PrepTest 101 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 27

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Two impressive studies have reexamined Eric Williams' conclusion that Britain's abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and its emancipation of slaves in its colonies in 1834 were driven primarily by economic rather than humanitarian motives. ████████ ██ ████████ █████ █████████████ ███ ███ ████████████ ██ ███████ ██████ █████ █████████ █████████ ██ █████████ ███ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████ █████████

Two Challenges to Williams' Conclusion · That British abolitionist movement was primarily driven by economics.

Williams argues that the slave colonies were becoming a drag on the British economy. That's why Britain abolished slavery, not because they thought it was wrong. But two studies question that conclusion.

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1. Drescher's View · Populism drove abolition

Drescher downplays economics and morality. Instead argues that it was populist political activism that drove abolition.

Author Concession / Skepticism · Drescher's explanation incomplete

Author thinks that Drescher doesn't explain how England could have mobilized such popular support.

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2. Eltis' View · Partially supportive of Williams' conclusion

Apparently Eltis does answer the question that the author faults Drescher for not answering...

2. Eltis' View · Disagrees with Drescher

Eltis disagrees with Drescher's view that the British traditions of liberty powered abolition.

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2. Eltis' View · Economics drove abolition

Eltis thinks that "want creation" made slave labor inappropriate and counterproductive.

2. Eltis' conclusion · Williams was partly right, partly wrong

It is economics that drove abolition; just not what Williams thought. The slave colonies' economies were fine. But slave labor wasn't good for the broader economy of the British empire.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)

27.

According to the passage, Eltis ██████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████

Question Type

Implied

Other’s perspective

The right answer will be a something that Eltis’ argument contradicts. We should go in with a low-res view of Eltis’ argument, which is laid out in P3. Unlike Drescher, Eltis argues that Britain’s pro-liberty political activism doesn’t explain the abolition of slavery, and that the real explanation is that voluntary labor came to be seen as the economically better option.

Popular support for ███████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ████████

Eltis doesn’t argue against this. His entire argument is an answer to the question of why this is true: voluntary labor and higher wages led to “want creation” and stronger consumer markets, which appealed to employers and laborers alike.

10%

In the early ██████████ ████████ ████████ ████ ████████ ██████ █████ ████ █████ ████████████ ███████

Eltis agrees with this. Williams is the one who argues against it—he thinks abolition came about simply because slave colonies weren’t viable anymore. Eltis disagrees with Williams, arguing that slave colonies were actually more viable than Williams thought.

29%

British views concerning ████████ ███████ █████████ ██████████████████ ███████ ██████████ ██ ████████

Eltis argues against this explanation and in favor of a different hypothesis. His argument is that British views on liberty don’t explain the abolition of slavery; rather, abolition came about because voluntary labor came to be seen as more economically beneficial.

45%

Widespread literacy in ███████ ███████████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ████████

Eltis has no stance on this. This is part of Drescher’s argument, but not the part Eltis disagrees with. Drescher says that abolition resulted from “widespread literacy and a tradition of political activism.” Eltis only disagrees with the activism part. He doesn’t take a position on whether literacy played some part in abolition.

Antislavery measures proposed ██ ████████████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████████

Eltis doesn’t argue against this. His entire argument is an answer to the question of why those antislavery measures were so widely supported: voluntary labor and higher wages led to “want creation” and stronger consumer markets, which appealed to people across political divides.

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PrepTest 101 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 27

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