Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.The Indian coolies and the ex-slaves, who resented these newcomers flooding into the colonies and driving down wages, were instant rivals. This was convenient for the planters—who were skilled at the game of divide and rule. The planters lumped their workers into two distinct but equally nasty stereotypes: Former slaves were described as lazy, whereas Indians were called meek, docile children. "You may have work and plenty of it for a black man and a coloured man, and they will not do it,” claimed planter W. Alleyne Ireland. He conveniently ignored the fact that the ex-slaves wanted to work their own land, not labor for their former owners. The overseers praised the Indians' meekness but also held them in contempt. The Indian, one overseer claimed, "possesses the low, cringing and abject habit common to his nationality."
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.On the day the coolies were to depart, each one was given a "tin ticket,” an identification disk, hung around the neck or strapped to the arm. The enslaved Africans who were taken to the sugar plantations lost their names; they were meant to be pure property. The Indian indentures were lied to, they were tricked, they were no more than cheap labor to keep the plantations running—but they were still individuals. Each of their names was carefully recorded in account books.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Sugar has left a bloody trail through human history. Sugar plantations from Africa to the Caribbean and Louisiana and as far as Hawaii are haunted by stories of brutality, torture, rape, and murder. When slaves rebelled, they often took gruesome revenge on their masters, only to face even more horrific reprisals when the owners and overseers regained control. Indenture was a step better than slavery, but masters did their best to intimidate workers to keep wages low and silence critics. Violence was the very soil from which sugar sprang. The only way to fight sugar masters, it seemed, was for the workers to be harder, tougher, and more willing to accept bloodshed than the owners.Gandhi began to see that there was a way for the indentured Indians to strengthen themselves without having to rely on machetes and guns. Freedom, he realized, did not come only from rising up against oppressors or tyrants. It could also be found in oneself. The mere fact that the sugar masters treated their workers as some form of property did not mean the Indians had to accept that definition. In fact, it was up to them to claim, to assert, their own worth, their own value. A man who had his inner, personal dignity was free—no matter how a boss tried to bully him. Gandhi’s years in South Africa became a laboratory, as he experimented with how to be a truthful, free person. Finally, he was ready to put his ideas into practice.
Which question should a reader ask to identify an author's purpose?
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Gandhi began to see that there was a way for the indentured Indians to strengthen themselves without having to rely on machetes and guns. Freedom, he realized, did not come only from rising up against oppressors or tyrants. It could also be found in oneself. The mere fact that the sugar masters treated their workers as some form of property did not mean the Indians had to accept that definition. In fact, it was up to them to claim, to assert, their own worth, their own value. A man who had his inner, personal dignity was free—no matter how a boss tried to bully him. Gandhi’s years in South Africa became a laboratory, as he experimented with how to be a truthful, free person. Finally, he was ready to put his ideas into practice.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Underneath the clash over rights, laws, and work rules, there was a deeper truth that the planters were sensing: The Age of Sugar was ending. On the one hand, the work on the plantations was now guided by a web of laws and rules that even an Indian coolie like Bechu could use to challenge the owners. Workers were individuals, not property. On the other hand, world sugar prices were plummeting. Owners no longer had the economic clout of being a mainstay of the economy. Instead, smaller plantations were going bankrupt. The old ways were simply not working anymore. Why were sugar prices falling? Because of competition from another part of the world.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Sugar turned human beings into property, yet sugar led people to reject the idea that any person could be owned by another. Sugar murdered millions, and yet it gave the voiceless a way to speak. Sugar crushed people, and yet it was because of sugar that Gandhi began his experiment in truth—so that every individual could free him- or herself. Only sugar—the sweetness we all crave—could drive people to be so cruel, and to combat all forms of cruelty. The craving for sugar took us from that ancient time when people were defined by the work of their ancestors to our modern world—the one Gandhi led us to see, in which each individual is valued as human. Though terrible conditions for sugar workers still exist in places such as the Dominican Republic, and cane sugar has been replaced by other sweeteners invented in the Age of Science, this one substance forever marked our history.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.And yet, for all the hardships and prejudice, most Indians decided to stay in the colonies even after their contracts ended. By the end of the 1800s, only a quarter of the indentures sailed back to India after their five years were over. Sometimes this was because they were still too poor. Others told tales of returning only to be spurned by their villages for having broken caste or to be preyed upon by relatives who stole their money. Most of those who stayed in the New World, though, chose to do so because it offered a new life. And in the late 1800s, the authorities began to make a new offer to Indian workers. If they remained in the Caribbean, they could get a small plot of land of their own. After putting in their time in sugar, they could begin to farm for themselves.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.In the sugar colonies, the wounds of slavery were never far beneath the surface. The Africans who had worked in sugar quickly left the plantations and tried to farm or moved to nearby towns. As one planter said, it made no sense to believe that "the Negro would become a grateful and cheerful free laborer on the soil which had been watered by his tears in slavery.” But what could the former slaves do? Every Indian who accepted the paltry wages specified in the indenture contract lowered the price an African could charge for his labor.