The Washington Post

Test your knowledge on the history of US slavery

Most of these questions were provided by high school and middle school social studies teachers from public school districts in Birmingham, Ala.; Berkeley, Calif.; Fort Dodge, Iowa; Montgomery County, Md.; Concord, Mass.; Broken Arrow, Okla.; and Loudoun County, Va. 

All images from Library of Congress unless otherwise noted.

Joe Heim August 30, 2019
1

How many enslaved Africans were brought to the New World between 1526 and 1867 as part of the Atlantic slave trade?

2.5 million

6.2 million

12.5 million

20 million

2

In what year did the United States' official ban on the importation of enslaved Africans take effect?

1787

1808

1865

1883

3

How many of the original 13 colonies allowed slavery at some point prior to the Revolutionary War?

7

10

11

All of them

4

MPI/Getty Images

Nat Turner’s Rebellion in Virginia in 1831 led to:

New laws in Southern states prohibiting reading and writing by enslaved people and restricting activities of enslaved and free blacks.

A push by Virginia and some Southern states to make plantation conditions more humane for enslaved people.

President Andrew Jackson declaring an end to the use of auctions as a method of selling enslaved people.

5

The 1857 Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court ruled that:

All enslaved people who escaped to free states or territories could remain free.

No black person, free or enslaved, could claim U.S. citizenship.

Slave owners could not separate families when selling their slaves.

6

Which one of these abolitionists was never enslaved?

Harriet Tubman

Frederick Douglass

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Sojourner Truth

7

Which state had the largest number of enslaved people in 1860?

Mississippi

Alabama

Virginia

South Carolina

8

Approximately how many people were enslaved at the beginning of the Civil War?

150,000

800,000

2 million

4 million

9

Of the first 18 U.S. presidents, how many owned enslaved people at some point in their life?

5

9

12

15

10

Which president owned the largest number of enslaved people, more than 600 over the course of his life?

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

Andrew Jackson

John Tyler

11

Buyenlarge/Getty Images

True or false: No U.S. president has ever issued a formal apology for slavery.

True

False

12

Which constitutional amendment abolished slavery?

11th

13th

18th

22nd

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