Answers 25-26 Summer - HISD CR English II A-2nd Nine WeeksSugar Changed the World, Part 4: Building Claims

Sugar Changed the World, Part 4: Building Claims Answers

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Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Sugar was the connection, the tie, between slavery and freedom. In order to create sugar, Europeans and colonists in the Americas destroyed Africans, turned them into objects. Just at that very same moment, Europeans—at home and across the Atlantic—decided that they could no longer stand being objects themselves. They each needed to vote, to speak out, to challenge the rules of crowned kings and royal princes. How could that be? Why did people keep speaking of equality while profiting from slaves? In fact, the global hunger for slave-grown sugar led directly to the end of slavery. Following the strand of sugar and slavery leads directly into the tumult of the Age of Revolutions. For in North America, then England, France, Haiti, and once again North America, the Age of Sugar brought about the great, final clash between freedom and slavery.

Economic demand for sugar led to political pressure to end enslavement.

The growing demand for sugar made the lives of enslaved people even worse.

Turning Africans into objects was important for the sugar industry to succeed.

Monarchies became increasingly strong and popular during the Age of Sugar.

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How do the authors use historical evidence to support their claim? Select two options.

They use a secondary source to show that the British secretary of war opposed involuntary servitude.

They use a primary source to show that a song was spreading the idea of equality across the Caribbean.

They use a secondary source to show that the idea of an enslaved people’s revolt was groundbreaking.

They use a statistic to show that England had enough voters to end slavery and establish equality.

They use a primary source to show that some white people opposed the idea of freeing enslaved people.

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.The English public, now consuming some eighteen pounds of sugar a year, knew little about the lives of the enslaved Africans whose labor sweetened their meals. Worse yet, every Englishman who hammered the wood, sewed the sails, manufactured the rope for slave ships, or built the barrels to hold slave-harvested sugar made his money from the slave trade. The English were getting richer because Africans were being turned into property. Clarkson and others who believed as he did, who in the coming decades would be called abolitionists, realized that while that link gave the English a stake in slavery, it also gave the antislavery forces an opportunity. If they could reverse the flow—make the horrors of slavery visible to those who benefited from it—they might be able to end the vile practice forever.The abolitionists were brilliant. They created the most effective public relations campaign in history, inventing techniques that we use to this day. When he spoke, Clarkson brandished whips and handcuffs used on slaves; he published testimonials from sailors and ship doctors who described the atrocities and punishments on slave ships. When Olaudah Equiano published his memoir, he educated his readers about the horrors of the slave trade. And then, when the English began to understand what slavery really was, Clarkson and others organized what we would call a boycott of "the blood-sweetened beverage."

"The English were getting richer because Africans were being turned into property."

". . . while that link gave the English a stake in slavery, it also gave the antislavery forces an opportunity."

"They created the most effective public relations campaign in history, inventing techniques that we use to this day."

". . . Clarkson and others organized what we would call a boycott of 'the blood-sweetened beverage.'"

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.In 1806, the antislavery forces brought a new bill before Parliament that would limit British involvement in the slave trade. Some of the most powerful testimony in favor of the bill came from former army officers who had been to the Caribbean and had seen the courage of the former slaves and the horrors of slavery. The slaves spoke through the testimony of the very men who had gone to fight them. One member of Parliament told his colleagues of the tortures he had seen in the islands. Slavery was not an abstraction, an economic force, a counter in the game of world politics—it was the suffering of men and women. Members of Parliament were being confronted with the reality of slavery, just as audiences at Clarkson's lectures were when he showed shackles and whips.While Parliament debated the new bill, Clarkson and his allies went on lecturing, talking, changing minds all across England. They succeeded. Newspapers reported that even in Bristol, a port city with a harbor filled with slave ships, "the popular sentiment has been very strongly expressed against the continuance of that traffick in human flesh."William Wilberforce, another leader of the abolitionist cause, felt the new mood in his country. "God can turn the hearts of men," he marveled. Many members of Parliament recognized the same change in the "sense of the nation." In 1807 a bill to ban all English involvement in slave trading passed the House of Commons, then the House of Lords. At precisely noon on March 25, King George III signed the law.

The authors explain the details of the bill that would limit British involvement in the trading of enslaved people.

The authors use events from English history to describe the economic impact of involuntary servitude.

The authors provide a primary-source quotation from a British abolitionist named William Wilberforce.

The authors summarize a newspaper article about ships in Bristol carrying enslaved people.

