Question

What are the effects of the words chosen by the authors of Sugar Changed the World? They underscore the importance of the slave trade in the Americas.
They create sympathy for the living conditions of enslaved Africans.
They minimize the impact that the sugar trade had on the African people.
They compare the lives of enslaved people with the lives of free people.
They provide a metaphor for the bitterness and sweetness of the sugar trade.

Answer 1

Correct choices: 1, 2, 4, and 5.

- They underscore the importance of the slave trade in the Americas: the authors’ diction emphasizes scale, economic impact, and centrality of slavery to the sugar economy.
- They create sympathy for the living conditions of enslaved Africans: vivid, descriptive language about suffering and hardship evokes readers’ empathy.
- They compare the lives of enslaved people with the lives of free people: contrastive wording highlights disparities in freedom, labor, and living conditions.
- They provide a metaphor for the bitterness and sweetness of the sugar trade: figurative language links the literal sweetness of sugar to the moral bitterness of its human cost.

They do not minimize the impact on African people; rather, their word choices typically highlight and condemn that impact.