Slaves who worked the cotton plantations of the antebellum South usually lived in small wooden shacks and wore simple cotton clothing, but they often ate more calories per day than poor working people in the North. Which statement best explains this?

Question

Slaves who worked the cotton plantations of the antebellum South usually lived in small wooden shacks and wore simple cotton clothing, but they often ate more calories per day than poor working people in the North. Which statement best explains this?
 A. 
Slaveholders provided housing and clothing, but slaves grew their own food.
 B. 
Slaveholders provided housing and clothing, but the states provided the food.
 C. 
Slaveholders wanted to keep costs low, but they also needed to keep their slaves healthy.
 D. 
Slaveholders wanted to keep costs low, but they grew plenty of food on their plantations.

GPT-4o mini · Answer

The statement that best explains why slaves who worked the cotton plantations of the antebellum South often ate more calories per day than poor working people in the North is:

C. Slaveholders wanted to keep costs low, but they also needed to keep their slaves healthy.

This option acknowledges that while slaveholders aimed to minimize their expenses, maintaining the health and productivity of enslaved individuals was crucial for plantation owners, which often meant providing adequate food to sustain them.