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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. What term refers to efforts toward procuring economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchised group?
(a) Abolition.
(b) Eclecticism.
(c) Emancipation.
(d) Suffragism.

2. What had Mammy done when Sarny copied the letters from the feed sack in the dirt when she was younger?
(a) She smacked her.
(b) She told Waller.
(c) She laughed.
(d) She praised her.

3. What does John cover in his first "lesson" with Sarny in Chapter 3?
(a) The question mark.
(b) The number 1.
(c) The period.
(d) The letter A.

4. What substance does Sarny treat the flowers with in Chapter 2?
(a) Tobacco juice.
(b) Turpentine.
(c) Bubblegum.
(d) Chemical pesticide.

5. What does Sarny say they pour down the trough in the mornings for the slaves in Chapter 3?
(a) Tea.
(b) Oatmeal.
(c) Buttermilk.
(d) Coffee.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Sarny recall Mammy telling her to do with the coin that she found in the dirt in Chapter 2?

2. How old is Sarny in Chapter 1?

3. What does Sarny say is forbidden in the slaves' sleeping quarters in Chapter 3?

4. What does John offer to trade with the slaves in the sleeping quarters on his first night in Chapter 3?

5. What is Mrs. Waller's first name?

Short Essay Questions

1. How would you describe the narrator of the story? Is the narrator directly involved in the action of the narrative?

2. What does Sarny describe thinking about as the others sleep in the slave quarters at night in Chapter 1?

3. How does the author describe the regulations and rules regarding slaves and religion in Chapter 2?

4. What intrigues and inspires Sarny to want to learn to read and write? What risks does she take in doing so?

5. How is Sarny's birth and early childhood described in Chapter 1? Are Sarny's experiences common for slaves at this time?

6. How is Sarny's character introduced to the reader in Chapter 1? What does Sarny say brought Nightjohn to her?

7. How would you describe the tone and mood of the novel as established in Chapter 1?

8. What is foreshadowed by Sarny's description of the penny that she once found in Chapter 2?

9. What does Mammy measure on the sticks that she keeps for each child on the plantation? Why?

10. How does Sarny describe Mammy's method of praying in Chapter 2? Why does Mammy pray this way?

(see the answer keys)

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