View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Part 1, how does Gray refer to Nat?
(a) As a victim.
(b) As a man among men.
(c) As animate chattel.
(d) As a thing.

2. What does Nat wonder about after sentencing?
(a) Stealing a Bible.
(b) Redemption.
(c) Escaping.
(d) Saving Hark.

3. Why does Gray say he published the Confessions?
(a) For the gratification of public curiosity.
(b) For punishment of the guilty.
(c) To include them in his memoirs.
(d) In order to set the record straight.

4. Nat tells Gray of an event that "laid the groundwork" for his later actions, including the insurrection. What was that event?
(a) As a child, relating events that had happened before his birth.
(b) Being sold to a new master.
(c) Stealing small items with a group of childhood friends.
(d) Wanting to train for the priesthood.

5. Who does Trezevant compare Nat to?
(a) The Pope.
(b) Attila the Hun.
(c) President Andrew Jackson.
(d) Ivan the Terrible.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the Negroes in church use to fan themselves?

2. What is the nickname T. R. Gray gives to Nat in the "To the Public" section of the book?

3. What reason does Gray give in his introduction for publishing Nat's confessions?

4. According to Nat's statements, the insurrection was ______.

5. Which Biblical prophet did Nat feel "spoke" to him most clearly about the rebellion?

Short Essay Questions

1. Gray tries to calm the fears of the people in Southampton County with his statement that's included in the Introduction. Yet he says "if Nat's statements can be relied upon." Why would he include a statement like this when he's trying to calm people?

2. Part 1 is told partly in the court as Nat's sentence is being handed down and partly through flashbacks to earlier times in Nat's life. Why might Styron have opened the book this way? What purpose does it serve?

3. When Gray addresses the court, he blames "pure Negro cowardice" as a partial reason for the rebellion's failure, but then later in that same paragraph, Gray describes devoted slaves fighting "as bravely as any man" against Nat and his band. Why is he saying these things? Is he trying to confuse the justices?

4. In Part 1, when Nat is cleaning rabbits with Hark and Jeremiah Cobb stops to talk after getting a drink, Nat becomes nervous when he feels Cobb's question needs an answer. Nat doesn't want to give away a hint of what he's planning, but there's something else that pulls him in two directions when he considers whether to answer Cobb or not. Describe why Nat is so worried.

5. 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?

6. In Part 1, Nat gets very angry at Hark and chastises him for being so subservient to the whites. But Hark is a slave. Hark is doing what the whites expect, and being well treated because of it. Was Nat justified in what he did? Why or why not?

7. 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?

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. Nat tells Gray in the Introduction, "I don't think you understand about this business and I don't know but whether it's too late to make it all plain". If Gray took down what Nat said and is reading it back to him, why would Nat think Gray didn't understand?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,447 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample