GMATPREP ChallengeQ-Planter-legislators of the post-Civil War southern

Planter-legislators of the post-Civil War southern United States enacted crop lien laws stipulating that those who advanced cash or supplies necessary to plant a crop would receive, as security, a claim, or lien, on the crop produced. In doing so, planters, most of whom were former slaveholders, sought access to credit from merchants and control over nominally free laborers—former slaves freed by the victory of the northern Union over the southern Confederacy in the United States Civil War. They hoped to reassure merchants that despite the emancipation of the slaves, planters would produce crops and pay debts. Planters planned to use their supply credit to control their workers, former slaves who were without money to rent land or buy supplies. Planters imagined continuation of the pre-Civil War economic hierarchy: merchants supplying landlords, landlords supplying laborers, and laborers producing crops from which their scant wages and planters' profits would come, allowing planters to repay advances. Lien laws frequently had unintended consequences, however, thwarting the planter fantasy of mastery without slavery. The newly freed workers, seeking to become self-employed tenant farmers rather than wage laborers, made direct arrangements with merchants for supplies. Lien laws, the centerpiece of a system designed to create a dependent labor force, became the means for workers, with alternative means of supply advances, to escape that dependence.

1. Which of the following best expresses the central idea of the passage?

(A) Planters in the post-Civil War southern United States sought to reinstate the institution of slavery.
(B) Through their decisions regarding supply credit, merchants controlled post-Civil War agriculture.
(C) Lien laws helped to defeat the purpose for which they were originally created.
(D) Although slavery had ended, the economic hierarchy changed little in the post-Civil War southern United States.
(E) Newly freed workers enacted lien laws to hasten the downfall of the plantation economy.



2. According to the passage, each of the following was a reason planters supported crop lien laws EXCEPT:

(A) Planters believed that lien laws would allow them to expand their landholdings.
(B) Planters expected that lien laws would give them control over former slaves.
(C) Planters anticipated that lien laws would help them retain access to merchant credit.
(D) Planters intended to use lien laws to create a dependent labor force.
(E) Planters saw lien laws as a way to maintain their traditional economic status.



3. The passage suggests which of the following about merchants in the post-Civil War southern United States?

(A) They sought to preserve pre-Civil War social conditions.
(B) Their numbers in the legislatures had been diminished.
(C) Their businesses had suffered from a loss of collateral.
(D) They were willing to make business arrangements with former slaves.
(E Their profits had declined because planters defaulted on debts for supply advances.