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.To say that "all men are equal" in 1716, when slavery was flourishing in every corner of the world and most eastern Europeans themselves were farmers who could be sold along with the land they worked, was like announcing that there was a new sun in the sky. In the Age of Sugar, when slavery was more brutal than ever before, the idea that all humans are equal began to spread—toppling kings, overturning governments, transforming the entire world.Sugar was the connection, the tie, between slavery and freedom. In order to create sugar, Europeans and colonists in the Americas destroyed Africans, turned them into objects. Just at that very same moment, Europeans—at home and across the Atlantic—decided that they could no longer stand being objects themselves. They each needed to vote, to speak out, to challenge the rules of crowned kings and royal princes. How could that be? Why did people keep speaking of equality while profiting from slaves? In fact, the global hunger for slave-grown sugar led directly to the end of slavery. Following the strand of sugar and slavery leads directly into the tumult of the Age of Revolutions. For in North America, then England, France, Haiti, and once again North America, the Age of Sugar brought about the great, final clash between freedom and slavery.

Most eastern Europeans themselves were farmers who could be sold along with the land.

Europeans and colonists in the Americas destroyed Africans, turned them into objects.

Why did people keep speaking of equality while profiting from slaves?

The global hunger for slave-grown sugar led directly to the end of slavery.

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Knowing that their slaves were likely to die by the time they reached their thirties, Louisiana sugar planters were extremely selective—they bought only healthy-looking young men in their late teens. On average, the men purchased in Louisiana were an inch taller than the people bought in the other slave states. Those teenagers made up seven to eight out of every ten slaves brought to America's sugar Hell. The others were younger teenage girls, around fifteen to sixteen years old. Their job, for the rest of their short lives, was to have children. Elizabeth Ross Hite knew that, for sure, "all de master wanted was fo' dem wimmen to hav children." Enslaved children would be put to work or sold. The overseer S.B. Raby explained, "Rachel had a 'fine boy' last Sunday. Our crop of negroes will I think make up any deficiencies there may be in the cane crop." That is, a master could sell any slaves who managed to live, if he needed more money than he could make from sugar.Jazz was born in Louisiana. Could it be that a population of teenagers, almost all of them male, were inspired to develop their own music as a way to speak, to compete, to announce who they were to the world? Bomba in Puerto Rico, Maculelê in Brazil, jazz in Louisiana—all gave people a chance to be alive, to be human, to have ideas, and dreams, and passions when their owners claimed they were just cogs in machinery built to produce sugar.

They argue that youth and gender are advantages when inventing entirely new forms of music.

They argue that plantation owners acted against their own economic interests when they selected enslaved young men.

They argue that different forms of music, such as jazz and bomba, came out of different types of hardship.

They argue that extremely difficult conditions inspired enslaved young men to invent new forms of music.

What is an author's claim?

a sentence or paragraph that excludes evidence

a sentence or paragraph that expresses facts, not opinions

a statement that provides a supporting detail about an opinion

a statement that shares a writer's viewpoint on an issue

Which historical events do the authors include to support the claim in this passage? Select two options.

details of Marie Antoinette’s actions at the Bastille

specific details about the modern sugar industry

a quotation from the Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen

a summary of political changes related to human rights in France

a description of revolts in the sugar islands

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.In every single American slave state, the population of enslaved people kept rising even after the slave trade was abolished. That was because enough enslaved children were born, lived, and grew to become adults. There was just one exception to this rule: Louisiana, where the native-born enslaved population kept dropping. Sugar was a killer.Unlike the Caribbean, Louisiana has cold snaps. That put an additional pressure on the sugar harvest. Not only did the slaves need to harvest the cane in perfect rhythm with the grinding mills, but the entire crop had to be cut down between mid-October and December. This pace only increased when growers installed improved, steam-powered mills. People needed to work faster than the weather and to keep pace with machines.

"In every single American slave state, the population of enslaved people kept rising. . . ."

". . . enough enslaved children were born, lived, and grew to become adults."

“Not only did the slave states need to harvest the cane in perfect rhythm with the grinding mills. . . .”

"People needed to work faster than the weather. . . ."

Read the two passages from Sugar Changed the World.Slave owners fought back, arguing that owners should be able to list their slaves as property when they arrived in France and take them with them when they left. Though most parts of France agreed to this, law–makers in Paris hesitated. Pierre Lemerre the Younger made the case for the slaves. "All men are equal," he insisted in 1716—exactly sixty years before the Declaration of Independence.To say that "all men are equal" in 1716, when slavery was flourishing in every corner of the world and most eastern Europeans themselves were farmers who could be sold along with the land they worked, was like announcing that there was a new sun in the sky. In the Age of Sugar, when slavery was more brutal than ever before, the idea that all humans are equal began to spread—toppling kings, overturning governments, transforming the entire world.Sugar was the connection, the tie, between slavery and freedom.Clarkson and others who believed as he did, who in the coming decades would be called abolitionists, realized that while that link gave the English a stake in slavery, it also gave the antislavery forces an opportunity. If they could reverse the flow—make the horrors of slavery visible to those who benefited from it—they might be able to end the vile practice forever.The abolitionists were brilliant. They created the most effective public relations campaign in history, inventing techniques that we use to this day. When he spoke, Clarkson brandished whips and handcuffs used on slaves; he published testimonials from sailors and ship doctors who described the atrocities and punishments on slave ships. When Olaudah Equiano published his memoir, he educated his readers about the horrors of the slave trade. And then, when the English began to understand what slavery really was, Clarkson and others organized what we would call a boycott of "the blood-sweetened beverage."

