These questions are not recommended as essential, but merely as suggestive and perhaps useful to teachers who prefer the Socratic method. They might also serve to call the attention of students to some point which they would otherwise overlook.

The general questions and those in ordinary type may be answered from the text itself; the answers to those in italics are to be found in other parts of the book, in a history of the United States, or in a cyclopedia. The questions in italics may of course, like all the rest, be omitted at the discretion of the teacher. The research required to answer such questions, however, will be of great value to the students, if they have the time for it. See also the suggestions given in the Preface.

General Questions.

These questions apply to all the authors, and hence will not be repeated under each name.

1. Give the date of birth, and the date of death of those not living. 2. Where was the author born? 3. Where did he pass his life? 4. What was his education? 5. What was his profession and what positions, if any, did he fill? 6. Describe his character. 7. His style of writing. 8. Give the names of his Works. 9. Title and contents of the extracts given. 10. Learn the short extracts and poems by heart. 11. Find on the map all the places mentioned. (This is of prime importance, and I beg that this question may never be omitted).

FIRST PERIOD, 1579-1750.

John Smith.—1. Why did Captain Smith fight against the Turks? 2. When did he come to America? 3. How did he spend his time after 1609? 4. What other settlement was in America at this time besides Jamestown? 5. By whom and when made?

William Strachey.—1. What is the special fame of this description of a storm? 2. Give some features of it. 3. Who was ruler of England at this time? John Lawson.—1. Why did he come to Carolina, and when? 2. Tell of his sad death. 3. What is the story of “Sir Walter Raleigh’s Ship”? (See the poem, “The Palatine Ship,” by William Gilmore Simms) 4. Was there any settlement in South Carolina at this time? 5. If so when and by whom made?

William Byrd.—1. What distinction has Byrd among the writers of Virginia? 2. For what was his daughter Evelyn noted? 3. Who was governor of North Carolina in 1713-1720? 4. Is the Dismal Swamp so hard to cross now? 5. How old was George Washington when William Byrd died? 6. What town is named for Governor Eden?

SECOND PERIOD, 1750-1800.

Henry Laurens.—1. Why did he go to Europe in 1771? in 1779? 2. What title was given his son John? 3. For whom was he exchanged? 4. How was he buried? 5. What was happening in America during his imprisonment, 1779-1781?

George Washington.—1. What did his mother say of him? 2. What is his national title? 3. What monuments have been reared to him? 4. What salary had he as Commander in Chief? 5. When was the Farewell Address written? 6. Where and when did his inauguration as President take place? 7. When was Washington City laid off as the Capital of the United States? 8. Name the thirteen original States.

Patrick Henry.—1. What did Jefferson say of him? 2. What part did he take in the Revolutionary War? 3. When did he say “If this be treason—”? 4. When and where was his greatest speech made? 5. What other great man died the same year that he did? 6. What difference in their ages?

William Henry Drayton.—1. Who went with him to be educated? 2. What bold public statement did he make in April, 1776? 3. What battles of the Revolution occurred in South Carolina during Drayton’s life?

Thomas Jefferson.—1. What is Jefferson’s title? 2. Of what political party is he considered the founder? 3. What other ex-president died the same day? 4. What inscription is on his tomb? 5. What does he say of the relative positions of the upper and lower classes? 6. Who were presidents before Jefferson? 7. Who, after him, up to the time of his death? 8. What famous Frenchman visited Jefferson in 1825? 9. Quote some of the Declaration of Independence.

David Ramsay.—1. Who was his second wife? 2. Of what profession were their daughters? 3. Where is Fort Moultrie and for whom named? 4. Where is there a statue to Sergeant Jasper?

James Madison.—1. What is Professor Fiske’s estimate of him? 2. Tell of his marriage and of Mrs. Madison. 3. How long and when was Madison President? 4. What war took place during that time? 5. What disaster occurred in Washington in 1814? 6. What patriotic song was written the same year?

St. George Tucker.—1. When did he come to America and whom did he marry? 2. Where is William and Mary College and when was it founded? 3. What famous men were teachers and students there?

John Marshall.—1. How long was he Chief Justice? 2. Repeat Charles Cotesworth Pinckney’s famous remark. 3. Over what great trial did Marshall preside? 4. When was it? 5. Where are fine statues of him? 6. Who was Pinckney?

