Question

How did the Northern colonies benefit economically from slavery?
A. Northern elites owned most of the plantations in the South.
B. Northern merchants were involved in the slave trade.
C. Most enslaved people lived in the Northern colonies.
D. There were large plantations in the North.

Answer 1

B. Northern merchants were involved in the slave trade.

Explanation: Northern ports and merchants profited from the triangular trade—building ships, financing and insuring voyages, outfitting slave ships, and trading rum, textiles and other goods for enslaved people and slave-produced commodities like sugar, rice and tobacco. Most enslaved people and large plantations were in the South, not the North.