Chapter 9: Abolitionism in Black and WhiteAssignment
Arrange the sequence of sceneries black abolitionists often used in their moving panoramas to narrate the history of African Americans in the correct order of occurrence. (Place the description of the first scenery at the top.)
1. Scenes from the African continent 2. Scenes of slave ships 3. The intro of slavery in the New World 4. The character of slavery in the 1850s with its slave markets and plantations
True or false: In the antebellum era, the Old South perceived antislavery talk as bringing about a positive change to southern institutions.
FALSE
True or false: John Brown's raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, was suggested by the government of Virginia.
False
_____ sought to undermine racial chauvinism by showing the unity of humankind in his essay "The Claims of the Negro Ethnologically Considered."
Frederick Douglass
Identify an accurate statement about James Henry Hammond's views on slavery.
He believed slavery to be necessary to the progress of white civilization.
How did Wendell Phillips contribute to the antislavery movement?
He gave a stirring speech in favor of freedom of the press and liberty that signaled the coming change in how people would view antislavery.
How did John Fairfield contribute to the antislavery cause?
He helped slaves escape the South by working as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Identify an accurate statement about John Fairfield.
He often posed as a slaveholder to help slaves escape from the South.
Identify an accurate statement about prominent black abolitionist James McCune Smith.
He was more accepting of separate black antislavery societies in the 1850s after discouraging them in the 1840s.
How did the Compromise of 1850 affect the slave trade?
It ended the public sale of slaves in the nation's capital.
Identify a characteristic of the Compromise of 1850.
It favored slaveholders' interests by including a stringent fugitive slave law.
Which of the following are true of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854? (Check all that apply.)
It galvanized many antislavery leaders to political action to combat the relentless drive of proslavery forces. It permitted legislatures in each of the territories to decide whether they would become free or slave states.
Identify an accurate statement about the abolitionist cause in the 1830s.
It had successfully spread to the South.
Identify a feature of the Underground Railroad.
It intensified the resentment that slaveholding southerners felt toward the North.
How did the federal government impact the antislavery cause in the 1830s and 1840s?
It joined in the persecution of abolitionists.
Identify the true statements about the operation of the Underground Railroad? (Check all that apply.)
It was funded by abolitionists and philanthropists. Most of the fugitives were men.
The most erudite and prolific abolitionist to challenge ideas of innate black inferiority was _____.
James McCune Smith
Match the following black abolitionists (in the left column) with their literary contributions (in the right column).
James W.C. Pennington: Textbook of the Origin and History of the Colored People William C. Nell: Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812 Martin Delany: The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States
Who was the abolitionist martyr who seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, hoping to secure sufficient ammunition to carry out a large-scale operation against slavery in the South?
John Brown
How did Harriet Tubman contribute to the antislavery cause?
She helped numerous slaves escape the South in the 1850s.
Identify an accurate statement about Harriet Tubman's time in the Underground Railroad.
She worked as a domestic servant in the North in order to raise the money to repeatedly help slaves escape the South.
How did the South react to the spread of abolitionist ideas? (Check all that apply.)
Southern leaders resolved to keep abolitionist ideas out of their communities by force if necessary. Many people who expressed points of view at variance from the accepted proslavery were harassed and ostracized.
True or false: Proslavery theorists asserted that the anatomy of blacks differed from whites in ways that enabled blacks to withstand punishment without feeling as much pain as whites.
TRUE
How did the "gag rule" that was imposed by the Congress in 1836 affect the antislavery movement?
The abolitionists used it to drive home the point that slavery denied freedom to whites as well.
Which of the following is true of the antislavery movement during the 1830s and 1840s?
The antislavery lecturers often found it difficult to rent halls in which to speak.
Which of the following was true of the Underground Railroad?
The majority of its operations took place at night.
Identify a characteristic of Robert Duncanson's painting View of Cincinnati, Ohio from Covington, Kentucky.
The slaves in the painting are emphasized as laborers in contrast to a more leisurely look
What was the most important proslavery argument?
The southern system was divinely ordained, and the Bible and the church sanctioned racially based slavery.
Which of the following is true of the literature written by ex-slaves in the 1840s and 1850s?
Their narratives offered first-hand accounts of the pain and suffering endured by slaves.
How did proslavery theorists view slavery?
They argued that it was necessary for the rise of civilization.
How did southern white ministers view slavery? (Check all that apply.)
They insisted that slavery offered a means of converting the heathen to Christian civilization. They preached that "blackness" resulted from the "curse of Ham" as related in the Book of Genesis's story of Noah.
How did black abolitionists view white abolitionists?
They saw them as being paternalistic at best.
How were whites who associated with blacks treated in the Old South?
They were severely dealt with, normally murdered or lynched.
What grievances did black abolitionists have with white abolitionists?
They were unhappy with the silence of their white compatriots on the issue of black disfranchisement in the North.
Why did many southerners with antislavery leanings move to Midwestern states in the 1830s and 1840s?
To escape the increasingly hostile atmosphere of the South
True or false: The Kansas-Nebraska Act galvanized many antislavery leaders. Northern Whigs, Free Soilers, and Democrats who opposed the act coalesced, and many of these disaffected northerners in the mid-1850s created the Republican Party.
True
The first black person to write both a play, The Escape (1858), and a novel, Clotel; or the President's Daughter (1853), was _____.
William Wells Brown
_____ was the first of the black abolitionists to create a moving panorama with his Original Panoramic Views of the Scenes in the Life of an American Slave (1849).
William Wells Brown
In the years leading to the Civil War, the conflict between abolitionists and supporters of slavery in the South was marked by _____.
acts of violence against abolitionists
William Lloyd Garrison criticized the other leaders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, namely the Tappan brothers and their supporters, for their unwillingness to _____.
denounce the churches for not taking an unequivocal antislavery stance
The largest and perhaps most influential group of black writers were _____.
ex-slaves
Robert Duncanson's painting View of Cincinnati, Ohio from Covington, Kentucky conveys an _____ meaning about the Ohio River.
implicit abolitionist
An accurate statement about the Underground Railroad is that _____.
slaves commonly disguised themselves to reach the Railroad
Fugitive slaves were able to escape their pursuers after boarding the Underground Railroad because _____.
the details of their journey were planned well ahead of the slaves' arrival
Until the outbreak of the Civil War, the Underground Railroad operated in _____.
flagrant violation of federal fugitive slave laws
