Question

read the passage from sugar changed the world. 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 some of the taxes had imposed on london. 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. when the english looked at the sugar they used every day, clarkson and the other abolitionists made them see the blood of the slaves who had created it. the very fact that slave - made sugar was so popular made it harder for the english to ignore the reality of slavery. sugar was a bridge—like the sneakers and t - shirts and rugs that, today, we know are made by sweatshop labor. if you wanted the product, abolitionists forced you to think about how it was made. slavery—a practice as ancient as human civilization—was becoming unacceptable, a form of inhumanity. which sentence best states the authors’ claim in this passage? a. sugar was so cheap that it made economic sense for people in england to buy loaves of it. b. it was wiser for english people to buy sugar from india instead of the caribbean. c. slavery was so widespread that it would have been foolish for the english to oppose it. d. boycotting was an effective and persuasive tool in the fight against slavery.

Explanation:

To determine the authors' claim, we analyze each option:

• Option A: The passage focuses on boycotting sugar to fight slavery, not just the economic sense of buying sugar from India. Eliminate.
• Option B: The passage doesn't compare buying from India vs. the Caribbean; it's about boycotting slave - produced sugar. Eliminate.
• Option C: The passage emphasizes boycotting as a tool, not that slavery was too widespread to oppose. Eliminate.
• Option D: The passage describes how English people boycotted slave - produced sugar (by buying "freemen - produced" sugar) and how this boycott was a way to fight against slavery. This option aligns with the main idea of the passage.

Answer:

D. Boycotting was an effective and persuasive tool in the fight against slavery.