Fourth U.S. president and founder James Madison called America’s engagement in the African slave trade the nation’s “original sin.”

Question

The horrors of chattel slavery would bring down a wrath of biblical proportions, prophesied another founder, Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration of Independence. Like Madison, this third U.S. president was a slaveholder.

Question
Use the passage to answer the question.

Why does the author most likely arrange the sentences in this way?

A. to emphasize how truly horrible slavery and the African slave trade were

B. to illustrate how much damage slavery did to the early United States and its people

C. to focus on the fact that some of the founding fathers were slaveholders themselves

D. to show that early U.S. presidents acknowledged the evils of slavery even while participating in the system

Answer 1

C. to focus on the fact that some of the founding fathers were slaveholders themselves

Answer 2

Is that why the sentences are mostly arranged in that way

Answer 3

No, I apologize for the confusion. The correct answer is D. to show that early U.S. presidents acknowledged the evils of slavery even while participating in the system. The arrangement of the sentences highlights the contradiction between the acknowledgment of the horrors of slavery by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, who were both slaveholders themselves.

Answer 4

So the answer is D and not C?

Answer 5

I apologize for the confusion. Yes, the answer is D. The arrangement of the sentences is to show that early U.S. presidents like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson acknowledged the evils of slavery even while participating in the system. While they recognized the moral wrongs of slavery, they were still slaveholders themselves.