AP U.S. History
APUSH 4.12: African Americans in the Early Republic
Shared by Ashton · Nov 8, 2026 · 1 play
16 questions on Topic 4.12: cotton and the growth of slavery, the domestic slave trade, Gabriel, Vesey and Nat Turner, everyday resistance, Amistad, enslaved culture and religion, and free Black communities in the North. Includes source and data questions.
16 questions across 4 sections. After every answer you’ll see why each choice is right or wrong, not just the one you picked.
Sample questions
Open a question to see the answer choices and the correct answer.
Why did slavery expand so much in the South between 1800 and 1848, even after the international slave trade was banned in 1808?
- A. Northern factories were legally required to buy cotton picked only by enslaved labor
- B. The 1808 ban was never enforced, so imports doubled
- C. Cotton made enslaved labor highly profitable on new Western land ✓
- D. Congress paid planters to buy more enslaved people
Correct answer: C. Cotton spread into Alabama, Mississippi and beyond, and the enslaved population grew through natural increase and the domestic slave trade.
The domestic (internal) slave trade in this period mainly
- A. returned enslaved people to West Africa through the colony of Liberia
- B. ended after the Missouri Compromise
- C. moved about a million enslaved people from the Upper South to the Deep South ✓
- D. sent enslaved people north to work in Lowell mills
Correct answer: C. Virginia and Maryland planters sold people south and west, tearing apart families as the cotton frontier grew.
The 1808 ban on importing enslaved Africans had which major effect?
- A. It ended slavery in all Southern states
- B. Growth came from natural increase and the domestic slave trade ✓
- C. It freed every enslaved person born in the United States after 1808
- D. It made Liberia an American colony by law
Correct answer: B. With the Atlantic trade closed, the price of enslaved people rose and the internal market became a huge business.
Gabriel's planned uprising (1800) and Denmark Vesey's alleged plot (1822) are similar in that both
- A. succeeded in freeing thousands of enslaved people before being put down
- B. took place in Northern cities
- C. were led by white abolitionists from New England
- D. were betrayed before they began and led to executions and tighter laws ✓
Correct answer: D. Gabriel near Richmond and Vesey in Charleston were betrayed by informers; dozens were executed and states tightened controls.
Nat Turner's Rebellion (1831) in Southampton County, Virginia, resulted in
- A. Virginia abolishing slavery in 1832
- B. a federal law freeing all enslaved people in Virginia within ten years
- C. harsher slave codes, including limits on teaching enslaved people to read ✓
- D. the immediate end of the domestic slave trade
Correct answer: C. About 55-60 white people were killed. Afterward, the Virginia legislature debated and rejected gradual emancipation, and Southern states tightened restrictions.