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.
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
23.
Which one of the following ████ ██████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███ ████████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ █████████
Question Type
Stated
We want the statement that best captures Williams’ explanation for the abolition of slavery. His explanation is given in P1: he thinks slavery was abolished because slave colonies were becoming a drag on the economy. We should look for an answer choice that conveys this hypothesis.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Difficulty
88% of people who answer get this correct
This is a moderately difficult question.
It is significantly easier than other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%136
146
75%156
Analysis
Stated
Critique or debate
Humanities
Phenomenon-hypothesis
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
2%
160
b
3%
159
c
6%
159
d
88%
165
e
1%
161
Question history
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