View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Sarny describe Mrs. Waller's sister in Chapter 2?
(a) Dried up and mean.
(b) Proud and beautiful.
(c) Gentle and kind.
(d) Soft spoken and meek.

2. What does Sarny describe Mammy putting her head into in order to pray in Chapter 2?
(a) A cooking pot.
(b) A holy veil.
(c) A fireplace.
(d) A burlap sack.

3. Where does Sarny say she was when she first heard about Nightjohn in Chapter 1?
(a) In the sleeping quarters.
(b) In the flower beds.
(c) In the barn.
(d) In the cotton fields.

4. What is Mr. Waller's first name?
(a) Andrew.
(b) Homer.
(c) Clel.
(d) Horace.

5. What is the name of Mrs. Waller's sister?
(a) Alaine.
(b) Alice.
(c) Margaret.
(d) Mary.

6. Mammy says in Chapter 1 that Sarny's mother sold for the value of how many field hands?
(a) 2.
(b) 3.
(c) 4.
(d) 6.

7. What does Sarny say is forbidden in the slaves' sleeping quarters in Chapter 3?
(a) Food.
(b) Water.
(c) Light.
(d) Beds.

8. What word from Chapter 3 refers to a person who manages slaves on a plantation?
(a) Vestibule.
(b) Dunce.
(c) Maestro.
(d) Overseer.

9. By current estimates, approximately how many Africans were shipped across the Atlantic during the slave trade?
(a) 5 million.
(b) 20 million.
(c) 7 million.
(d) 12 million.

10. Why does mammy say Sarny's birth mother was sold in Chapter 1?
(a) She was a good breeder.
(b) She was a good house maid.
(c) She was a good cotton-picker.
(d) She was a good midwife.

11. How does Sarny describe John's back when he arrives in Chapter 3?
(a) It is milky white.
(b) It is covered in scars.
(c) It is proud beneath his shirt.
(d) It is black and smooth.

12. In what year did the United States Congress pass a Slave Trade Act which prohibited the building or outfitting of ships in the U.S. for use in the slave trade?
(a) 1739.
(b) 1794.
(c) 1826.
(d) 1865.

13. Where are the flower beds described that Sarny tends from time to time in Chapter 1?
(a) In the back garden of the slave quarters.
(b) In the front entrance to the slave quarters.
(c) Below the big window on the white house.
(d) By the roadside under the elm tree.

14. What does Mammy pray for when Sarny witnesses her praying in Chapter 2?
(a) A husband.
(b) A child.
(c) Freedom.
(d) Literacy.

15. What does John offer to trade with the slaves in the sleeping quarters on his first night in Chapter 3?
(a) Soup.
(b) Prayers.
(c) Letters.
(d) Songs.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is foreshadowed by Sarny's story about finding the coin in the dirt in Chapter 2?

2. "Partus sequitur ventrem" was a legal doctrine adopted widely into the laws of slavery in the American colonies. What did this law dictate?

3. Sarny states at the end of Chapter 2 that she knows the "people in the white house aren't richer" than whom?

4. Where has Sarny observed people reading prior to meeting John?

5. How would you describe Sarny's perception of life outside of the plantation in Chapter 2?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 543 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample