| A | B |
|---|
| "The *aborigines* of Australia or the Americas..." | one of the original or earliest known inhabitants of a country or region |
| The study of the history of the United States, and the world, reveals a past *mired* in slavery. | soiled and embroiled; OR to be in a disadvantageous or difficult condition or situation |
| It is hard to know because there is a *paucity* of historical evidence... | smallness of quantity; scarcity; scantiness |
| The *dehumanizing* device of addressing male slaves of any age as 'boy' | depriving of human qualities or attributes; divesting of individuality |
| Ancient slavery was fundamentally different from modern slavery - all *ethnicities* could be slaves. | identity with or membership in a particular racial, national, or cultural group and observance of that group's customs, beliefs, and language |
| Accustomed to tropical climates, inured to agricultural labor, and reared in a harsh *epidemiological* environment, sub-Saharan Africans made productive slaves | dealing with the presence or absence of disease or pathogens |
| It is an astonishing *paradox* that the first nations in the world to be free themselves of chattel slavery became leaders in supporting plantation colonies based on African slave labor. | a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth |
| The Spanish and Portuguese enslavement of the Canary Islanders was a *prelude* to the later fate of the aborigines in the New World. | a preliminary to an action, event, condition, or work of broader scope and higher importance |
| The Atlantic islands of Madeira and Sao Tome became *forerunners* for the spread of racial slavery and sugar plantations in the New World | predecessor; ancestor; forebear; precursor; OR an omen, sign, or indication of something to follow; portent |
| Madeira's sugar plantation model would later be followed by Brazilians... Sao Tome was the nearest approximation to an American *prototype* | the original or model on which something is based or formed OR something that serves to illustrate the typical qualities of a class; model; exemplar |
| illuminates | to make lucid or clear; throw light on a subject |
| Another *expedient* was the transportation of convicts [as laborers], but their numbers were never sufficient. Temporary bondage - indentured servitude - was the most obvious and most widely used other option. | tending to promote some proposed or desired object; fit or suitable for the purpose; proper under the circumstances: conducive to advantage or interest, as opposed to right |
| In western culture the color black conjured up images of death and sin. While these *pejorative* associations existed, European ambivalence toward sub-Saharan Africans seemed the dominant response | having a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect or force |
| While plantations... existed outside the New World... they reached their *apogee* there | the highest or most distant point; climax |
| *Demography,* the ratio of white men to white women and the numbers of black women, resulted in less tolerance of intermixture. | the science of vital and social statistics, as of the births, deaths, diseases, marriages, etc., of populations. |
| Only in North America did the extremely arbitrary concept of "Negro" - *denoting* anyone with allegedly visible African ancestry - assume such a marked stigma. | to be a name or designation for |
| Only in North America did the extremely arbitrary concept of "Negro" - denoting anyone with allegedly visible African ancestry - assume such a marked *stigma* | a mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation. |
| The *debasement* of slaves liberated others to take control of their destiny and to dream of liberty and equality. | to reduce in quality or value; adulterate OR to lower in rank, dignity, or significance |
| Unlike other previous forms of slavery, the New World version did not decline over a long period. The abolitionist movement was a *watershed* - ending slavery in about a century. | an important point of division or transition between two phases, conditions; OR a breakthrough moment |
