Quiz for Documenting the American Promise: Defending Slavery

Quiz for Documenting the American Promise: Defending Slavery

Defending Slavery

Choose the best answer to each question.

Question

1. Which of the following statements summarizes the “positive good” argument John Calhoun made in his 1837 speech before the U.S. Senate?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is B. Calhoun’s speech argued that slavery was a “positive good” because it raised the people of Africa from a state of savagery to an improved physical, moral, and intellectual condition that made them civilized.
Incorrect. The correct answer is B. Calhoun’s speech argued that slavery was a “positive good” because it raised the people of Africa from a state of savagery to an improved physical, moral, and intellectual condition that made them civilized.

Question

2. In his 1837 defense of slavery, William Harper writes, “Is it not palpably nearer the truth to say that no man was ever born free, and that no two men were ever born equal? . . . [W]ealth and poverty, fame or obscurity, strength or weakness, knowledge or ignorance, ease or labor, power or subjection, mark the endless diversity in the condition of men.” Harper’s argument rejected a basic American principle based on which of the following political philosophies?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is D. The United States was founded on the Enlightenment notion of natural rights, which held that all men were created equal and entitled to life and liberty. Harper is so intent on opposing abolitionists and justifying slavery that he is willing to challenge this fundamental American tenet.
Incorrect. The correct answer is D. The United States was founded on the Enlightenment notion of natural rights, which held that all men were created equal and entitled to life and liberty. Harper is so intent on opposing abolitionists and justifying slavery that he is willing to challenge this fundamental American tenet.

Question

3. In his 1837 defense of slavery, William Harper justifies his views by citing which of the following authorities?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is B. As part of his defense of slavery, Harper suggests that “it is the order of nature and of God, that the being of superior faculties and knowledge, and therefore of superior power, should control and dispose of those who are inferior.” He is essentially suggesting that God created men and the world, intending to make some beings superior over others.
Incorrect. The correct answer is B. As part of his defense of slavery, Harper suggests that “it is the order of nature and of God, that the being of superior faculties and knowledge, and therefore of superior power, should control and dispose of those who are inferior.” He is essentially suggesting that God created men and the world, intending to make some beings superior over others.

Question

4. With which of the following statements did Thornton Stringfellow’s 1856 defense of slavery aim to counter many abolitionists’ contention that slavery was a sin?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is A. Here Stringfellow suggests not only that Jesus permitted slavery to continue, but that the institution of slavery had been created by God himself. If God created it, and Jesus accepted it, Stringfellow reasoned, then slavery was not a sin.
Incorrect. The correct answer is A. Here Stringfellow suggests not only that Jesus permitted slavery to continue, but that the institution of slavery had been created by God himself. If God created it, and Jesus accepted it, Stringfellow reasoned, then slavery was not a sin.

Question

5. On which of the following points would all three of these defenders of nineteenth-century American slavery have agreed?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is C. These three writers justified slavery using different types of arguments, but all essentially agreed that American slavery in the nineteenth century was a just and moral institution that should have continued to exist.
Incorrect. The correct answer is C. These three writers justified slavery using different types of arguments, but all essentially agreed that American slavery in the nineteenth century was a just and moral institution that should have continued to exist.