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  3. For centuries the most valuable of African resources for Europeans were the slaves, but these could be obtained at coastal ports

For centuries the most valuable of African resources for Europeans were the slaves, but these could be obtained at coastal ports

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问题     For centuries the most valuable of African resources for Europeans were the slaves, but these could be obtained at coastal ports, without any need for going deep inland. Slavery had been an established institution in Africa. Prisoners of war had been enslaved, as were also debtors and individuals guilty of serious crimes. But these slaves usually were treated as part of the family. They had clearly defined rights, and their slave status was not necessarily inherited. Therefore it is commonly argued that Africa’s traditional slavery was mild compared to the trans-Atlantic slave trade organized by the Europeans. This argument, however, can be carried too far. In the most recent study of this subject, some scholars warned against the illusion that" cruel and dehumanizing enslavement was a monopoly of the West. Slavery in its extreme forms, including the taking of life, was common to both Africa and the West. The fact that African slavery had different origins and consequences should not lead us to deny what it was—the exploitation and control of human beings. " Neither can it be denied that the wholesale shipment of Africans to the slave plantations of the Americas was made possible by the participation of African chiefs who rounded up their fellow Africans and sold them as a handsome profit to European ship captains waiting along the coasts.
    Granting all this, the fact remains that the trans-Atlantic slave trade conducted by the Europeans was entirely different in quantity and quality from the traditional type of slavery that had existed within Africa. From the beginning the European variety was primarily an economic institution rather than social, as it had been in Africa. Western slave traders and slave owners were acted on by purely economic considerations, and were quite ready to work their slaves to death if it was more profitable to do so than to treat them more mercifully. This inhumanity was reinforced by racism when the Europeans became involved in the African slave trade on a large scale. Perhaps as a subconscious rationalization they gradually came to look down on Negroes as inherently inferior, and therefore destined to serve their white masters. Rationalization also may have been involved in the Europeans’ use of religion to justify the traffic in human beings. It was argued, for instance, that enslavement assured the conversion of the African evil-believing religions to the true faith as well as to civilization.
Supporters of the rationalization of slavery believe that the trade
选项 A、was out of good intents from the beginning.
B、helped the development of local religion.
C、was a help for civilizing the Africans.
D、drove the evils out of the African religions.
答案C
解析 该题为细节题。根据第二段第三句“Western slave traders and slave owners were acted on by purely economic considerations…”我们知道，西方的奴隶贸易者及蓄奴者只是出于经济方面的考虑才进行奴隶贸易的，并不意味着出于好意，即“good intents”，故A项错误；根据第二段最后一句“It was argued，for instance，that enslavement assured the conversion of the African evil-believing religions to the true faith as well as to civilization．”我们知道，“合理化”观点的支持者认为蓄奴使非洲信仰邪恶的宗教转变为真正的信仰及文明，但是，并没有指出蓄奴促进了非洲宗教的发展，故B项错误，同时可知C项正确；文中没有D项表述的意思。
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