American Sphinx
Unit 1 Study Questions
Number 1
Questions
1) Who is probably the most beloved and
admired of American presidents?
Thomas Jefferson
Answer
Number 2
Questions
Who claims this president? (political
thinkers)
Liberals and Conservators
Answer
Number 3
Question
What do both William Jennings Bryan and
Clarence Darrow claim about Jefferson?
He shares their views of evolution and
creation.
Answer
Number 4
Question
What do both Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Herbert Hoover claim about Jefferson?
His ideals in their very different ways
of handling the Depression.
Answer
Number 5
Question
What does the author find surprising
about an evening devoted to Jefferson in 1993?
400 people attend, rather than the
estimated 40.
Answer
Number 6
Question
Why does the audience not ask questions
regarding Jefferson's’ slave ownership and relationship with Sally Hemings?
They are too well-mannered.
Answer
Number 7
Question
Who is Sally Hemings?
A slave Jefferson inherited from his
wife’s family.
Answer
Number 8
Question
Who is reportedly the father of Sally
Hemings?
John Wales
Answer
Number 9
Question
Regarding Sally Hemings, of what is Jefferson regularly accused?
Having an affair with her after his
wife’s death and fathering several of her seven children.
Answer
Number 10
Question
What issue does Ellis dismiss as
“slanderous assaults?”
The Sally Hemings issue.
Answer
Number 11
Question
What is presentism?
The tendency to apply current social and
ethical standard to eth behavior of past eras.
Answer
Number 12
Question
How does Ellis feel about presentism?
He argues against it.
Answer
Number 13
Question
Of what does Ellis feel it is unfair to
accuse a man of Jefferson’s time regarding women?
Sexism
Answer
Number 14
Question
What is Jefferson’s attitude towards
slavery?
Inconsistent and inexplicable
Answer
Number 15
Question
Why do many men of Jefferson’s time
refuse to own slaves?
On moral grounds.
Answer
Number 16
Question
What does Jefferson argue should be
eliminated form the Constitution of the new nation
Slavery
Answer
Number 17
Question
How are Jefferson’s actions towards
slavery and his views of slavery contradictory?
He believes slavery is immoral, yet he
owns slaves
Answer
Number 18
Question
What is the reason the author gives for
the contradction between Jefferson’s opinion of slavery
and his owning of slaves?
He believes in human dignity and freedom,
as long as it does not conflict with his own wealth and comfort.
Answer
Number 19
Question
How is having an affair and fathering
children with a salve viewed by people of Jefferson’s day?
Unethical
Answer
Number 20
Question
What is expected of politicians of
Jefferson’s day?
To represent the best that mankind has to
offer.
Answer
Number 21
Question
What tests proves that Ellis’s belief
that a dalliance is completely out of characteristic of Jefferson is incorrect?
DNA Test
Answer
Number 22
Question
How does Jefferson arrive in Philadelphia
for the first Continental Congress?
He arrives in an opulent carriage with
three salves outfitted in elaborate costumes.
Answer
Number
23
Question
Why is little known about Jefferson’s early
history?
All records were destroyed in a fire in
Shadwell, Virginia. The plantation he
grew up on.
Answer
Number 24
Answer
Where does Jefferson attend college?
At the College of William and Mary,
Williamsburg, VA.
Question
Number 25
Question
What does Jefferson study in college?
Law
Answer
Number 26
Question
What two decisions shape Jefferson’s
entire life?
To build a house and run for the House
of Burgesses.
Answer
Number 27
Question
What is Jefferson’s refuge from troubled
times?
Monticello
Answer
Number 28
Question
What is the cause of friction for
Jefferson?
His political career.
Answer
Number 29
Question
To what is Jefferson compared at an
elaborate dinner party?
A non-English-speaking guest.
Answer
Number 30
Question
What is a key faced of Jefferson’s
personality?
His lifelong avoidance of conflict.
Answer
Number 31
Question
How does Jefferson feel about spirited
debates?
He has a strong aversion towards them and
is unable to participate.
Answer
Number 32
Question
How would Jefferson have gone through
life, if his pamphlet had not been published?
Unnoticed
Answer
Number 33
Question
How does Jefferson come to be a minor
celebrity?
His pamphlet “A Summary of the Rights of
British America.”
Answer
Number 34
Question
How are Jefferson's political beliefs
during those revolutionary times?
Radical
Answer
Number 35
Question
Of what is the pamphlet “A Summary of the
Rights of British America” a first draft?
The Declaration of Independence
Answer
Number 36
Question
On what are several of Jefferson’s arguments based?
Untruths
Answer
Number 37
Question
What does Jefferson know about some of
the revisionist history he writes?
He knows that it is false.
Answer
Number 38
Question
What is the Boston Tea Party?
A prank by a group of hooligans.
Answer
Number 39
Question
What does Jefferson idealize?
Nature
Answer
Number 40
Question
How much does Jefferson believe the war
will cost?
$3 Million
Answer
Number 41
Question
What illustrates two central features of
Jefferson's personality?
The address called the “Declaration of
the Causes and Necessity for Taking up Arms”
Answer
Number 42
Question
To what does Jefferson have a propensity?
To present questions as dichotomies
between good and evil.
Answers
Number 43
Question
Of what has Jefferson either never learned the
technique or accepted the necessity?
Compromise
Answer
Number 44
Question
When it comes to Jefferson’s writings,
what does he not like?
To be edited.
Answer
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