Life under slavery, resistance and the Underground Railroad

Grade 8 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Counting enslaved and free Black people, 1790 to 1860 (cards A to D). Card A, from the Census Office's Preliminary Report on the Eighth Census (1862), which says "slaves" and "free colored" (we say enslaved people and free Black people): in 1790 there were 697,897 enslaved and 59,466 free, a total of 757,363. In 1820: 1,538,038 enslaved, 233,524 free, total 1,771,562. In 1840: 2,487,455 enslaved, 386,303 free, total 2,873,758. In 1850: 3,204,313 enslaved, 434,449 free, total 3,638,762. In 1860: 3,953,587 enslaved, 482,122 free, total 4,435,709. Card B, from the same report: "the total increase of the free colored and slaves for 70 years was but 485 per cent, against 757 per cent, for the whites" and "the total number of slaves in 1860 should have been 4,130,000, had they gained at the same ratio as during the preceding ten years". Card C, a summary in our words from a Census Bureau working paper by Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung (2002, Table 1): it gives 697,681 enslaved and 59,527 free Black people in 1790, and 3,953,760 enslaved and 488,070 free Black people in 1860, out of a total United States population of 31,443,321 in 1860. It says "the racial categories used in the decennial census have reflected social usage rather than an attempt to define race biologically or genetically" and "From 1790 to 1850, the only categories recorded were White and Black (Negro), with Black designated as free and slave". Card D, a summary in our words from the National Archives on the 1850 and 1860 census records: "Enslaved people are listed statistically by the enslaver." For free Black households, the records list "free Black Americans by name of head of household" and "All other members are tallied statistically but unnamed".

2. 1.

   Card B quotes the Census Office's own 1862 report. What is it best evidence for, Ari asks?

   • A complete and exact count of each person
   • A later historian's opinion of the census
   • What census officials counted and concluded in 1862
   • How enslaved people described their own lives in their own words
3. 2.

   Card A: 697,897 enslaved people in 1790 and 3,953,587 in 1860. About how many times as many were there in 1860, Bo asks?

   • About 5.7 times as many
   • About 57 percent as many
   • About 8.1 times, the growth of the free Black population
   • About 3.3 million times, found by subtracting
4. 3.

   Card A, 1860: 3,953,587 enslaved and 482,122 free Black people. About what share of the Black population was enslaved, Esme asks?

   • About 89 percent in each state
   • About 89 percent
   • About 8.9 percent
   • About 11 percent, the free Black share
5. 4.

   A student writes: "The free Black population stayed about the same size from 1790 to 1860." How strong is that claim, given card A, Jun asks?

   • Weak: card A shows it grew about eightfold, from 59,466 to 482,122
   • Strong: card B says the whites gained 38 percent
   • Strong: card A lists free Black people in both years of the census report
   • Strong: both counts are small beside the enslaved population
6. 5.

   Cards A and C both give the 1860 count of enslaved people: 3,953,587 and 3,953,760. How should a reader treat the gap, Kira asks?

   • Both are official counts that differ by only 173, so the picture is the same
   • The counts differ, so neither of them can be used as evidence at all
   • Card C proves that the count in card A was simply wrong in 1860
   • They differ by thousands of enslaved people, which is a large gap in the counts
7. 6.

   Card C says the census categories "reflected social usage rather than an attempt to define race biologically." What does that tell us, Luz asks?

   • They were chosen by the people who were counted by the census takers
   • They came from how people of the time sorted one another, not from science
   • They changed from one census year to the next as new groups arrived
   • They were scientifically exact and were based on careful measurement of people
8. 7.

   Card A: free Black people were 59,466 of 757,363 in 1790 and 482,122 of 4,435,709 in 1860. How did the free share change, Noah asks?

   • It rose from about 8 percent to about 89 percent
   • It fell from about 11 percent to about 8 percent
   • It rose from about 8 percent to about 11 percent
   • It more than doubled
9. 8.

   A student says: "The 1860 count was just what the Census Office expected." How strong is that claim, given cards A and B, Pia asks?

   • Weak: the count was about 1.76 million lower than the figure that was expected
   • Strong: card B expected 3,953,587, which is the same as the count
   • Strong: card A shows that the number rose in each decade of the period
   • Weak: card B expected 4,130,000, and the count was about 176,000 lower
10. 9.

    Card A: enslaved people numbered 2,487,455 (1840), 3,204,313 (1850) and 3,953,587 (1860). Which decade added more people, and which grew faster, Ren asks?

    • Both decades added about 7 million people, and both grew at the same rate
    • 1850-60 added more people (749,000 to 717,000), but 1840-50 grew faster (29 to 23 percent)
    • 1840 to 1850 added more people and also grew faster than the next decade did
    • In 1850 to 1860 more people were added and the growth rate was also faster, by a wider margin than before
11. 10.

    A student says: "The enslaved population rose because more children were born into slavery." How strong is that claim, given cards A to D, Zee asks?

    • Weak: card B settles that the rise had a different cause
    • Unsupported: the cards give counts, not reasons for the rise
    • Strong: card A shows the numbers rising in each decade of the period
    • Strong: card C says the categories followed social usage