While historians once propagated the myth that Africans who were

While historians once propagated the myth that
Africans who were brought to the New World as slaves
contributed little of value but their labor, a recent study
by Amelia Wallace Vernon helps to dispel this notion
(5) by showing that Africans introduced rice and the
methods of cultivating it into what is now the United
States in the early eighteenth century. She uncovered,
for example, an 1876 document that details that in
1718 starving French settlers instructed the captain of a
(10) slave ship bound for Africa to trade for 400 Africans
including some “who know how to cultivate rice.” This
discovery is especially compelling because the
introduction of rice into what is now the United States
had previously been attributed to French Acadians,
(15) who did not arrive until the 1760s.

Vernon interviewed elderly African Americans
who helped her discover the locations where until
about 1920 their forebears had cultivated rice. At the
heart of Vernon’s research is the question of why, in an
(20) economy dedicated to maximizing cotton production,
African Americans grew rice. She proposes two
intriguing answers, depending on whether the time is
before of after the end of slavery. During the period of
slavery, plantation owners also ate rice and therefore
(25) tolerated or demanded its “after-hours” cultivation on
patches of land not suited to cotton. In addition,
growing the rice gave the slaves some relief from a
system of regimented labor under a field supervisor, in
that they were left alone to work independently.

(30) After the abolition of slavery, however, rice
cultivation is more difficult to explain: African
Americans had acquired a preference for eating corn,
there was no market for the small amounts of rice they
produced, and under the tenant system—in which
(35) farmers surrendered a portion of their crops to the
owners of the land they farmed—owners wanted only
cotton as payment. The labor required to transform
unused land to productive ground would thus seem
completely out of proportion to the reward—except
(40) that, according to Vernon, the transforming of the land
itself was the point.

Vernon suggests that these African Americans did
not transform the land as a means to an end, but rather
as an end in itself. In other words, they did not
(45) transform the land in order to grow rice—for the
resulting rice was scarcely worth the effort required to
clear the land—but instead transformed the land
because they viewed land as an extension of self and
home and so wished to nurture it and make it their
(50) own. In addition to this cultural explanation, Vernon
speculates that rice cultivation might also have been a
political act, a next step after the emancipation of the
slaves: the symbolic claiming of plantation land that
the U.S. government had promised but failed to parcel
(55) off and deed to newly freed African Americans.

1. Which one of the following titles most completely and accurately summarizes the contents of the passage?

(A) “The Introduction of Rice Cultivation into what is now the United States by Africans and Its Continued Practice in the Years During and After Slavery”
(B) “The Origin of Rice Cultivation in what is now the United States and Its Impact on the Economy from 1760 to 1920”
(C) “Widespread Rice Cultivation by African Americans under the Tenant System in the Years After the Abolition of Slavery”
(D) “Cultural and Political Contributions of Africans who were Brought to what is now the United States in the Eighteenth Century”
(E) “African American Tenant Farmers and their Cultivation of Rice in an Economy Committed to the Mass Production of Cotton”


2. Which one of the following most completely and accurately describes the author’s attitude toward Vernon’s study?

(A) respectful of its author and skeptical toward its theories
(B) admiring of its accomplishments and generally receptive to its theories
(C) appreciative of the effort it required and neutral toward its theories
(D) enthusiastic about its goals but skeptical of its theories
(E) accepting of its author’s motives but overtly dismissive of its theories


3. As described in the last paragraph of the passage, rice cultivation after slavery is most analogous to which one of the following?

(A) A group of neighbors plants flower gardens on common land adjoining their properties in order to beautify their neighborhood and to create more of a natural boundary between properties.
(B) A group of neighbors plants a vegetable garden for their common use and to compete with the local market’s high-priced produce by selling vegetables to other citizens who live outside the neighborhood.
(C) A group of neighbors initiates an effort to neuter all the domestic animals in their neighborhood out of a sense of civic duty and to forestall the city taking action of its own to remedy the overpopulation.
(D) A group of neighbors regularly cleans up the litter on a vacant lot in their neighborhood out of a sense of ownership over the lot and to protest the city’s neglect of their neighborhood.
(E) A group of neighbors renovates an abandoned building so they can start a program to watch each other’s children out of a sense of communal responsibility and to offset the closing of a day care center in their neighborhood.


4. Which one of the following most completely and accurately describes the organization of the passage?

(A) A historical phenomenon is presented, several competing theories about the phenomenon are described, and one theory having the most support is settled upon.
(B) A historical discovery is presented, the method leading to the discovery is provided, and two questions left unanswered by the discovery are identified.
(C) A historical fact is presented, a question raised by the fact is described, and two answers to the question are given.
(D) A historical question is raised, possible answers to the question are speculated upon, and two reasons for difficulty in answering the question are given.
(E) A historical question is raised, a study is described that answers the question, and a number of issues surrounding the study are discussed.


5. The passage cites which one of the following as a reason that rice cultivation in the context of the tenant system was difficult to explain?

(A) Landowners did not eat rice and thus would not tolerate its cultivation on tenant lands.
(B) Rice was not considered acceptable payment to landowners for the use of tenant lands.
(C) Tenant farmers did not have enough time “after hours” to cultivate the rice properly.
(D) The labor required to cultivate rice was more strenuous than that required for cotton.
(E) Tenant lands used primarily to grow cotton were not suited to rice.


6. The author’s primary purpose in the passage is to

(A) describe the efforts of a historian to uncover evidence for a puzzling phenomenon
(B) illustrate the historical background of a puzzling phenomenon
(C) present a historian’s theories about a puzzling phenomenon
(D) criticize the work of previous historians regarding a puzzling phenomenon
(E) analyze the effects of a puzzling phenomenon on an economic system