Henry Lee.—1. What title had he in the Revolution? 2. Who was his mother? 3. What well known words were first used by him? 4. Who was his most famous son? 5. Was Mrs. Motte’s house burned down? Mason Locke Weems.—1. Of what church was he rector?

John Drayton.—1. Whose son was he? 2. When did the battle of Noewee occur? 3. Who were Lord North and Lord Grenville? 4. What relation was Lieutenant Hampton to General Wade Hampton, of South Carolina?

William Wirt.—1. What two famous speeches by Wirt are here mentioned? 2. Who was the “Blind Preacher”? 3. What did Wirt say of life, in 1829? 4. Learn something more about the “Blind Preacher.” (See People’s Cyclopedia, Hart’s American Literature.) 5. Who were Demothenes, Ossian, Homer, Milton, Rousseau?

John Randolph of Roanoke.—1. From whom was he descended? 2. What does Paulding say of him? 3. Where is found the quotation—“Free will fixed fate, foreknowledge absolute”?

George Tucker.—1. To whom was he related? 2. How long was he professor at the University of Virginia? 3. Who was founder of the University? 4. Where is the Natural Bridge? (See picture under Mrs. Preston.) 5. When was the University established and opened?

THIRD PERIOD, 1800-1850.

Henry Clay.—1. What two titles did he have, and for what reasons? 2. Mention some of his companions in public life. 3. Of what measures was he the author? 4. Who was Jackson? 5. Who were Philip, Alexander, CÆsar, Brutus, Madame de StaËl, Bonaparte? 6. What was the difference in the ages of Clay, Calhoun and Webster?

Francis Scott Key.—1. Relate the circumstances under which the “Star Spangled Banner” was written. 2. What city was burned by the British in the year in which this song was composed?

John James Audubon.—1. What was his favorite pursuit? 2. Where is a set of his works to be seen?

Thomas Hart Benton.—1. What title did he gain, and how? 2. What is said of his great work? 3. Who were Randolph and Clay? 4. What was the cause of the duel? 5. What office had Clay at the time? 6. How were Benton and Clay connected? (Mrs. Clay was a cousin of Benton’s, she had been Miss Lucretia Hart.) 7. Whom did Benton’s daughter Jessie marry, and what did she write? (See “List of Southern Writers,” FrÉmont.)

John Caldwell Calhoun.—1. Who was his early teacher? 2. What was the remark of Calhoun’s father about government? 3. What is Calhoun’s home now? 4. What is the principle of Nullification? 5. Who first said, “To the victors belong the spoils,” as applied to public offices? 6. What does Calhoun say of it? 7. Who are the three greatest statesmen of the “Compromise Period” (1820-1850)? 8. What does Everett say of them? 9. What does Stephens say of Calhoun in 1850? (See under A.H. Stephens.) 10. What does Webster say of him? 11. What rank does he hold as a statesman and patriot? 12. Who are the others mentioned as contemporary with Calhoun in the Senate?

Nathaniel Beverley Tucker.—1. Whose son was he, and whose half brother? 2. Give the plan of the “Partisan Leader.” 3. When was Van Buren president?

David Crockett.—1. What was his motto? 2. What does he say of the earthquake and its effects? 3. When was the great earthquake in the Mississippi Valley? 4. Where is the Alamo? 5. Tell something of its defence and fall. (See under Houston.) Richard Henry Wilde.—1. What discoveries did he make in Italy? 2. What is the poem by which he is known? (It is also called “The Captive’s Lament”). 3. Tell the incident of its translation. 4. Who was Mrs. White Beatty? 5. What else can you learn of her? 6. Who were Giotto Dante Tasso and Petrarch?

Augustus Baldwin Longstreet.—1. Who was “Ned Brace”? 2. How did Judge Longstreet feel about “Georgia Scenes” in his later years? 3. When did Washington make his Southern tour? 4. How old was Judge Bacon then?

Robert Young Hayne.—1. When and with whom was his great debate on Nullification? 2. What action did South Carolina take in 1832? 3. What prevented war? 4. What did Webster say the Union would be if the doctrine of State Sovereignty should be accepted? 5. What action had the citizens of Boston taken in 1809? 6. What was the resolution of the Virginia Convention on adopting the Constitution of the United States? 7. Who wrote Hayne’s Life?

