African American Heritage & Ethnography African Nation Founders: Historic Contexts—Self Assessment 2

Learning from the Past: Assess Your Knowledge

This review will help determine your knowledge of the information contained in this section. Answer the questions below to the best of your ability. After you have completed all of the questions please click the Check the Quiz button at the bottom of the page. You can hit the Reset button at the bottom of the page to retake the quiz.

  1. With the arrival of Europeans to the African continent, Sub-Saharan trade routes were created in which goods including kola nuts, shea butter, salt, iron, gold, pepper and enslaved people were commodities to be sold.

    1. True

      Incorrect.

    2. False

      Correct. Centuries before the arrival of Europeans, trade routes had been established between African societies, many of which had centralized governments. Many of the enslaved brought to the New World were involved in local and long-distance trade including skilled agriculturists, artisans, craftsmen, blacksmiths and linguists.

  2. Between 1451 and 1870, about how many people were transported from Africa to the New World?

    1. 6 million.

      Incorrect.

    2. 975,000.

      Incorrect.

    3. 1.3 million.

      Incorrect.

    4. 9 million.

      Correct. 1451–1600, ¼ million; 1601–1700, 1.3 million; 1701–1811, 6 million; and 1811–1870 2 million.

  3. Select the Best answer to complete the sentence:

    African slavery differed from European slavery in that:

    1. African slavery was a way to mark people from birth as an enslaved class of people.

      Incorrect.

    2. African slavery was justified based on ideas of inferiority as a result of inherent genetic qualities and the Chain of Being.

      Incorrect.

    3. African slavery was a social condition that was not necessarily inherited and allowed for enslaved people to gain rights such as immunity from resale or arbitrary transfer.

      Correct. African slavery was different from European slavery in which skin color gradually became associated with slavery and presumed inherent traits that fixed a person’s social position within society.

    4. African slaves were not allowed to be integrated into the captor’s society.

      Incorrect.

  4. Which of the statements below is FALSE:

    1. War weakened centralized African governments, undermined the authority of associations, societies and elders, and aided in the loss of lineage connections.

      Incorrect.

    2. As a result of colonial conflicts, African and African American males were periodically allowed to possess arms and fight in territorial wars of North America.

      Incorrect.

    3. Slave laws like the Slave Codes of 1705, the Code Noir, and Black Codes were established to restrict the movement of enslaved African peoples.

      Correct. These laws also set restrictions on free people of African descent in terms of movement and employment.

    4. Not all colonies initially regarded enslaved status as a permanent status, as the New Netherlands “conditional freedom” policy suggests.

      Incorrect.