"Sugar was the connection, the tie, between slavery and freedom. In order to create sugar, Europeans and colonists in the Americas destroyed Africans, turned them into objects. Just at the very same moment,
Europeans-at home and across the Atlantic-decided that they could no longer stand being objects
themselves. They each needed to vote, to speak out, to challenge the rules of crowned kings and royal
princes. How could that be? Why did people keep speaking of equality while profiting from slaves? In
fact, the global hunger for slave-grown sugar led directly into the tumult of the Age of Revolutions. For in
North America, the Age of Sugar brought about the great, final clash between freedom and slavery." (pg.
72-73)
According to this section of the book, why is sugar the connection between
slavery and freedom? Support your response with evidence from the text.
Your answer
What is the tension or conflict in this connection?
Your answer
How does this passage contribute to the development of the central idea in the
text? Support your response with evidence from the text.
Your answer