Sam Houston.—1. When did Houston go to Texas? 2. What caused the Texan war of independence? 3. Who were the four presidents of the Republic of Texas? 4. How long was Texas independent and when did she enter the Union? 5. Who was then president of the United States?

William Campbell Preston.—1. What great orator was his uncle? 2. With what distinguished men was he associated, and who were they? 3. When was South Carolina University founded?

John Pendleton Kennedy.—1. In what novel of Thackeray did he write a chapter? 2. What was his connection with the Peabody Institute? 3. What poet did he befriend? 4. Who was Horse Shoe Robinson? 5. Whence his name? (He was a blacksmith.)

Hugh Swinton LegarÉ.—1. For what was he noted? 2. What does Judge Story say of him? 3. When did he live in Washington City? 4. When was he in Belgium? 5. Where did he die? 6. What poet wrote his life?

Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar.—1. When was he president of Texas? 2. Who succeeded him?

Francis Lister Hawks.—1. What induced Dr. Hawks to write a history of North Carolina? 2. Who was the first white child born in America? 3. When? 4. Who was the first Indian baptized? 5. Where is the town named for him? 6. What probably became of the Lost Colony of Roanoke and of the little Virginia Dare? 7. How old was she when her grandfather came back? 8. When did Sir Walter Raleigh send his first colony? 9. Did he ever come himself? 10. Tell of his life.

George Denison Prentice.—1. What paper did he establish? 2. How many mouths has the Mississippi River? 3. Who wrote his life? (See under G in “List of Southern Writers.”)

Edward Coate Pinkney.—1. What position had his father in 1802? 2. For what was his father distinguished? 3. Who do you think were “the five greatest poets of the country” in his lifetime?

Charles Étienne Arthur GayarrÉ.—1. In what languages did he write? 2. Who first manufactured sugar in Louisiana? 3. When? 4. Who were lords of Louisiana in 1750-70? 5. How long was Louisiana under Spanish domination? 6. When was the Louisiana Purchase made? 7. Tell the story of the Acadians.

Matthew Fontaine Maury.—1. What title did his sea studies acquire for him? 2. What was his service to the Atlantic Telegraph Cable? 3. Tell what honors he received. 4. Where is there a monument to Lieutenant Herndon? 5. What relation were Maury and Herndon? 6. Learn something of the Emperor Maximilian and the Mexican revolution.

William Gilmore Simms.—1. What is the subject of most of Simms’ novels? 2. Who has written his life? 3. What is the usual form of Manneyto? (Manitou) 4. Who were the Yemassees and when was the Yemassee war? 5. Give a sketch of General Marion. (See also under Ramsay.)

Robert Edward Lee.—1. Who have written the life of General Lee? 2. What is the present name of Washington College? 3. Where are there monuments to Lee? 4. When did the Civil War begin and end? 5. Learn more of General Lee.

Jefferson Davis.—1. When and where was he inaugurated president of the Confederacy? 2. What has his daughter Winnie written? 3. Who have written the life of President Davis? 4. When was Pierce president of the United States? 5. Where is Beauvoir? 6. Where is the Hermitage? 7. Where is Mr. Davis buried?

Edgar Allan Poe.—1. What is said of the “Raven” in 1845? 2. Where are monuments to Poe? 3. Which are the best lives of him? 4. Who was John Pendleton Kennedy? 5. What is the Koran? 6. “The red levin”?

Robert Toombs.—1. What two distinguished men besides Toombs were ordered to be captured after the war? 2. Why did he not sue for pardon? 3. Who have written his life? 4. Learn more of him.

Octavia Walton Le Vert.—1. What was the name of her father and grand father? 2. What did La Fayette say of her when a child? 3. What is said of her in Washington? 4. Trace her voyage to Spain from Mobile, Ala. 5. Who were the Moors and when did they rule Spain?

Louisa Susannah M’Cord.—1. Name of Mrs. M’Cord’s father? 2. Learn the last paragraph on page 292. 3. When was this article published? 4. Where is Forte Motte? 5. For what is it noted? 6. Tell something of the Women’s Rights Movement in Europe and America.

