Question

the influence of revolutionary ideals quiz
questions 1 through 3 refer to the following.
“the emancipation of slaves in new england, beginning around 1780, was a gradual process, whether by post nati statute laws freeing enslaved people born after a certain date, as in rhode island and connecticut, or by effect, as in massachusetts and new hampshire, where ambiguous judicial decisions and constitutional interpretations discouraged slaveholding without clearly outlawing it. the gradual nature of the process encouraged whites to transfer a language and set of practices shaped in the context of slavery to their relations with a slowly emerging population of free people of color. the rhetoric of antislavery and revolutionary republicanism fostered this transfer, undergirding whites’ assumptions that emancipated slaves, likely to be dependent and disorderly, would constitute a problem requiring firm management in the new republic. . . .
even more problematic was the promise implicit in antislavery rhetoric that abolition, by ending ‘the problem’—the sin of slavery and the troublesome presence of slaves—would result in the eventual absence of people of color themselves. in other words, whites anticipated that free people of color, would, by some undefined moment (always imminent), have disappeared.”
joanne pope melish, historian, disowning slavery: gradual emancipation and
ace\ in new england, 1780–1860, published in 1998
question 3 of 3
the author makes which of the following arguments in the excerpt about the perceptions whites maintained regarding emancipated people in the north?
a they expected emancipated people to assimilate into society.
b they believed that emancipated people were unable to take care of themselves.
c they hoped that emancipated people would provide a source of inexpensive labor.

Explanation:

The text mentions Whites' assumptions that emancipated slaves would be dependent and disorderly, indicating a belief that they couldn't care for themselves.

Answer:

B. They believed that emancipated people were unable to take care of themselves.