Quiz: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

All 30 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. How did Douglass get lessons from the white boys in the street?

   He gave them bread in exchange He did their chores Sophia Auld arranged it He paid them with money from his wages
2. 2. Why did the white carpenters at Gardner’s shipyard stop work?

   They objected to slave apprentices being taught to caulk ships Gardner had failed to pay their wages for several weeks They refused to work with free Black carpenters, fearing for their trade They demanded higher pay for the rush of work on the Mexican brigs
3. 3. How did Mr. Gore justify shooting Demby?

   Demby had stolen from Colonel Lloyd’s storehouse Unpunished defiance would spread and free the slaves Demby had attacked him with a knife in the cornfield Colonel Lloyd had ordered it beforehand
4. 4. On what terms did Master Hugh let Douglass hire his time?

   Three dollars a week, Douglass meeting all his own costs Free use of his evenings in return for all Saturdays worked for Hugh Six dollars a week, with board and lodging provided by Hugh Half of whatever he earned each week
5. 5. Who chose the name “Douglass”, and from what?

   David Ruggles, after a Scottish abolitionist he admired Anna Murray, his bride, from a branch of her own family J. W. C. Pennington, from a hymn Nathan Johnson, from Scott’s The Lady of the Lake
6. 6. How did the Freeland group plan to escape?

   Paddle a canoe up the bay, then walk north by the north star Take the steamboat from St. Michael’s straight to Philadelphia Hide aboard a sloop bound for Baltimore and then for the North Walk through Delaware by night
7. 7. What contrast does Douglass draw about church discipline?

   Churches punish the poor for debt but not the rich for usury Churches forbid Sunday labour but allow slave auctions on Sunday Churches expel drunkards but admit gamblers Churches shun a sheep-stealer but take a man-stealer into communion
8. 8. What had Douglass expected the North to be like before he saw New Bedford?

   Rich, but full of slave-catchers and informers Crowded with factories and starving workers in rags Much like Baltimore, only colder and more crowded Poor and rough, since wealth required slaves
9. 9. How does the fight with Covey end?

   Hughes and Bill together tie Douglass down and Covey whips him Covey gives up after two hours and never whips him again Covey sends him to the constable’s whipping-post Thomas Auld arrives and stops the fight
10. 10. What happened to the dollar and a half a day Douglass earned as a caulker?

    He had to hand every cent to Master Hugh each Saturday night He kept half and gave half to Master Hugh each week It was saved toward the purchase of his freedom from Hugh Mr. Price paid it directly to Thomas Auld at St. Michael’s
11. 11. What happened to the slave who told a stranger on the road that his master worked him too hard?

    The rider was his master; he was sold to a Georgia trader He was whipped by the overseer and sent back to the field at once He was given more food and a lighter task by the kindly overseer He escaped north with the stranger’s help, hidden in a wagon
12. 12. What distinction does the Appendix draw?

    Between Catholic and Protestant churches Between northern churches, which he praises, and southern ones Between Christ’s Christianity and the slaveholding religion of America Between the Old Testament and the New
13. 13. What does Douglass say the slaves’ songs show?

    The survival of their African religion Their contentment and happiness in slavery Their secret plans for escape to the North Their sorrow, not their contentment
14. 14. What reason did Master Thomas give for refusing to take Douglass away from Covey?

    The law forbade a master to break a hiring contract He would lose the whole year’s wages for Douglass’s hire Covey had already bought Douglass from him Douglass had not shown him any injury
15. 15. Where did Douglass learn his first written letters?

    From The Columbian Orator From marks on timbers in a shipyard From a newspaper Sophia Auld left out From the Bible at a Methodist Sabbath school
16. 16. How did Colonel Lloyd keep slaves out of his garden?

    He paid a reward to slaves who informed He planted thorn hedges around the garden walls He set dogs loose in the garden at night He tarred the fence; tar on a slave proved guilt
17. 17. Why, according to Douglass, had Covey bought the woman Caroline?

    As “a breeder”, to grow his wealth by her children To nurse his own children while his wife ran the farm In settlement of a gambling debt owed by Thomas Lowe As a cook and housekeeper for his family and his hired hands
18. 18. Where and when did Douglass first speak to an anti-slavery convention?

    In Boston, at the Liberator’s office, in 1839 At Nantucket, on 11 August 1841 In New Bedford, in September 1838 In Lynn, Massachusetts, in April 1845
19. 19. How does Douglass explain the slaveholders’ custom of the Christmas holidays?

    As a Christian duty laid on masters by their churches and ministers As a reward to the slaves for bringing in a good harvest on time As safety-valves to carry off the slaves’ rebellious spirit As a requirement laid down by Maryland law since colonial times
20. 20. Why did Thomas Auld send Douglass to Edward Covey?

    To pay off a gambling debt Because Covey offered a high price to buy him outright To learn a trade as a caulker in the St. Michael’s shipyard To be “broken” by Covey, a known slave-breaker
21. 21. Where did Garrison first hear Douglass speak?

    At the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840 At an anti-slavery convention in Nantucket in 1841 At Faneuil Hall in Boston in 1845 At a Methodist church meeting in New Bedford in 1838
22. 22. How did Douglass’s mother visit him?

    Never; he did not know who she was On Sundays, with her master’s permission On foot at night, after work twelve miles away Every Christmas, during the week of holidays
23. 23. Whose whipping does Douglass describe as his first sight of slavery’s violence?

    His mother’s, by Mr. Stewart Demby’s, by Mr. Gore His Aunt Hester’s, by Captain Anthony Old Barney’s, by Colonel Lloyd
24. 24. What task led to Douglass’s first whipping by Covey?

    Fetching wood with a team of unbroken oxen Fanning wheat in the treading-yard Ploughing a stubble field with a borrowed horse Feeding the horses in the stable before daybreak
25. 25. What does Phillips say he would do with the manuscript in Douglass’s place?

    Throw it into the fire Publish it only in England Wait until slavery was abolished Publish it under a false name
26. 26. Why was Douglass brought back from Baltimore in chapter 8?

    To be sold to a Georgia slave trader To be valued with the rest of the estate To work on Colonel Lloyd’s sloop To be hired to Edward Covey
27. 27. Which fable does Wendell Phillips use to welcome the Narrative?

    The lion and the mouse The wolf and the lamb The man and the lion The fox and the grapes
28. 28. Why does Douglass refuse to tell how he escaped?

    He had promised Garrison to keep the story for a later book It could endanger his helpers and make slaveholders more watchful His publisher feared a libel suit from his former master He no longer remembered the details
29. 29. Why did Hugh Auld forbid his wife to teach Douglass to read?

    Learning would unfit him to be a slave Sophia was a poor teacher He wanted to teach Douglass himself, in his own way Douglass was needed full-time in the shipyard
30. 30. What does Garrison’s quotation from Daniel O’Connell describe?

    An American sailor enslaved in Africa who lost his reason A slave who learned to read in secret and fled north An Irish tenant evicted by an absentee English landlord A slaveholder converted at a revival