Joseph G. Baldwin.—1. What do you think of this sketch of Virginians? 2. Translate the Latin. 3. Who were Jefferson Hamilton Jackson, Clay John Randolph?

Alexander Hamilton Stephens.—1. In what family did he teach? 2. Name of his home? 3. Tell the anecdotes of him. 4. When did Calhoun die? 5. Tell what you can of the Senators mentioned in the sketch. 6. How did Fillmore afterwards become president of the United Stales? 7. When?

Alexander Beaufort Meek.—1. What system was established by him in Alabama? 2. Tell some of the characters in his writings 3. For whom is Montgomery named? 4. When was the Seminole war? 5. Who was the American general? 6. What river did De Soto discover and when did he march through Alabama?

Philip Pendleton Cooke.—1. Whose brother and whose cousin was he? 2. What is said of the poem “Florence Vane”?

Theodore O’Hara.—1. When was the battle of Buena Vista? 2. Where is O’Hara buried? 3. What is meant by “the Dark and Bloody Ground”? 4. What famous pioneer is also buried in Frankfort? 5. Mention some others given in this book who were in the battle of Buena Vista.

FOURTH PERIOD, 1850-1895.

George Rainsford Fairbanks.—1. What other names had Osceola? 2. Find out more about him and about the Florida War. 3. For whom is Fort Moultrie named? 4. Who wrote the lines on page 314? Richard Malcolm Johnston.—1. What people are described in his stories? 2. Who are they, and what are such people called in London, in North Carolina, and in different other States? 3. Who was Mr. Ellington?

John Reuben Thompson.—1. Of what magazine was he editor from 1847 to 1859? 2. Who were some of its contributors? 3. What other writers edited or wrote for the “Messenger”? 4. Who was Ashby?

Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry.—1. What have we inherited from England? 2. What relation does Mr. Gladstone think should exist between England and America? 3. What is the Peabody Educational Fund? 4. Learn what you can of George Peabody and of the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. (See also under John Pendleton Kennedy and Sidney Lanier.)

Margaret Junkin Preston.—1. How was Mrs. Preston related to Stonewall Jackson? 2. Where did he die? 3. What were his last words? 4. Where is the Virginia Military Institute? 5. Where is the Natural Bridge? (See Jefferson’s Description.)

Charles Henry Smith (“Bill Arp”).—1. Tell of the Cherokees and their march to the West. 2. Who were Ridge and Ross? 3. Tell of John Howard Payne’s imprisonment. 4. Why did the Cherokees go beyond the Mississippi?

St. George H. Tucker.—1. What relation was he to St. George Tucker? 2. When was Jamestown burned? 3. When did the Seven Days’ Battles around Richmond occur? 4. When was Berkeley governor of Virginia? 5. Tell of Bacon’s Rebellion. (See also Dr. Caruthers’ “Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.”) 6. What is left of Jamestown now? (See under John Smith.)

George William Bagby.—1. What was Dr. Bagby’s pen-name? 2. Whom did he succeed as editor of the “Southern Literary Messenger”? 3. Who was Rubinstein?

Sarah Anne Dorsey.—1. How did Mrs. Dorsey gain her pen-name? 2. To whom did she will her Mississippi home? 3. Who was H.W. Allen? 4. What was her opinion as to going in to exile after the war? 5. Mention some other Confederate soldiers who went to Mexico. 6. Who was Mrs. C. A Warfield and what did she write? (See “List of Southern Writers.”) 7. Describe the life of the mistress of a large plantation. (See under Kennedy and Mrs. M’Cord; also Mrs. Smedes’ “Southern Planter.”)

Henry Timrod.—1. What occupation did Timrod’s father choose and why? 2. Who were the companions of Timrod’s vacations? 3. Who wrote a sketch of his life? 4. In what great fire was his property destroyed in Columbia? 5. When did it occur? 6. Where is Magnolia Cemetery?

Paul Hamilton Hayne.—1. What title has been given him? 2. What loss had he during the war? 3. What relation was he to Robert Young Hayne? 4. What book has his son published? 5. The name of his son?

John Esten Cooke.—1. What relation was he to P.P. Cooke and to John P. Kennedy? 2. Who were Jackson and Stuart? 3. Tell something of Virginia History at the time the “Races” took place; of United States History at the same time.

