of food and livestock
    5. exhaustion of the soil

12. Because of the dominance of agriculture, the South was becoming increasingly dependent upon:
    1. Britain
    2. France
    3. the West
    4. the North
    5. the China trade

13. The major reason the South did not industrialize was that:
    1. slaves could not do factory labor
    2. planters did not care about making money
    3. plantation slavery was quite profitable
    4. it lacked natural resources
    5. its banking system was too limited

14. The southern belief that “cotton is king”:
    1. made southerners confident to diversify their economy
    2. was an accurate statement of reality
    3. made southerners feel inferior to the more-developed North
    4. improved North–South relations
    5. did not anticipate declining world demand for cotton

15. What portion of the South’s white families owned slaves?
    1. one tenth
    2. one fourth
    3. one half
    4. two thirds
    5. three fourths

16. Southern planters:
    1. owned at least twenty slaves
    2. worked alongside their slaves
    3. were about half the South’s white population
    4. often owned thousands of slaves
    5. were rarely active in politics or society

17. The plantation mistress:
    1. usually led a life of idle leisure
    2. often criticized the prevailing social order and racist climate
    3. generally confronted a double standard in terms of moral and sexual behavior
    4. was sometimes known as the slave driver
    5. represented the typical southern white woman

18. Plantation mistresses:
    1. tended to oppose slavery
    2. very seldom toiled
    3. were usually college-educated
    4. supervised the domestic household
    5. could count on their husbands being faithful

19. The most numerous white southerners were the:
    1. planters
    2. yeoman farmers
    3. “poor whites”
    4. manufacturers
    5. overseers

20. Small farmers in the South:
    1. usually owned slaves
    2. supported white supremacy
    3. lived on the verge of starvation
    4. were the lower class of the region
    5. were outnumbered by the planters

21. If poor southern whites seemed lazy it was likely because of:
    1. genetics
    2. the heat
    3. dietary deficiencies and diseases like hookworm
    4. the presence of slaves
    5. lack of exercise

22. The frequency of dueling in the South was probably caused by:
    1. hot weather that elevated tempers
    2. lack of education of the participants
    3. the absence of police departments
    4. the beauty of southern women
    5. southerners’ exalted sense of honor

23. Approximately how many slaves lived in the South in 1860? a.      30,000

b. 100,000

3. 1 million
4. 4 million
5. 10 million

24. Free blacks in the South:
    1. sometimes owned slaves
    2. were always of mixed race
    3. enjoyed full legal equality
    4. outnumbered slaves
    5. all of the above

25. Slave owners in the antebellum South acquired additional slaves from:
    1. Africa
    2. Brazil
    3. the domestic slave trade
    4. the West Indies
    5. Asia

26. Slave women:
    1. exclusively did household labor
    2. had low birth rates due to their oppression
    3. often worked in the fields
    4. were allowed to marry white men
    5. had little value to their masters

27. When in 1855 a slave named Celia killed her sexually abusive master, she was:
    1. acquitted
    2. applauded
    3. freed
    4. sentenced to life in prison
    5. hanged

28. In Charleston, blacks outnumbered whites, leaving the ruling elite:
    1. desirous to bring more white immigrants into the city
    2. asking the national government for military protection
    3. unable to control the countryside
    4. almost hysterically determined to quash any slave uprising
    5. questioning whether slavery should continue

29. The slave revolt led by Nat Turner:
    1. resulted in his escape to Canada
    2. was one of dozens in American history
    3. proved the influence of abolitionists in the South
    4. was betrayed before it even got started
    5. killed dozens of whites before its suppression

30. Gullah refers to the:
    1. slave culture of coastal Georgia and South Carolina
    2. labor system used on most large plantations
    3. slave cabins on large plantations
    4. slave overseer
    5. part of Africa most slaves came from

31. Slave religion:
    1. mixed African and Christian elements
    2. caused slaves to accept their condition
    3. required reading of the Bible
    4. was stamped out by white masters
    5. was best observed during racially integrated church services

32. Slave marriages:
    1. were not in the interest of slave masters
    2. were never legally sanctioned
    3. seldom lasted
    4. went against the norms of African culture
    5. undermined the authority of male slaves

33. Slave rebellions in the South:
    1. occurred frequently
    2. were sometimes betrayed before they started
    3. were sometimes joined by poor whites
    4. had about even odds of success
    5. happened most often in the Lower South

