Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Underneath the clash over rights, laws, and work rules, there was a deeper truth that the planters were sensing: The Age of Sugar was ending. On the one hand, the work on the plantations was now guided by a web of laws and rules that even an Indian coolie like Bechu could use to challenge the owners. Workers were individuals, not property. On the other hand, world sugar prices were plummeting. Owners no longer had the economic clout of being a mainstay of the economy. Instead, smaller plantations were going bankrupt. The old ways were simply not working anymore. Why were sugar prices falling? Because of competition from another part of the world.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.A fire was lit in a giant iron cauldron, and the certificates of 2,300 Indians were tossed into the flames—the first major act of Satyagraha. "I am not property," the Indians were showing. "I am not your victim," they were demonstrating. "I have the power of my conscience," they were proving. The quiet strength of the Indian community shook the South African government. And by June 1914 it gave in; the Black Act was taken off the books. The Indians had insisted that they were not mere workers but were citizens—and finally the government could not resist.
Which question should a reader ask to identify an author's purpose?
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.And yet, for all the hardships and prejudice, most Indians decided to stay in the colonies even after their contracts ended. By the end of the 1800s, only a quarter of the indentures sailed back to India after their five years were over. Sometimes this was because they were still too poor. Others told tales of returning only to be spurned by their villages for having broken caste or to be preyed upon by relatives who stole their money. Most of those who stayed in the New World, though, chose to do so because it offered a new life. And in the late 1800s, the authorities began to make a new offer to Indian workers. If they remained in the Caribbean, they could get a small plot of land of their own. After putting in their time in sugar, they could begin to farm for themselves.
What is an author's claim?
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Mohandas K. Gandhi (later known as the Mahatma or Great One) was born in India to a traditional Hindu family. When he was given the opportunity to study law in England, he faced the same problem as the indentured sugar workers: He would lose caste if he crossed the black water. His family arranged a special ceremony that allowed him to make the trip without giving up his place in society. Thus, in 1894, freshly educated in England, Gandhi made a second journey. He began practicing law in Natal, a region in what is now South Africa. He moved there because many Indians were already in Natal, laboring as indentured sugar workers.One day, Gandhi later explained, "a man in tattered clothes, headgear in hand, two front teeth broken and his mouth bleeding, stood before me trembling and weeping." The indentured worker, whose name was Balasumdaram, had been badly beaten by his employer. Gandhi knew that Balasumdaram was trapped. For no matter how poorly he had been treated by his boss, if he left the plantation, he could be prosecuted and jailed. Gandhi saw indenture for what it was: "almost as bad as slavery. Like the slave the indentured labourer was the property of his master."
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Workers could not leave the plantation unless they had a pass. And if they did decide to explore on their own, without permission, they could be thrown in jail, sentenced to hard labor, or lose some of their hard-earned wages. A charge of "idling" in the fields could result in the loss of a whole week's wages. Worse, if they dared rebel or protest, their contract could be transferred to another estate. And there were still complaints of flogging or mysterious deaths. Life, as the historian Hugh Tinker noted, was like being a prisoner on parole.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.The Indian coolies and the ex-slaves, who resented these newcomers flooding into the colonies and driving down wages, were instant rivals. This was convenient for the planters—who were skilled at the game of divide and rule. The planters lumped their workers into two distinct but equally nasty stereotypes: Former slaves were described as lazy, whereas Indians were called meek, docile children. "You may have work and plenty of it for a black man and a coloured man, and they will not do it,” claimed planter W. Alleyne Ireland. He conveniently ignored the fact that the ex-slaves wanted to work their own land, not labor for their former owners. The overseers praised the Indians' meekness but also held them in contempt. The Indian, one overseer claimed, "possesses the low, cringing and abject habit common to his nationality."
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Indians were supposed to work seven hours each day, and to be paid a set fee for each day's work. But the planters instead preferred to pay by the "task''—they insisted that they wouldn't pay a worker until he had completed a specific job. Of course the owner would pick a job that took much more than seven hours, so a worker's day stretched from sunup to sundown. Bechu showed that this was illegal and unfair: "There are lots of indentured men who work by time and have drivers at their backs all day long." Yet, even then, they "do not earn'' the amount specified in their contracts.Several planters wrote back to the paper, furious at the suggestion that they were cheating the coolies. The letters were black with rage—at the Indian who dared to speak up and question the ethics of Englishmen. When a commission was convened in 1897 to investigate the conditions on the estates, Bechu—the Indian the planters hated—came before the judges to share his evidence.
Which type of evidence would most likely include a testimonial?
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