Question

read the passage from sugar changed the world.
no one interviewed the africans who labored in the sugar fields to ask them about their hard labor. they were meant to work and die. but there is one way we can hear them. the africans invented music, dances, and songs that carry on the pulse, the beat, of their lives. (to hear examples of music from the sugar lands, go to www.sugarchangedtheworld.com.) in puerto rico, bomba is a form of music and dance that the sugar workers invented. it is a kind of conversation in rhythm involving a woman, the man dancing with her, and the drummers who watch her and find the right rhythm for her movements. a master coming by would see dancing—no words of anger or rebellion. but as she moved and swayed, as the drummers \spoke\ back in their beats, the workers were saying that they were not just labor, not just bodies born to work and die. instead, they were alive and speaking to one another in movements and
which text evidence best supports the authors claim and purpose that enslaved people were more than mercilessly treated workers?
\bomba is a form of music and dance that the sugar workers invented.\
\they were not just labor, not just bodies born to work and die.\
\people spin, jump, and seem to menace each other.\

Explanation:

The claim is that enslaved people were more than mercilessly treated workers. The text evidence “They were not just labor, not just bodies born to work and die” directly addresses this by emphasizing that enslaved people had more to their existence than just being workers. The other options either focus on a specific form of music and dance (which is part of their cultural expression but not as directly stating the main claim about their identity beyond labor) or describe a dance move (which is too specific and not about their overall identity).

Answer:

“They were not just labor, not just bodies born to work and die.”