34. In the antebellum period, which of the following was in the Old Southwest?
    1. Virginia
    2. North Carolina
    3. Mississippi
    4. Georgia
    5. South Carolina

35. The Old Southwest:

1. 1. included Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah
   2. attracted thousands of settlers in the 1820s and 1830s with its promise of cotton produc- tion
   3. attracted nearly twice as many female as male settlers in the early years
   4. soon boasted the nation’s highest standards of public education
   5. was a promised land for slaves because of superior work conditions

36. Life in the Old Southwest was characterized by:
    1. lack of women
    2. harsh working conditions
    3. alcoholism
    4. violence
    5. all of the above

37. Which of the following is NOT true of the American Colonization Society?
    1. Most free blacks supported it.
    2. It was founded in the late 1810s.
    3. It was backed by many prominent politicians.
    4. It proposed to send blacks back to Africa.
    5. It did not reduce the total number of slaves.

38. The efforts of the American Colonization Society resulted in the creation of the African nation of:
    1. Ethiopia
    2. Nigeria
    3. Liberia
    4. Kenya
    5. Sierra Leone

39. William Lloyd Garrison:
    1. demanded immediate emancipation of slaves
    2. organized an anti-slavery political party
    3. used calm, moderate language to oppose slavery
    4. caused the Nat Turner revolt
    5. believed slaveholders should be paid to free their slaves

40. William Lloyd Garrison:
    1. supported the use of physical violence
    2. was accused by slaveholders of stirring up the unrest that led to Nat Turner’s insurrection
    3. edited an abolitionist paper called the Tattler
    4. was the most prominent southern abolitionist
    5. was killed by a pro-slavery gang in Boston

41. Sarah and Angelina Grimké:
    1. demanded women’s rights as well as abolition
    2. organized abolitionists in South Carolina
    3. were denounced by William Lloyd Garrison for their militant views
    4. were lynched by a pro-slavery mob
    5. were the most famous black abolitionists

42. The American Anti-Slavery Society split over the issue of:
    1. women’s rights
    2. colonization
    3. financial compensation for slave owners
    4. biblical interpretation
    5. temperance

43. Frederick Douglass:
    1. was the founder of the Underground Railroad
    2. became a notable black preacher
    3. wrote a famous account of his life as a slave
    4. was captured in the North and returned to slavery
    5. helped abolish slavery in the British West Indies

44. All of the following are true about Sojourner Truth, EXCEPT that she:
    1. had been born a slave
    2. spoke for women’s rights and abolition
    3. changed her name (from Isabella) after a mystical conversation with God
    4. killed her master to escape from slavery
    5. was born in New York in the late 1790s

45. The killing of Elijah Lovejoy showed:
    1. the violent tactics of abolitionists
    2. the danger of encouraging slave rebellion
    3. the end of a free press
    4. growing support for black equality
    5. the rampant racism in the North

46. On what basis did John Quincy Adams, “Old Man Eloquent,” protest the “gag rule” concerning aboli- tion petitions?
    1. It went against common sense.

1. 2. It was clearly a bias against the North.
   3. It was enforced illegally.
   4. It violated the First Amendment.
   5. He liked to provoke pro-slavery congressmen.

47. George Fitzhugh’s major pro-slavery argument was that:
    1. slavery was justified in the Bible
    2. southern slavery was better for workers than the “wage slavery” of northern industry
    3. blacks were the product of a separate creation
    4. blacks and whites could not live together without risk of race war except for slavery
    5. slavery allowed so many whites to make a good living

48. Southerners used all of the following to justify slavery EXCEPT:
    1. claims of black racial inferiority
    2. biblical support of slavery
    3. fear of a race war if slavery were abolished
    4. Thomas Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence
    5. the superior life Africans enjoyed in the southern states

49. By the 1830s, John C. Calhoun was arguing that:
    1. blacks deserved equality
    2. the Bible opposed slavery
    3. slavery should be phased out
    4. plantations were no longer profitable
    5. slavery was a “positive good”

50. The debate over slavery:
    1. moved Methodists and Baptists to take an anti-slavery position
    2. moved Methodists and Baptists to take a pro-slavery position
    3. split Methodists and Baptists into northern and southern denominations
    4. was generally ignored by Methodists and Baptists until the Civil War
    5. caused many Methodists and Baptists to be less religious

MATCHING

51 Match each description with the item below.