Rebels with a Cause Trivia Quiz

Answer: William Berkeley

Though Bacon was a representative of the poorest planters along the outskirts of the poorly defined Virginia colony, he in fact was a member of a wealthy English family, and the cousin of Governor Berkeley. Bacon's rebellious nature (he was sent to Virginia in the first place by his father in the hopes that he would mend his tempestuous behavior) led to confrontation with Berkeley and the House of Burgesses on both Indian policy and on economic grounds.

This rather complicated situation, with planters in the frontier wanting increased protection from hostile Indians and better access to trade with allied native tribes, became stickier when Bacon entered Jamestown and sat as an elected member of the House of Burgesses.

After gaining pardon from Berkeley, Bacon angrily walked out of a house session when Indian relations were again debated. Bacon and his followers proceeded to burn Jamestown and forced Berkeley to flee.

The rebellion (or, as some might term it, power struggle) did not last long, however...Bacon succumbed to the 'bloodie flux and lousey disease' (sic) later that year at only 29 years of age.

Answer: Massachusetts

Shays' Rebellion was the first major stirring of the 'masses' in the history of the United States. Led by poor, and in many cases bankrupt, farmers, the aggrieved rebels fought against what they saw as the repressive authority of the Massachusetts state government, which had collected taxes and fees in a manner deemed unjust by many citizens (sounds a bit like the reasoning behind the American Revolution, doesn't it?) The rebellion was eventually quelled, but not before some concessions were offered to the insurgents. Shays escaped to Vermont, and was eventually pardoned.

It was his rebellion that prompted Hamilton and Madison to write the 'Federalist Papers', calling for a powerful central authority in the United States. Meanwhile, Thomas Jefferson, hearing of the brouhaha while serving as ambassador to France, suggested that 'a little rebellion now and then is a good thing.'

Answer: Frederick Douglass

Douglass was a stalwart in the anti-slavery drive during the mid-19th century, but his anti-authoritarian feelings did not stop at that one issue. For example, he was quite daringly outspoken against the Mexican-American War at a time when anti-war protest was isolated to a few, exceptional mainstream politicians (including a young Abraham Lincoln!) One famous and rather cynical line from Douglass, 'Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong that will be imposed upon them.'

Answer: Harriet Tubman

Prosser, Vesey and Turner were all leaders of noted slave rebellions of the early 19th century, while Tubman was an escaped slave who helped release other slaves from their degraded position in bondage. The Prosser rebellion was thwarted before his plan, which called for an uprising of several thousand slaves against white slaveholders and the state government in Virginia, could be put into effect. Prosser, the 25 year old ringleader, escaped but was soon captured and put to death. Denmark Vesey's 1822 scheme, much like Prosser's, was found out and quashed before it could be put into effect.

The plan was to burn Charleston and instigate a general slave revolt within South Carolina. Vesey's plan was also discovered before coming to fruition, and he, along with 35 other blacks, was put to death. Unlike the previous two rebellions, the uprising led by Nat Turner in 1831 resulted in a great deal of violence and death.

However, like the previous two rebellions, the ringleader(s) were quickly captured and executed. Though these rebellions are the most prominent and well-documented, many other examples of slave rebellion occurred during the early 19th century, squashing the oft-promoted suggestion of the time that enslaved blacks were content with their existence in bondage.

Answer: Kansas

Before Brown gained international notoriety for his foolishly daring attempt to instigate slave rebellion in Virginia, he was a participant in several acts of violence in what became known as 'bleeding Kansas'. Specifically, Brown was involved in the 'Pottawatomie Massacre', which occurred in May, 1856 and involved the killing of five men who advocated the rights of slaveholders. John Brown's actions in Kansas and Virginia made him a hero among militant abolitionists, and a villain amongst the slaveholding south. Though he has been portrayed in American history textbooks as a man of questionable sanity, his comments and responses during his trial and the period before his execution appear to have been those of a man with sound mind and ardent Christian beliefs.

Answer: Mother Jones

Mother Jones, an Irish-born immigrant, was famous as a 'white-haired' spitfire, who trenchantly criticized the very wealthy and pointedly attacked the U.S. government's lack of labor laws. Involved with the socialist movement, she strongly advocated for the rights of children, who were forced to work in grueling conditions.

Interestingly, though she was born in 1837, she publicly announced her birthdate as May 1, 1830...unusually making herself older, rather than younger as public figures are normally wont to do.

This fabricated birth year helped her to appear more 'grandmotherly', and the choice of May 1st was in special homage to May Day, a socialist/labor holiday.

Answer: Eugene V. Debs

Eugene V. Debs is a fine example of a third-party candidate in U.S. history who, though unsuccessful at the polls, managed to influence mainstream politics. Advocating a socialist agenda which, like Mother Jones, attacked the lack of regulation in corporate America, Debs was able to help the American worker and the consumer make profitable gains in the areas of health, work hours, workers' safety, etc. Debs' fifth and final run for president was done so while he languished in jail as a result of his outspoken opposition to Woodrow Wilson's Espionage Act of 1917 and U.S. involvement in World War I.

The vindictive Wilson was so peeved at Debs' various acts of subversion that, following the 'Great War', he refused to pardon his long-time political adversary.

It took a presidential turnover to do the trick...Warren G. Harding had Debs pardoned and released in 1921.

Answer: Montgomery, Alabama

Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama (also famous for Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute and the World War II Tuskegee Airmen) as Rosa Louise McCauley. She married Raymond Parks, and together, they became members of the NAACP. Mrs. Parks' refusal to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery was an unplanned event, but instigated a very well organized 382 day boycott of the publicly-owned bus company in that Alabama town.

This led to the desegregation of buses in Montgomery, and the birth of the NAACP's attack on the entire system of segregation in the American south.

Answer: Little

While Martin Luther King, Jr. gained notoriety for his powerful and eloquent leadership in the south, Malcolm X took a different approach in the north. A member of the Nation of Islam, founded by Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm advocated an attack on discrimination against blacks in America 'by any means necessary.' Most experts would suggest that it was a combination of King's peaceful, mainstream movement, and the hostile and threatening underground swell promoted by Malcolm that helped led to the passing of civil rights laws and the overturn of the repugnant system of segregation. Later in his career, Malcolm broke from the Nation of Islam, causing a great rift between himself and the members of that organization. Speculation continues about who was behind his 1965 assassination death in New York City...

Answer: Bobby Seale

Bobby Seale, the only black member of the 'Eight', apparently stepped over the line by calling the judge a 'fascist pig' and a 'racist' in open court. The other defendants, aka the 'Chicago Seven' (Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Lee Wiener) were also all convicted, but their sentence was overturned by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

It seems that the jury was deemed biased (several members of the jury had announced that they believed the defendents should be considered guilty simply because of their appearances and lifestyles) and the judge (another Hoffman) did not take proper care in making jury selections. Seale, a founding member of the Black Panther Party, spent four years in prison, during which time he was accused, but not convicted, of murdering a fellow prisoner. Later he renounced his advocacy of political violence, ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Oakland and wrote a cookbook on 'barbeque'n'.

This concludes my rebellious quiz...let's remember, the United States is a nation formed on rebellion...questioning authority is not a bad thing.

As John Bradshaw, who tried and sentenced King Charles II in England once said, 'Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.' Thank you for playing!