Everyday life, work and trade in New England, the Middle Colonies and the South

Grade 8 Social Studies Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   How big was the Atlantic slave system? (cards A to E). Card A, from an essay by the historian David Eltis in the SlaveVoyages project, based on its database of voyages (as printed): "over the whole period of the trade, some 12.5 million slaves had been shipped from Africa, and 10.7 million had arrived in the Americas". Card B, the same essay (as printed): "as late as 1820, nearly four Africans had crossed the Atlantic for every European"; sugar plantations were "absorbing well over two thirds of slaves carried across the Atlantic by the major European and Euro-American powers"; and the slave traffic to Brazil was "eventually accounting for about forty percent of the trade". Card C, the economist Barbara Solow, 1991, as the National Park Service prints it: "Europeans brought 8 million black men and women out of Africa to the New World between the 16th and 19th centuries". Card D, the same essay by Eltis (as printed): "Free European migrants and indentured servants never traveled across the Atlantic in sufficient numbers to meet the labor needs of expanding plantations." And: "Slavery or some form of coerced labor was the only possible option if European consumers were to gain access to more tropical produce and precious metals." Card E, a summary in our words from the Census Bureau: the census counted the enslaved population as 697,624 in 1790 (the page also prints 697,897) and as 3,953,760 in 1860, the last census to count them. The Eltis essay was first published in 2007.

2. 1.

   Card C says 8 million were brought; card A says 12.5 million were shipped. How should Ari treat the gap?

   • Trust card C more, since its 1991 date is newer than card A's 2007 date, so it is better informed
   • Throw out both estimates completely, since they differ by several million people
   • Both are exactly right, because they count the trade across different oceans and years
   • Treat both as estimates; card A uses later voyage records, so it is likely better informed
3. 2.

   A student writes: "Most Africans carried across the Atlantic went to the future United States." How strong is that claim, given card B, Luz asks?

   • Strong: card B says Africans outnumbered Europeans crossing, so most came to the United States
   • Strong: card B names the United States as the main destination for those carried across
   • Weak: card B says sugar plantations took well over two thirds, Brazil forty percent
   • Weak: card B says no one went to Brazil or to the sugar islands, just to the colonies
4. 3.

   Card B says Brazil took about forty percent of the trade. Using card A's totals, about how many people is that, Tala asks?

   • About 40 million, since forty percent of the trade means forty million people
   • Exactly 4 million, since forty percent is a clean fraction of ten million
   • About 0.4 million, since forty percent is written as 0.4 of a million people
   • About 4.3 to 5 million, depending on which total card A's numbers are used
5. 4.

   A student says: "Card E shows the United States received few Africans, since 697,624 is far below 10.7 million." How strong is that claim, Jun asks?

   • Strong: card E says the United States received no arrivals from Africa in that time
   • Weak: census numbers cannot be used together with numbers from other sources
   • Strong: 697,624 is much smaller than 10.7 million, so the United States received few
   • Weak: card E counts people living in 1790, not arrivals, so it cannot show arrivals
6. 5.

   Card A comes from an essay based on a database of voyages. What is it best evidence for, Pia asks?

   • The price of a sugar crop in 1650, as the plantation owners recorded it
   • An exact head count of each person carried, with no estimated numbers in it
   • A scholars' estimate built from voyage records, with some estimated numbers
   • What the ships' captains wrote, word for word, in their own logs and letters
7. 6.

   Card D says coerced labor was the only option "if European consumers were to gain access" to tropical goods. What does the "if" show, Bo asks?

   • That Europeans had no choice about trading with Africa and the Americas in that era
   • The claim is conditional: it describes how demand was met, not that it was right
   • That consumers refused tropical goods from the Americas, so planters had no market
   • That slavery was unavoidable, since Europeans had no other way to get tropical goods
8. 7.

   Which chain from cards B and D best explains why so many Africans were carried to the Americas, Milo asks?

   • The 1808 ban on imports created the demand for plantation produce and for labor in Brazil
   • Demand for produce outran the supply of free workers, so planters used coerced African labor
   • Large numbers of Africans arrived first, which then created demand for sugar and tobacco
   • Europeans needed Africans to help settle Africa and to build trading posts along its whole coast
9. 8.

   A student says: "Card B proves slavery in the Americas was only about sugar." How strong is that claim, Zee asks?

   • Weak: card B says well over two thirds, which leaves room for other crops and mining
   • Weak: card B says sugar was unimportant to the trade, and other crops mattered more
   • Strong: card B says each person carried across the Atlantic went to a sugar plantation
   • Strong: card B names sugar plantations as the main destination for those carried
10. 9.

    Which new evidence would best test the estimate that 10.7 million arrived, Ren asks?

    • Another essay that repeats the estimate of 10.7 million arrivals in its own words
    • More ship logs, port records and insurance papers matched to individual voyages
    • A report on the abolition movement of the 1830s, written by its later leaders
    • A population count of 1790 for the whole United States and each of its states
11. 10.

    Card E: 697,624 in 1790 and 3,953,760 in 1860. About how many times as large was the 1860 count, Esme asks?

    • About 3.3 times as large, found by subtracting
    • About 5.7 percent larger
    • About 57 times as large
    • About 5.7 times as large, over seventy years