HIUS 221 2.3 The Rise of New World Slavery Answer Key MindTap

Determine which statements accurately describe the changing colonial world of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Check all that apply.

The slave trade radically altered the demographics of the West Indies.

Plantation owners frequently freed their illegitimate children from slavery.

The large numbers of European women living on plantations were charged with overseeing adult female slaves and their children.

Which of the following aspects of British culture were used to justify the practice of slavery? Check all that apply.

The British thought that the dark skin of Africans was evidence that they were impure and therefore inferior.

British society was hierarchical, and the British believed that those on top had dominion and control over the people and things on the bottom.

The British believed that Africans were inferior because they were not Christians.

Which of the following best describes the theory shared by some historians as to why the practice of polygyny arose within some African communities?

Because of the length of time required for slave ships to travel the Middle Passage, slave traders formed unions with female slaves.

Slave traders felt responsible for the high percentage of African children transported to the New World so married multiple African women in order to better care for them.

The slave trade, which diminished the adult male population in West Africa by an estimated 20%, led to an imbalance in the male-to-female ratio in this region.