P4
The fact that Black people in the English colonies of North America were never treated as the equals of White people has important ramifications. If from the outset Black people were discriminated against, then legal slavery in the 1660‘s should be viewed as a reflection and an extension of racial prejudice rather than, as many historians including Oscar and Mary Handlin have argued, the cause of prejudice. In addition, the existence of discrimination before the advent of legal slavery offers a further explanation for the harsher treatment of Black slaves in North than in South America. Freyre and Tannenbaum have rightly argued that the lack of certain traditions in North America — such as a Roman conception of slavery and a Roman Catholic emphasis on equality — explains why the treatment of Black slaves was more severe there than in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies of South America. But this cannot be the whole explanation since it is merely negative, based only on a lack of something. A more compelling explanation is that the early and sometimes extreme racial discrimination in the English colonies helped determine the particular nature of the slavery that followed. (192 words)
For the following question, consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply
10. According to the passage, the Handlins have NOT argued which of the following about the relationship between racial prejudice and the institution of legal slavery in the English colonies of North America?
□A Racial prejudice and the institution of slavery arose simultaneously.
□B The source of racial prejudice was the institution of slavery.
□C Although existing in a lesser form before the 1660‘s, racial prejudice increased sharply after slavery was legalized.
11. The passage suggests that the existence of a Roman conception of slavery in Spanish and Portuguese colonies had the effect of
(A) extending rather than causing racial prejudice in these colonies
(B) hastening the legalization of slavery in these colonies
(C) mitigating some of the conditions of slavery for Black people in these colonies
(D) delaying the introduction of slavery into the English colonies
(E) bringing about an improvement in the treatment of Black slaves in the English colonies
12. The author considers the explanation put forward by Freyre and Tannenbaum for the treatment accorded Black slaves in the English colonies of North America to be
(A) ambitious but misguided
(B) valid but limited
(C) popular but suspect
(D) anachronistic and controversial
(E) premature and illogical
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