Page 251 - Balancing between the present and the past

Item 4
Harry Knox, a journalist working for the respected American newspaper Austin Press, interviewed in 1891 the 70-year-old Ben Simpson. The enslaved Simpson worked for over 20 years at an American plantation in Texas and told Knox the following story about his life:
“The plantation-owner was in charge of a large plantation. When he pulled me and the others of the boat, he chained us around our necks. The chains were fixed to the horses. With the chains we—my mother, my sister Emma, I and the other slaves had to walk all the way to his plantation in Texas. We had to sleep in the snow on the ground. The plantation-owner had a long whip, made of leather. And if one of us fell behind, then he would hit him with it. When the night came, he fixed our chains to a tree. The ground was our bed. At the border of Texas my mother couldn’t go any further. Her feet were broken and bleeding, her legs were swollen. The master took his gun and shot her. He didn’t bury her, he left her lying where he had shot her.”
Two statements accompanying the text:
I. The plantation owner committed a crime. He should have been
arrested by the police and brought to trial.
II. Slaveholders saw slaves as products. They thought: If a product brakes,
you just buy a new product.
Which statement suits the events described by Simpson the best?
I do choose statement number: ...... because ...
I do not choose statement number: ...... because ...
Appendices
A 249