Zebulon Baird Vance.—1. What title had he and why? 2. What race settled North Carolina? 3. What is the origin of the term “buncombe” as popularly used? 4. Tell of the Siege of Londonderry, and of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

Albert Pike.—1. Tell of his trip to the West. 2. Of what does his “Mocking-Bird” remind one? 3. Learn more of Pike and of his labors for Freemasonry. William Tappan Thompson.—1. What distinction about his birth? 2. What was the Western Reserve?

James Barron Hope.—1. In what year was the 250th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown? 2. Who is “the Man” of the Yorktown Centennial Ode? 3. Tell of the surrender at Yorktown. 4. For whom was Lord Cornwallis exchanged?

James Wood Davidson.—1. What have been his services to Southern literature? 2. What is the Beautiful? 3. The Poetical?

Charles Colcock Jones, Jr.—1. What collections did he make? 2. How stands he among Georgian writers? 3. Describe the city of Savannah in 1734. 4. Tell something of James Edward Oglethorpe. 5. What did Oglethorpe write? (See “List of Southern Writers.”) 6. Who were Jasper, De Soto, Pulaski?

Mary Virginia Terhune (“Marion Harland”).—1. For what special purpose was the Story of Mary Washington written? 2. When was the monument unveiled? 3. Where is it? 4. When did Mrs. Washington die?

Augusta Evans Wilson.—1. What was Mrs. Wilson’s first novel? 2. Her most famous one? 3. Translate the foreign phrases and look up the unknown names in the selection.

Daniel Bedinger Lucas.—1. When was the poem written? 2. To whom does the fifth stanza refer? 3. What was the Forum?

James Ryder Randall.—1. What has “My Maryland” been called? 2. When was it written? 3. Who were Carroll, Howard, Ringgold, Watson, Lowe, May?

Abram Joseph Ryan.—1. What was his title? 2. Mention some of his poems? 3. What was the Conquered Banner?

William Gordon McCabe.—1. What were the Trenches? 2. Who wrote Tristram and Iseult?

Sidney Lanier.—1. What kind of ancestry had he? 2. What is said of his “Science of English Verse”? 3. What was his favorite remark on Art? 4. Tell of the Centennial Ode. 5. To what poems does Barbe refer in his tribute to Lanier? (See under Waitman Barbe.) 6. Study well the “Song of the Chattahoochee,” its rhyme, meter, and thought. 7. What are the marshes of Glynn? (Salt marches on the coast of Ga.) 8. What are the Peabody Symphony Concerts?

James Lane Allen.—1. From what States was Kentucky mainly settled? 2. When was the battle of Blue Licks? 3. When was Kentucky admitted to the Union?

Joel Chandler Harris.—1. What is said of “On the Plantation”? 2. Is the negro dialect the same in all the States? 3. Who was Uncle Remus?

Robert Burns Wilson.—1. Who is the “Fair Daughter of the Sun”? 2. To whom are Wilson’s poems dedicated?

Christian Reid (Mrs. Tiernan).—1. In what battle was Colonel Fisher killed? 2. When was it? 3. Tell of Dr. Mitchell’s death and burial. (A granite monument has been erected over his grave).

Henry Woodfen Grady.—1. Of what paper was he editor? 2. Where is there a monument to him? 3. Learn all that you can of the persons and places mentioned in the extract.

Thomas Nelson Page.—1. With whom did he first write? 2. What passage of Grady’s does the extract illustrate?

Charles Egbert Craddock (Miss Murfree).—1. For whom was Murfreesboro named? 2. Where are Miss Murfree’s stories laid?

Danske Dandridge.—1. Whence did Mrs. Dandridge get her first name? 2. Learn the beautiful poem by heart. AmÉlie Rives (Mrs. Chanler).—1. Who were her paternal grandparents, and what did they write? 2. What style had she at first 3. Learn something of the ginseng-diggers in the Alleghany Mountains.

Grace King.—Describe the contrast in the life of many of the Southern planters before and after the war.

Waitman Barbe.—1. To whom is the poem addressed? 2. Of what paper is he editor?

Madison Cawein.—1. Of what race is he? 2. Who were the Huguenots? 3. Learn something of their history.

Dixie.—1. Who wrote Dixie, and when?