Question

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.

No one interviewed the Africans who labored in the sugar fields to ask them about their hard labor. They were meant to work and die. But there is one way we can hear them. The Africans invented music, dances, and songs that carry on the pulse, the beat, of their lives. (To hear examples of music from the sugar lands, go to www.sugarchangedtheworld.com.) In Puerto Rico, bomba is a form of music and dance that the sugar workers invented. It is a kind of conversation in rhythm involving a woman, the man dancing with her, and the drummers who watch her and find the right rhythm for her movements. A master coming by would see dancing—no words of anger or rebellion. But as she moved and swayed, as the drummers "spoke" back in their beats, the workers were saying that they were not just labor, not just bodies born to work and die. Instead, they were alive and speaking to one another in movements and sounds that were all their own.

In Cuba, sugar workers told their stories in the words and sounds of rumba. As one song said, "The boss does not want me to play the drum.” Overseers feared the slaves were using drums to send messages and spread thoughts of rebellion.

Similarly, in Brazil there is a dance called Maculelê, which some trace to the sugar fields. Maculelê is danced with sticks or sugar cane stalks, and it looks very much like training for combat. On many of the sugar islands, Africans created similar dances in which people spin, jump, and seem to menace each other, then, just on the beat, click sticks and twirl away. The dances were a way of imitating warfare without actually defying the master.

Which text evidence best supports the authors' claim and purpose that enslaved people were more than mercilessly treated workers?

"Bomba is a form of music and dance that the sugar workers invented."
"They were not just labor, not just bodies born to work and die."
"Similarly, in Brazil there is a dance called Maculelê."
"People spin, jump, and seem to menace each other."

Answer 1

"They were not just labor, not just bodies born to work and die."

Step-by-step explanation:

Sugar Changed The World by Marina Budhos and her husband Marc Aronson narrates the story of how the different spices came to be of such importance in our lives. The book also delves into the history of how these spices were first discovered and then manufactured to make them in the simple and refined form we see today.

The given excerpt reveals how the slaves who work on the plantation fields and farms of their masters used various forms of expression to show their inner emotions. As slaves, they are not allowed to revolt and wouldn't even dare to. But they expressed their voice is through their music and dances. These became the medium of expression, signifying that they were not just slaves who work for their masters. But more than that, they are also humans capable of having feelings like everyone else.

Thus, the correct answer is the second option.