Question

How do the authors use historical evidence to support their claim in this passage?

They argue that youth and gender are advantages when inventing entirely new forms of music.
They argue that plantation owners acted against their own economic interests when they selected enslaved young men.
They argue that different forms of music, such as jazz and bomba, came out of different types of hardship.
They argue that extremely difficult conditions inspired enslaved young men to invent new forms of music.

Answer 1

They support the claim that different musical forms arose from different kinds of hardship. The authors juxtapose specific historical contexts (for example, urban Black life that produced jazz versus plantation/Caribbean conditions that produced bomba), citing documentary evidence—accounts of work and leisure, demographic details (who was making the music), and descriptions/early recordings of the music itself—to show how distinct hardships produced distinct musical responses.