Question 4 • ELPGEQ3 M/J Language Arts 1 - 1001010 HCPS v24
Read the passage from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs.O, you happy free women, contrast your New Year’s day with that of the poor bond-woman! With you it is a pleasant season, and the light of the day is blessed. Friendly wishes meet you every where, and gifts are showered upon you. Even hearts that have been estranged from you soften at this season, and lips that have been silent echo back, "I wish you a happy New Year.” Children bring their little offerings, and raise their rosy lips for a caress. They are your own, and no hand but that of death can take them from you.But to the slave mother New Year’s day comes laden with peculiar sorrows. She sits on her cold cabin floor, watching the children who may all be torn from her the next morning; and often does she wish that she and they might die before the day dawns. She may be an ignorant creature, degraded by the system that has brutalized her from childhood; but she has a mother’s instincts, and is capable of feeling a mother’s agonies.
Answer
A
to inform readers about the habits of free and enslaved women
B
to shame free women for not doing more to help enslaved women
C
to describe how the children of enslaved women are taken from them
D
to convince readers that enslaved women suffer unbearable fates
Explanation
Jacobs contrasts the joy and security free women experience on New Year’s Day with the enslaved mother’s fear that her children may be taken from her. Details such as the mother wishing they might die before morning emphasize the depth of her anguish. This emotional contrast is meant to convince readers that enslaved women suffer unbearable fates, rather than simply describe customs or habits.
AI-written and checked against the verified answer.