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.A fire was lit in a giant iron cauldron, and the certificates of 2,300 Indians were tossed into the flames—the first major act of Satyagraha. "I am not property," the Indians were showing. "I am not your victim," they were demonstrating. "I have the power of my conscience," they were proving. The quiet strength of the Indian community shook the South African government. And by June 1914 it gave in; the Black Act was taken off the books. The Indians had insisted that they were not mere workers but were citizens—and finally the government could not resist.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Workers could not leave the plantation unless they had a pass. And if they did decide to explore on their own, without permission, they could be thrown in jail, sentenced to hard labor, or lose some of their hard-earned wages. A charge of "idling" in the fields could result in the loss of a whole week's wages. Worse, if they dared rebel or protest, their contract could be transferred to another estate. And there were still complaints of flogging or mysterious deaths. Life, as the historian Hugh Tinker noted, was like being a prisoner on parole.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.On the day the coolies were to depart, each one was given a "tin ticket,” an identification disk, hung around the neck or strapped to the arm. The enslaved Africans who were taken to the sugar plantations lost their names; they were meant to be pure property. The Indian indentures were lied to, they were tricked, they were no more than cheap labor to keep the plantations running—but they were still individuals. Each of their names was carefully recorded in account books.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.A fire was lit in a giant iron cauldron, and the certificates of 2,300 Indians were tossed into the flames—the first major act of Satyagraha. "I am not property," the Indians were showing. "I am not your victim," they were demonstrating. "I have the power of my conscience," they were proving. The quiet strength of the Indian community shook the South African government. And by June 1914 it gave in; the Black Act was taken off the books. The Indians had insisted that they were not mere workers but were citizens—and finally the government could not resist.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.A fire was lit in a giant iron cauldron, and the certificates of 2,300 Indians were tossed into the flames—the first major act of Satyagraha. "I am not property," the Indians were showing. "I am not your victim," they were demonstrating. "I have the power of my conscience," they were proving. The quiet strength of the Indian community shook the South African government. And by June 1914 it gave in; the Black Act was taken off the books. The Indians had insisted that they were not mere workers but were citizens—and finally the government could not resist.
What is an author's claim?
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Sugar turned human beings into property, yet sugar led people to reject the idea that any person could be owned by another. Sugar murdered millions, and yet it gave the voiceless a way to speak. Sugar crushed people, and yet it was because of sugar that Gandhi began his experiment in truth—so that every individual could free him- or herself. Only sugar—the sweetness we all crave—could drive people to be so cruel, and to combat all forms of cruelty. The craving for sugar took us from that ancient time when people were defined by the work of their ancestors to our modern world—the one Gandhi led us to see, in which each individual is valued as human. Though terrible conditions for sugar workers still exist in places such as the Dominican Republic, and cane sugar has been replaced by other sweeteners invented in the Age of Science, this one substance forever marked our history.
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Indians were supposed to work seven hours each day, and to be paid a set fee for each day's work. But the planters instead preferred to pay by the "task''—they insisted that they wouldn't pay a worker until he had completed a specific job. Of course the owner would pick a job that took much more than seven hours, so a worker's day stretched from sunup to sundown. Bechu showed that this was illegal and unfair: "There are lots of indentured men who work by time and have drivers at their backs all day long." Yet, even then, they "do not earn'' the amount specified in their contracts.Several planters wrote back to the paper, furious at the suggestion that they were cheating the coolies. The letters were black with rage—at the Indian who dared to speak up and question the ethics of Englishmen. When a commission was convened in 1897 to investigate the conditions on the estates, Bechu—the Indian the planters hated—came before the judges to share his evidence.
Which question should a reader ask to identify an author's purpose?
Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World.Mohandas K. Gandhi (later known as the Mahatma or Great One) was born in India to a traditional Hindu family. When he was given the opportunity to study law in England, he faced the same problem as the indentured sugar workers: He would lose caste if he crossed the black water. His family arranged a special ceremony that allowed him to make the trip without giving up his place in society. Thus, in 1894, freshly educated in England, Gandhi made a second journey. He began practicing law in Natal, a region in what is now South Africa. He moved there because many Indians were already in Natal, laboring as indentured sugar workers.One day, Gandhi later explained, "a man in tattered clothes, headgear in hand, two front teeth broken and his mouth bleeding, stood before me trembling and weeping." The indentured worker, whose name was Balasumdaram, had been badly beaten by his employer. Gandhi knew that Balasumdaram was trapped. For no matter how poorly he had been treated by his boss, if he left the plantation, he could be prosecuted and jailed. Gandhi saw indenture for what it was: "almost as bad as slavery. Like the slave the indentured labourer was the property of his master."
Which type of evidence would most likely include a testimonial?
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