Both passages use evidence to develop the claim that the general public needed to know about the terrors of involuntary servitude.

Both passages use evidence to develop the claim that Eastern European farmers and enslaved people on sugar plantations shared a common goal.

Both passages use evidence to show that knowledge of the extreme brutality of the sugar trade changed viewpoints about enslavement.

Both passages use evidence to support the claim that lawmakers had more power and influence than abolitionists had.

Read the two passages from Sugar Changed the World.England had begun talking about ending slavery, but then it saw the chaos in France and sent an army to try to defeat the Haitians. Now Napoleon's France followed in the footsteps of the English.Napoleon's 35,000-man army was led by his brother-in-law and soon scored an amazing success: They captured Toussaint in 1802 and brought him to France, where he died in prison in 1803. But the former slaves fought on. In two years of fighting, nearly 50,000 French soldiers died. And on January 1, 1804, the victorious Republic of Haiti was born. Fighting for freedom, the former slaves defeated the armies of first England, then France: Europe's two most powerful nations.Haiti was born free; human rights won over property rights.In 1807 a bill to ban all English involvement in slave trading passed the House of Commons, then the House of Lords. At precisely noon on March 25, King George III signed the law. We should mark that date, honor it, to this day. For while no slaves were freed by the bill, it marked a great change in the world. More slaves from Africa had been shipped by the British than by any other nation. That part of the grim history of sugar and slavery was over. Indeed, that very same year Congress passed a law forbidding Americans from being involved in importing slaves. In the great contest over whether a human, any human, could ever be property; the tide was turning.

Both passages help the reader understand how the end of involuntary servitude in Haiti led to the end of involuntary servitude in Britain.

Both passages illustrate how property rights were more important to the British than to Americans.

Both passages support the claim that human rights became more important than property rights in the early 1800s.

Both passages support the claim that the end of the slave trade eventually led to the end of the sugar industry.

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.By the late 1700s, Saint Domingue (what is now Haiti) was the world center of sugar. So many sugar plantations dotted the landscape that slaves called commanders managed other slaves. On the night of August 14, 1791, commanders from the richest sugar plantations in Saint Domingue gathered in a place called Alligator Woods and swore a solemn oath. They would rise up against their white owners, "and listen to the voice of liberty which speaks in the hearts of all of us." That voice told them to destroy everything related to sugar. Sugar made the Africans slaves, so sugar must be wiped off the island, now a vast sugar factory to the world.By the end of August, the French colony was in flames. So many cane fields were on fire that the air was filled with "a rain of fire composed of burning bits of cane-straw which whirled like thick snow." Smashing mills, destroying warehouses, setting fields on fire, the freedom fighters demolished some one thousand plantations—and that was just in the first two months of their revolution. The fight against sugar and chains soon had a leader, Toussaint, who called himself "L’Ouverture"—the opening. Toussaint was making a space, an opening, for people to be free.

They use primary-source quotations to show that enslaved people in Saint Domingue were willing to destroy property to gain their freedom.

They use secondary-source quotations to show the plan that the commanders devised in Alligator Woods in August of 1791.

They use primary-source information to describe the role of commanders on sugar plantations in Saint Domingue.

They use secondary-source information to describe Toussaint’s plan to enslave all the people working on the sugar plantations.

In this passage, how do the authors use historical details to support the claim that US political leaders’ positions on slavery impacted the relations between the United States and Haiti? Select three options.

by explaining that the Founding Fathers held the same beliefs about the rebellions in Haiti

by quoting Thomas Jefferson’s views on the dangers of enslaved Haitians rebelling

by describing John Adams's actions to support Haiti in its fight against the French

by revealing the Founding Fathers’ views that Haiti was America’s only sister republic

by illustrating Thomas Jefferson’s view that the Haitian rebellion could lead to a rebellion of the enslaved in America

