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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. Nat sees something on the way back from Jerusalem that has a big effect on him. What is it?
(a) A line of chained slaves being taken to Georgia.
(b) Marse Samuel selling a slave.
(c) Marse Samuel buying a slave.
(d) A slave being sold at auction.

2. What did Marse Samuel state he couldn't advocate freeing saves without?
(a) Education.
(b) Money to live on.
(c) Prejudice.
(d) Paying jobs.

3. What does Nat compare his life as a slave child to?
(a) Trained monkey.
(b) Calf.
(c) Yearling mule.
(d) Colt.

4. How many people were killed at the first location in the insurrection?
(a) Five.
(b) Two.
(c) Three.
(d) Four.

5. How many steps are in Nat's plan to kill the white people?
(a) Nine.
(b) Twelve.
(c) Ten.
(d) Eleven.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Nat hide the stolen book immediately after taking it?

2. Nat convinces some of his followers to join him by telling them of a "black" conqueror. About whom did Nat speak?

3. Who does Nat identify as a white man who was "unconditionally monstrous"?

4. What was Nat's mother's name?

5. Benjamin said that saves were as unteachable as a what?

Short Essay Questions

1. After Nathaniel Francis forces Will and Sam to fight, Nat feels called to preach for the first time. Why do you think that was the event that brought Nat out in public as a preacher? Quote at least one reason from the book.

2. When Nat imagines his grandmother's thoughts as a captured Coromantee slave girl, he describes Marse Samuel's smile as looking to her like "fiendish smirk." Why would he would describe the kindest master he had in this way?

3. One of the slaves chained by the drover tells Nat that he's "just like him." Do you think this is true? Why or why not?

4. The story of Hark's escape and eventual return takes up a large section of Part 3. Why might Styron have devoted so much time to this story? What was he trying to show? What do readers learn from Nat's telling of the story?

5. After Nat spells the word columbine, he lies awake that night thinking about it. He says it's a dream filled with 'inchoate promise'. What does he mean by that? How can one word be a promise?

6. In Part 2, Nat describes two events: "one causing me the bitterest anguish, the other premonitions of joy." What were these two events, and why might they have been told together?

7. When Nat preaches in town in Part 3, he does not use proper English. Why do you think he does that?

8. Miss Nell calls Nat "you smart little tar baby" in Part 1. Please explain what is meant by that name, and how it compares to what a white child would be called for the same reason.

9. As the book progresses, the descriptions of white slave owners grow worse and worse, until we reach Nathaniel Francis, introduced in Part 3. Why did Styron make each owner he described, whether the owner of Nat or other slaves, an uglier, meaner character than the one before?

10. After Nat describes his ideas about his grandmother, he switches to describing what he knows about his father--mainly that he ran away, and, at least in Nat's mind, is free now. How does Nat's description of his grandmother differ from his description of his father?

(see the answer keys)

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