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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. According to Nat's confession, how many people did he kill?
(a) Ten.
(b) Two.
(c) One.
(d) Thirty-Two.

2. What does Gray say was the "only principle of restraint" for the band of slaves?
(a) Worry that the alarm would be raised too soon.
(b) Apprehension for their personal safety.
(c) Fear of taking too much time, impeding their escape to the north.
(d) Fear of being caught.

3. Who is Miss Maria Pope?
(a) The closest neighbor to the Travis home.
(b) Mrs. Travis's half-sister.
(c) Joseph Travis's aunt.
(d) Joseph Travis's half-sister.

4. While in jail, about how many blacks does Hark say were killed while Nat hid?
(a) Two hundred.
(b) Fifty.
(c) One hundred fifty.
(d) One hundred.

5. What weapon does Nat's captor carry?
(a) A shotgun.
(b) A bow and arrow.
(c) A knife.
(d) A sword.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the Introduction, Gray hopes that the description of Nat's rebellion will demonstrate policy regarding what?

2. What Psalm does Nat tell Miss Margaret is his favorite?

3. How do Putnam and MIss Maria punish Hark?

4. Turner says he submits Nat's "own account of the conspiracy" to the public ____________.

5. Why does Gray say he published the Confessions?

Short Essay Questions

1. The Introduction opens in the jail, so the reader already know Nat has been caught. Why might the author have used this technique? Why not choose some other method of telling the story?

2. By the middle of Part 1, readers have met four white people: Gray, Kitchen, Miss Maria Pope, and Jeremiah Cobb. None of them are described positively. Why might that be? Since the book is supposedly written from Nat's point of view, why might he only describe white people (to this point in the book) in negative terms?

3. Read Nat's description of Gray when they first meet in Part 1. Read Nat's thoughts about Gray immediately after the description. What does Nat think and/or feel about Gray? Does that have an effect on Nat's decision to confess? What does he think whites expect of him?

4. Gray says that all the other insurgents who were examined tried to exculpate themselves. What does that mean? And why Nat didn't do it?

5. In the introduction, Gray refers to the insurrection as a "conspiracy." Do you agree with that term? Why or why not?

6. In Part 1, Nat says "a white man's discomfiture, observed on the sly, has always been a Negro's richest delight." Is this true? If so, why? If not, why would Nat think such a thing? Either way, what does that quote suggest about Nat?

7. In the "Author's Note", Styron says he has "rarely departed from the known facts about Nat Turner and the revolt of which he was the leader." But the written text of the Confession is only around twenty pages. This book is over 400 pages long. Surely this can't be all fact; Styron himself says he allowed himself the "utmost freedom" in reconstructing the events. So which is true? Do you think this book will be mostly fact or fiction?

8. In Part 1, Gray reads back Nat's account of the killings, and Nat yells at him to stop. Why did Nat say that? Did he feel remorse? Nat says, "We done what had to be done!" Was he was talking about his "visions" and what they told him, or what Nat, personally, felt needed to be done?

9. What do readers know about Gray from the Introduction? What is implied, or what can be inferred from what Gray says? From this information, what kind of person might Gray be?

10. Near the middle of Part 1, Nat says that treating blacks badly will make them "your for life", but treat him nice, and "he will want to slice your throat." What does Nat mean by that?

(see the answer keys)

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