Grade 8 - Revision Topic 5

Grade 8 - Revision Topic 5 - Antebellum America

The Slave Trade

• Slaves are people who are owned by others. They work for them for often, little to no pay, and live in not very nice houses. They often have not much food to eat and are not treated very well. Many slaves came from Africa with the Europeans who were colonising America.

Multiple Choice

Where did most slaves work?

• Small farms

• Plantations

• Factories

Multiple Choice

Were slaves considered to be 'free' people, to have choices in life?

• Yes

• No

Multiple Choice

Where did many slaves in American originally come from?

• America

• Africa

• Europe

• Asia

Loss of Culture

• When the slaves first arrived in The Americas from Africa, slaveowners forced them to abandon, or get rid of, their native cultures.

• So, in other words, they were not allowed to behave in the same way as they traditionally did in Africa. 

Multiple Choice

Because slaves were not allowed to behave in their own traditional ways, they had to adopt a new what?

• Traditional song

• Way of thinking

• Cultural Identity

Multiple Select

In order to develop a new cultural identity that was acceptable to the slave owners, the slaves took ideas from who?

Check all that apply.

• Other African people

• American colonisers

• European explorers

• No one in particular

Multiple Select

How were African slaves able to preserve their culture without making it too obvious to the plantation owners?

Check all that apply.

• By writing secret diaries

• By telling stories

• Music and song

Multiple Choice

African slave songs had coded messages that the plantation owners did not realise. These songs were sung in what sort of a format?

• Question and Answer

• Lyrics and Chorus

• Call and Response

• Rhyme and Reason

Multiple Choice

Because the slaves were treated poorly and had no rights, which word is used to describe what they did?

• Defied their owners

• Rebelled against their owners

• Angered their owners

Multiple Choice

After Nat Turner rebelled against his owners and led the 'Nat Turner Uprising', other slaves thought what?

• Even though Turner was killed, it was not such a bad idea to revolt

• Because Turner was killed, the slaves wanted to start a memorial for him

• Because Turner was killed, it sent a clear message and slaves did not dare do anything to rebel

Multiple Select

Why was the Nat Turner rebellion considered to have come at the right time?

Check all that apply

• Nat Turner really needed to be stopped because he was just causing trouble

• People in the northern states of America were against slavery

• Slavery in Britain was coming to an end

Multiple Choice

Because of the ending to slavery in Britain, and the support from people in the northern American states who were also against slavery, what then developed?

• The Subway

• The Cruise Liner

• The Underground Railway

• The Airport Terminal

The Cotton Industry

Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin. 

Multiple Choice

What was the cotton gin?

• A machine that could grow cotton faster than before

• A machine that could separate cotton much faster than before

• A machine that could make cotton without seeds

Multiple Choice

The cotton gin was invented because of what sort of revolution (massive change)

• An agricultural revolution

• An industrial revolution

• The slavery revolution

• A machinery revolution

Multiple Select

Even though the invention of the cotton gin was considered a great advancement, it had a downside too. This is because why?

Check all that apply.

• Not many knew how to work the machine

• More cotton plantations meant that more slaves were needed.

• Plantation owners started to buy up more slaves to work on their plantations

• Slaves had to become mechanics to use the machine

Multiple Choice

Everyone from owners to slaves seemed to be profiting from the new agricultural revolution and cotton plantations.

True or False?

• True

• False

Open Ended

Explain how this image represents the economics of cotton growing and production (the boom).

Why is it a circle?

Multiple Choice

The Underground Railroad was the new rail system that transported slaves from the the slaves states of the south to the free states in the north.

True or False?

• True

• False

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was a network of people that slaves used to escape to freedom. Slaves had attempted to escape from plantations as soon as slavery began in the United States, but around the 1830s, scores of slaves and sympathetic free men and women helped establish the Underground Railroad. 

The Underground Railroad

The goal was to get to a free state, a state were slavery was not legal. Ideally, escaping slaves would go all the way to Canada, where slavery had been illegal since 1833. Though the journey on the railroad occasionally involved water travel or train travel, most passengers on the railroad traveled in small groups by foot. 

The Underground Railroad

The routes were indirect and inconsistent to confuse people who might come looking for them. 

The Underground Railroad

People who called themselves conductors helped lead the way to stations, or safe places where passengers could stop and rest. Stockholders, who were people who donated money to help make the passengers’ journey easier, would sometimes give passengers new clothes to help them blend in with society as they traveled. 

The Underground Railroad

Passengers on the Underground Railroad would usually travel at night, walking between 16 - 32 kilometres from station to station. (The distance from school to Yas Mall on the highway is 36 kilometres). 

Multiple Choice

The Underground Railroad was a network of people.

True or False?

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

What is another name for a state that does not allow slavery?

• A fine state

• A free state

• A fair state

• A friendly state

Multiple Choice

Why were the routes to the northern free states never the same each time?

• Because the snow covered the roads

• The trains often took different routes

• Because this would confuse people looking to capture the slaves again

• Because no one could remember the directions as maps were not popular

Multiple Choice

The songs that were written by the slaves during this antebellum in America are considered what sort of source?

• Primary

• Secondary

Multiple Select

Now that you have completed all the lessons in class time (and potentially as homework too), do you feel confident about the ESS exam.

• Yes

• No

• I need to revise a bit more