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Quiz for Document 8–2: Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782

Choose the best answer to each question.

1. Why did Jefferson believe that black people were inferior?

Poverty in Africa had deprived them of some crucial mental faculties.

The brutality of slavery had stultified their senses.

Hard physical labor had made black people mean-spirited and lazy.

Black people were by their natural history inferior to whites.

2. Which of the following correctly describes the emancipation proposal considered by the Virginia legislature?

All slaves would be immediately emancipated and would remain as paid workers on the plantations.

All slaves born after the act passed would be freed and, when they were adults, would be sent to work and colonize another place.

The masters would be compensated and given more land if they agreed to free their slaves.

Slaves would be freed after thirty years of work and then be given a small parcel of land in Virginia.

3. How did Jefferson compare Indians and black people?

Black people were much more gifted in music than the Indians.

Indians were more violent while black people were naturally peaceful.

Indians had more natural skill with art, language, and ideas while black people could barely master the basics of language or art.

Indians were much stronger than black people, but black people were more skilled at hunting and planting.