Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.

Question

The English public, now consuming some eighteen pounds of sugar a year, knew little about the lives of the enslaved Africans whose labor sweetened their meals. Worse yet, every Englishman who hammered the wood, sewed the sails, manufactured the rope for slave ships, or built the barrels to hold slave-harvested sugar made his money from the slave trade. The English were getting richer because Africans were being turned into property. Clarkson and others who believed as he did, who in the coming decades would be called abolitionists, realized that while that link gave the English a stake in slavery, it also gave the antislavery forces an opportunity. If they could reverse the flow—make the horrors of slavery visible to those who benefited from it—they might be able to end the vile practice forever.

The abolitionists were brilliant. They created the most effective public relations campaign in history, inventing techniques that we use to this day. When he spoke, Clarkson brandished whips and handcuffs used on slaves; he published testimonials from sailors and ship doctors who described the atrocities and punishments on slave ships. When Olaudah Equiano published his memoir, he educated his readers about the horrors of the slave trade. And then, when the English began to understand what slavery really was, Clarkson and others organized what we would call a boycott of "the blood-sweetened beverage."

Which excerpt from the passage best states the authors' claim?

"The English were getting richer because Africans were being turned into property."
". . . while that link gave the English a stake in slavery, it also gave the antislavery forces an opportunity."
"They created the most effective public relations campaign in history, inventing techniques that we use to this day."
". . . Clarkson and others organized what we would call a boycott of 'the blood-sweetened beverage.'"

Answer 1

The excerpt that best states the authors' claim is:

". . . while that link gave the English a stake in slavery, it also gave the antislavery forces an opportunity."

This statement encapsulates the central idea that the connection between English prosperity and slavery not only benefited the enslavers but also provided a platform for abolitionists to expose the realities of slavery and advocate for its end.