Exercise Six
By the time the American colonists took up arms against Great Britain in order to secure their independence, the institution of Black slavery was deeply entrenched. But the contradiction inherent in this situation was, for many, a source of constant embarrassment. “It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me,” Abigail Adams wrote her husband in 1774, “to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.”
Many Americans besides Abigail Adams were struck by the inconsistency of their stand during the War of Independence, and they were not averse to making moves to emancipate the slaves. Quakers and other religious groups organized antislavery societies, while numerous individuals manumitted their slaves. In fact, within several years of the end of the War of Independence, most of the Eastern states had made provisions for the gradual emancipation of slaves.
1. Which of the following best states the central idea of the passage?
(A) The War of Independence produced among many Black Americans a heightened consciousness
of the inequities in American society.
(B) The War of Independence strengthened the bonds of slavery of many Black Ameri cans while intensifying their desire to be free.
(C) The War of Independence exposed to many Americans the contradiction of slavery in a country seeking its freedom and resulted in efforts to resolve that contradiction.
(D) The War of Independence provoked strong criticisms by many Americans of the institution of slavery, but produced little substantive action against it.
(E) The War of Independence renewed the efforts of many American groups toward achieving Black emancipation.
2. The passage contains information that would support which of the following statements about the colonies before the War of Independence?
(A) They contained organized antislavery societies.
(B) They allowed individuals to own slaves.
(C) They prohibited religious groups from political action.
(D) They were inconsistent in their legal definitions of slave status.
(E) They encouraged abolitionist societies to expand their influence.
3. According to the passage, the War of Independence was embarrassing to some Americans for which of the following reasons?
(A) It involved a struggle for many of the same liberties that Americans were denying to others.
(B) It involved a struggle for independence from the very nation that had founded the colonies. C It involved a struggle based on inconsistencies in the participants' conceptions of freedom.
4. Which of the following statements regarding American society in the years immediately following the War of Independence is best supported by the passage?
(A)The unexpected successes of the anti slavery societies led to their gradual demise in the Eastern states.
(B) Some of the newly independent American states had begun to make progress toward abolishing slavery.
(C) Americans like Abigail Adams became disillusioned with the slow progress of emancipation and gradually abandoned the cause.
(D) Emancipated slaves gradually were accepted in the Eastern states as equal members of American society.
The abolition of slavery in many Eastern states was the result of close cooperation between religious groups and free Blacks.
Exercise 6 1. C 2. B 3. A 4. B