rap2016_ch10

Quiz for Document 10–4: James Forten, Letters from a Man of Colour, on a Late Bill before the Senate of Pennsylvania, 1813

Choose the best answer to each question.

1. How did the Pennsylvania Senate Bill of 1813 threaten free African Americans?

The law would have barred African Americans from voting.

The law would have required free blacks to carry a registered certificate or risk reenslavement.

The law would have given significant leeway to southern posses in search of runaways.

The law would have forced the children of free blacks into indentures until the age of twenty-one.

2. What ideals did Forten employ to make his argument against the proposed law?

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution

Laws from other states that protected freed slaves

The writings of major abolitionists

The teachings of a prominent minister in Philadelphia

3. Why was Forten wary of the Fourth of July?

It was the day the proposed law would take effect.

Black people were not allowed to participate in official celebrations.

Black people were not given the day off from their labor.

Blacks were often targeted and attacked by white people who were celebrating the holiday.