PT101.S4.P4.Q23

PrepTest 101 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 23

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P1

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.
P2

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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.
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Author Concession / Skepticism · Drescher's explanation incomplete
Author thinks that Drescher doesn't explain how England could have mobilized such popular support.
P3

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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...
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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.
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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)
Show answer
23.

Which one of the following ████ ██████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███ ████████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ █████████

a

British populism appealed ██ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████ ████████ ███ ██████████

This is Drescher's view, not Williams’.

4%
b

Both capitalists and ███████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ██████████████

Williams doesn’t think this. To the contrary—he thinks abolition was driven primarily by economic reasons, not moral ones. In fact, no one in the passage suggests (B) as an explanation for why slavery was abolished.

5%
c

Forced labor in ███ ████████ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██████████

Misdirection. Part of Eltis’ hypothesis (not Williams’) is that voluntary labor did a better job than slave labor at satisfying British consumers. But neither Eltis nor Williams suggests that slave labor couldn’t satisfy consumers. Williams’ hypothesis is simply that slave labor was becoming a drag on the economy.

11%
d

The operation of ████████ █████ ██ ██████ █████ ███ ██ ██████ ████████████ █████████████

Williams’ explanation is given in P1: he thinks slavery was abolished because slave colonies were becoming a drag on the economy. (D) conveys that hypothesis well.

72%
e

British workers became █████████ ████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ████ ███████ ████ █████████ ██████ ██████

Williams doesn’t think this. His explanation for why slavery was abolished doesn’t involve British workers or their wages. He simply thinks that slave colonies were becoming a drag on the British economy overall. In fact, no one in the passage suggests (E) as an explanation for why slavery was abolished.

8%

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