Use the passage to answer the question.

Question

Fourth U.S. president and founder James Madison called America's engagement in the African slave trade the nation's "original sin."
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.
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 focus on the fact that some of the founding fathers were slaveholders themselves
C. to illustrate how much damage slavery did to the early United States and its people
D. to show that early U.S. presidents acknowledged the evils of slavery even while participating in the system

Answer 1

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