Question

Read the two passages from Sugar Changed the World. 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." Slave labor was valuable because it produced cheap sugar that everyone wanted to buy. But if people stopped buying that sugar, the whole slave system would collapse. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, the women of New England refused to buy English products and English tea. The loss of income made London rescind some of the taxes it had imposed on America. Now this same tactic—boycotting—was used to fight slavery. Some 400,000 English people stopped buying the sugar that slaves grew and harvested. Instead, they bought loaves of sugar that carried a label that said, "Produced by the labor of FREEMEN"—the sugar came from India. Back in England, Clarkson and his friends saw their chance: France was no longer in the midst of a revolution, and Napoleon's sugar dreams had failed. England now had no excuse; the abolitionists would force their countrymen to face the question: Was England a nation built on Christian beliefs or on treating people as property? In 1806, the antislavery forces brought a new bill before Parliament that would limit British involvement in the slave trade. Some of the most powerful testimony in favor of the bill came from former army officers who had been to the Caribbean and had seen the courage of the former slaves and the horrors of slavery. The slaves spoke through the testimony of the very men who had gone to fight them. One member of Parliament told his colleagues of the tortures he had seen in the islands. Slavery was not an abstraction, an economic force, a counter in the game of world politics—it was the suffering of men and women. Members of Parliament were being confronted with the reality of slavery, just as audiences at Clarkson's lectures were when he showed shackles and whips. While Parliament debated the new bill, Clarkson and his allies went on lecturing, talking, changing minds all across England. They succeeded. Newspapers reported that even in Bristol, a port city with a harbor filled with slave ships, "the popular sentiment has been very strongly expressed against the continuance of that traffick in human flesh." William Wilberforce, another leader of the abolitionist cause, felt the new mood in his country. "God can turn the hearts of men," he marveled. Many members of Parliament recognized the same change in the "sense of the nation." In 1807 a bill to ban all English involvement in slave trading passed the House of Commons, then the House of Lords. At precisely noon on March 25, King George III signed the law. Which claim do both passages support? Abolitionists used powerful speeches and presentations to engage people and persuade them to join the abolitionists’ cause. People objected to the cruelty of involuntary servitude, but King George III had economic reasons for ending the trading of enslaved people. Most people in England did not care whether thousands of enslaved people suffered as long as sugar remained plentiful. The abolitionists' tremendous efforts showed that making moral arguments to support political movements were not successful.

Answer 1

Answer: Overall, both passages highlight the active and persuasive role played by abolitionists in using speeches, presentations, and various techniques to engage people and garner support for their cause.

Step-by-step explanation:

Both passages from "Sugar Changed the World" support the claim that abolitionists used powerful speeches and presentations to engage people and persuade them to join the abolitionists' cause. In the first passage, it is mentioned how abolitionists like Clarkson and Equiano used techniques such as brandishing whips and handcuffs used on slaves, publishing testimonials, and educating readers through memoirs to raise awareness about the horrors of the slave trade. These actions were aimed at making people understand the reality of slavery and prompting them to take action against it.

The second passage further emphasizes the efforts of the abolitionists in engaging and changing people's minds. Clarkson and his allies went on lecturing, talking, and showing shackles and whips to audiences across England. Their powerful presentations and speeches had a significant impact on the public sentiment. Newspapers reported that even in Bristol, a city with a harbor filled with slave ships, there was a strong expression against the continuation of the slave trade. Members of Parliament were also confronted with the reality of slavery through testimony and firsthand accounts, which led to a change in their perception.