Quiz: The Souls of Black Folk

All 35 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. What is the “unasked question” that stands between Du Bois and “the other world”?

   How does it feel to be a problem? Do you wish you were white? Why do you not go back to Africa? What do your people really want?
2. 2. To what does Du Bois compare the economic system of the New South?

   France under the old regime The industrial North with its trade unions Russia under serfdom England of the early nineteenth century
3. 3. What does Du Bois say he saw on the public streets of Atlanta?

   Young boys in chains beside hardened criminals Black veterans of the Union army parading in blue Freedmen’s Bureau agents distributing rations A lynching
4. 4. What defense does Du Bois say the young Southern Negro is tempted to adopt?

   Emigration to Africa Armed resistance Deception and flattery Political organization
5. 5. In the myth Du Bois uses for Atlanta, how did Hippomenes win the race against Atalanta?

   He prayed to Mercury for winged sandals He laid three golden apples in her way He drugged her wine He bribed the judges
6. 6. What childhood incident first showed Du Bois that he was shut out by “a vast veil”?

   A tall newcomer girl refused his visiting-card He was turned away from the town library He was barred from the school foot-race by the other boys A teacher seated him apart from the rest of the class
7. 7. After the hope of political power through the ballot, what new ideal does chapter 1 say arose among the freedmen?

   Book-learning Military service Land ownership in the West Emigration to Africa
8. 8. What had the log schoolhouse in Tennessee been used for before?

   Colonel Wheeler sheltered his corn there It was a slave cabin It was a church It was a blacksmith’s shop for the plantation
9. 9. What share of Dougherty’s Black population does Du Bois class as freeholders (landowners)?

   Forty percent A “submerged tenth” Six percent Thirty-nine percent
10. 10. What music is John listening to when he is asked to leave his seat in New York?

    A minstrel show A spiritual sung by a Jubilee choir Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony Wagner’s Lohengrin
11. 11. In the “Atlanta Compromise,” Washington said that in all things purely social the races could be as separate as what?

    The five fingers Oil and water The two banks of a river The night and the day
12. 12. What does Du Bois say the Negro church, as a social institution, antedated by many decades?

    The white Southern churches The monogamic Negro home The slave trade to North America The plantation system
13. 13. What does Du Bois find when he returns to the valley ten years later?

    Josie has died, worn out by work and disappointment Josie’s family has bought the Burke farm Josie has graduated from Fisk Josie has become the valley’s teacher in the old log school
14. 14. What three things, says Du Bois, characterized the religion of the slave?

    Baptism, Conversion and Revival The Priest, the Clan and the Sacrifice The Preacher, the Music and the Frenzy The Bible, the Sabbath and the Hymn
15. 15. Whom does Du Bois call “the greatest of American Negro leaders”?

    Nat Turner Frederick Douglass Booker Washington Martin Delany
16. 16. How much did the Fisk Jubilee Singers raise in seven years of touring?

    A hundred and fifty thousand dollars Fifteen thousand dollars Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars Fifty thousand dollars
17. 17. Who was appointed Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau in May 1865?

    Rufus Saxton William T. Sherman Edward L. Pierce Oliver O. Howard
18. 18. In Du Bois’s image, the Negro is a seventh son “born with a veil” and gifted with what?

    The gift of tongues Perfect pitch Long life Second-sight
19. 19. What happened as the funeral procession for Du Bois’s son passed through the city?

    A crowd of black children joined the procession The city’s church bells were rung for him White neighbours brought flowers to the house Passers-by glanced and uttered a slur
20. 20. Whom does Du Bois quote on the wretchedness of métayers in Italy and France?

    Thomas Carlyle Adam Smith Arthur Young John Stuart Mill
21. 21. According to Du Bois, what is the “keynote” of the Black Belt?

    Crime Emigration Idleness Debt
22. 22. According to the Atlanta University study cited in chapter 6, what were most Black college graduates doing?

    Preaching Teaching Working in government service Farming
23. 23. How does Du Bois say the price of cotton changed between 1860 and 1898?

    It stayed roughly level It fell from forty cents a pound to twenty It fell from about fourteen cents to four It doubled
24. 24. How does Du Bois sum up the end of the Freedmen’s Bureau?

    It was made permanent as a national school system It died, and its child was the Fifteenth Amendment It was merged with the Freedmen’s Bank and failed with it It was abolished by the Supreme Court
25. 25. What does Du Bois call the greatest success of the Freedmen’s Bureau?

    Planting the free school among Negroes Founding the Freedmen’s Bank Running the Bureau courts Settling freedmen on confiscated land
26. 26. According to the Forethought, what is “the problem of the Twentieth Century”?

    The problem of the city The problem of the Solid South The problem of the color-line The problem of capital and labor
27. 27. What did men once call Dougherty County, Georgia?

    The Queen of the Cotton Kingdom The Gateway to the Gulf The Egypt of the Confederacy The Land of the Sun
28. 28. What three temptations does Du Bois say Alexander Crummell faced?

    Hate, Envy and Ambition Hate, Despair and Doubt Pride, Wealth and Power Anger, Fear and Sloth
29. 29. What does Du Bois call perhaps the greatest weapon for human progress in the modern world?

    Landownership Industrial training The ballot The press
30. 30. Where does Du Bois date the Forethought from?

    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Atlanta, Georgia Nashville, Tennessee Great Barrington, Massachusetts
31. 31. What does it mean when the merchant “furnishes” a tenant?

    He sells him land and a mule on instalments payable over several years He rents him a furnished cabin on the plantation at a fixed monthly sum He hires him to haul goods for the store in the months after harvest He advances food, clothing and supplies against the coming crop
32. 32. Which of these is not among the three things Du Bois says Washington asks Black people to give up?

    Higher education of Negro youth Political power Insistence on civil rights Industrial training
33. 33. Which general in Virginia declared fugitive slaves “contraband of war” and put them to work?

    John C. Frémont Ben Butler Oliver O. Howard Henry Halleck
34. 34. Which song does Du Bois call “the song of songs” among the master songs?

    “Roll, Jordan, roll” “Swing low, sweet chariot” “Steal away” “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen”
35. 35. What condition did Bishop Onderdonk set for receiving Crummell into his diocese?

    Crummell must agree to preach only to slaves and never to stand before a white congregation Crummell must first serve for some years as a missionary among the freedmen of Liberia Crummell must first take a degree at an English university to prove his fitness and learning No Negro priest could sit in his convention, nor any Negro church seek representation