Antebellum SC, Slavery, and Causes of the Civil War

Name: ______________________________________ Date: ______________

Multiple Choice
Read each question/statement and circle the best answer.

1. Plantation owners were part of the _______ in the South. (3-4.1)
a. elite
b. middle class
c. lower class
d. poorest class

2. Before the Civil War, people were divided over taxes and _____. (3-4.3)
a. the price of gas
b. the price of tea
c. slavery
d. electing a president

3. Some South Carolinians felt that slavery was necessary because _________. (3-4.2)
a. slaves were needed for working in the cotton fields
b. slaves were needed to work in factories
c. the slaves needed a place to live
d. very few whites lived in the South

4. Study the graphic organizer to answer the question.






Which titles best completes this graphic organizer? (3-4.1)
a. The Elite Class
b. The Independent Farmers
c. The Lower Class
d. The Skilled Workers

5. How did the invention of the cotton gin affect slavery? (3-4.2)
a. fewer slaves were needed
b. less cotton was grown
c. more slaves were needed
d. higher wages were paid to slaves

owned large plantations part of the upper class owned many slaves
6. What did the abolitionist movement want to accomplish? (3-4.3)
a. to move slaves to Canada
b. to end slavery in the United States
c. to allow slavery in the West
d. to scare slave owners into giving up their slaves

7. Why were the Grimke sisters forced to leave South Carolina? (3-4.3)
a. for helping slaves escape to Canada
b. for starting a bloody slave revolt
c. for speaking out against slavery
d. for hiding slaves in their homes

8. A plantation is _________________________________. (3-4.1)
a. a small cabin in the woods
b. a large house with farmland
c. a mountain house
d. the slave house

9. Field slaves in South Carolina picked_________________. (3-4.1)
a. corn
b. beans
c. peaches
d. cotton

10. Why did South Carolinians argue that slavery was part of their way of life? (3-4.2)
a. It was necessary to the economy.
b. It offered enslaved people a better life.
c. It took away jobs from yeoman farmers.
d. It allowed them to grow their own food.

11. Which were strategies used by runaway slaves? (3-4.3)
a. walking in water
b. running at night
c. safe house
d. all of the above (a, b, and c)

12. What is one way slaves used symbols to escape? (3-4.3)
a. drew tattoos
b. made quilts
c. cut tree carvings
d. read books

13. What traditions does the Gullah culture pass down? (3-2.5)
a. stories
b. music
c. sweet grass baskets
d. all of the above (a, b, and c)
True/False
Indicate whether the statement is true or false.

_______ 14. The lower class worked similar jobs as slaves, but they were paid. (3-4.1)

_______ 15. South Carolina was the last state to secede from the Union. (3-4.3)

Fill in the Blank
Read each statement and choose the best word from the word bank to complete each sentence.







16. _________________________ invented the cotton gin, a machine that cleans out the seeds
from the cotton. (3-4.2)

17. The time before the Civil War is known as the ____________________________. (3-4.2)

18. Independent farmers, or ___________________ farmers, own small amounts of land and
work the land themselves. (3-4.1)

19. The ________________________________ was run by abolitionists who wanted to help
slaves escape to the North and to Canada in secret. (3-4.3)

20. _____________________ is the practice of treating people as property to be bought and sold,
and are forced to work. (3-4.1)
slavery Antebellum Period Eli Whitney


yeoman Underground Railroad