Read the two passages from Sugar Changed the World.The abolitionists were brilliant. They created the most effective public relations campaign in history, inventing techniques that we use to this day. When he spoke, Clarkson brandished whips and handcuffs used on slaves; he published testimonials from sailors and ship doctors who described the atrocities and punishments on slave ships. When Olaudah Equiano published his memoir, he educated his readers about the horrors of the slave trade. And then, when the English began to understand what slavery really was, Clarkson and others organized what we would call a boycott of "the blood-sweetened beverage."Slave labor was valuable because it produced cheap sugar that everyone wanted to buy. But if people stopped buying that sugar, the whole slave system would collapse. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, the women of New England refused to buy English products and English tea. The loss of income made London rescind some of the taxes it had imposed on America. Now this same tactic—boycotting—was used to fight slavery. Some 400,000 English people stopped buying the sugar that slaves grew and harvested. Instead, they bought loaves of sugar that carried a label that said, "Produced by the labor of FREEMEN"—the sugar came from India.Back in England, Clarkson and his friends saw their chance: France was no longer in the midst of a revolution, and Napoleon's sugar dreams had failed. England now had no excuse; the abolitionists would force their countrymen to face the question: Was England a nation built on Christian beliefs or on treating people as property?In 1806, the antislavery forces brought a new bill before Parliament that would limit British involvement in the slave trade. Some of the most powerful testimony in favor of the bill came from former army officers who had been to the Caribbean and had seen the courage of the former slaves and the horrors of slavery. The slaves spoke through the testimony of the very men who had gone to fight them. One member of Parliament told his colleagues of the tortures he had seen in the islands. Slavery was not an abstraction, an economic force, a counter in the game of world politics—it was the suffering of men and women. Members of Parliament were being confronted with the reality of slavery, just as audiences at Clarkson's lectures were when he showed shackles and whips.While Parliament debated the new bill, Clarkson and his allies went on lecturing, talking, changing minds all across England. They succeeded. Newspapers reported that even in Bristol, a port city with a harbor filled with slave ships, "the popular sentiment has been very strongly expressed against the continuance of that traffick in human flesh."William Wilberforce, another leader of the abolitionist cause, felt the new mood in his country. "God can turn the hearts of men," he marveled. Many members of Parliament recognized the same change in the "sense of the nation." In 1807 a bill to ban all English involvement in slave trading passed the House of Commons, then the House of Lords. At precisely noon on March 25, King George III signed the law.

Abolitionists used powerful speeches and presentations to engage people and persuade them to join the abolitionists’ cause.

People objected to the cruelty of involuntary servitude, but King George III had economic reasons for ending the trading of enslaved people.

Most people in England did not care whether thousands of enslaved people suffered as long as sugar remained plentiful.

The abolitionists' tremendous efforts showed that making moral arguments to support political movements were not successful.

Which details do the authors include to support the claim in this passage? Select three options.

an explanation of the results of the Seven Years’ War

an explanation of how the Molasses Act benefited colonists

an explanation of what was being taxed and how much it cost

an explanation of why the Americans smuggled molasses

an explanation of why the British imposed the Sugar Act

Read the two passages from Sugar Changed the World.By the late 1700s, Saint Domingue (what is now Haiti) was the world center of sugar. So many sugar plantations dotted the landscape that slaves called commanders managed other slaves. On the night of August 14, 1791, commanders from the richest sugar plantations in Saint Domingue gathered in a place called Alligator Woods and swore a solemn oath. They would rise up against their white owners, "and listen to the voice of liberty which speaks in the hearts of all of us." That voice told them to destroy everything related to sugar. Sugar made the Africans slaves, so sugar must be wiped off the island, now a vast sugar factory to the world.By the end of August, the French colony was in flames. So many cane fields were on fire that the air was filled with "a rain of fire composed of burning bits of cane-straw which whirled like thick snow." Smashing mills, destroying warehouses, setting fields on fire, the freedom fighters demolished some one thousand plantations—and that was just in the first two months of their revolution. The fight against sugar and chains soon had a leader, Toussaint, who called himself "L’Ouverture”—the opening. Toussaint was making a space, an opening, for people to be free.When the Haitians defeated the French armies, Napoleon lost control of the world's most productive sugar islands and with it his dream of great sugar profits. As a result, Napoleon had no use for the land in North America he had so recently obtained from Spain. Napoleon did, though, need money to pay for his wars. That is why he sold the vast Louisiana Territory to Jefferson for the bargain price of just fifteen million dollars. What textbooks call the Louisiana Purchase should really be named the Sugar Purchase. Americans obtained the middle part of what would become their nation because the Haitians achieved their freedom.

Haiti is a small island nation that has had little effect on events in North America or Europe.

Sugar was such a powerful economic force that it led to significant political changes.

Events in one part of the world rarely have a significant effect on people in other regions.

Natural disasters such as fires can have both political and economic impacts on colonies.

Which statement best shows how evidence related to historical events can support a claim?

Secondary sources can include song lyrics written by people to communicate their experiences.

Artifacts can summarize a large amount of information about a past time period.

Primary sources can include the exact words that witnesses used to testify at a trial.

Statistics can allow readers to focus on emotions rather than details about a past occurrence.

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