Read these lines: "The poor man was then informed by his overseer that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. This is the penalty of telling the truth, of telling the simple truth, in answer to a series of plain questions. It is partly in consequence of such facts, that slaves, when inquired of as to their condition and the character of their masters, almost universally say they are contented." The narrator uses the man's fate mainly to explain

1. The first sentence reports the punishment: a man is sold away for having found fault with his master. 2. The narrator names that outcome the penalty of telling the simple truth. 3. The next sentence begins with it is partly in consequence of such facts, which ties the punishment to what follows. 4. What follows is the observation that slaves almost universally report being contented. 5. So the fate is offered as the cause of those cheerful answers, option D. 6. Option A turns a single sale into a general preference the quoted lines never state. 7. Option C reverses the point, since the questions were put often, and it is the answers that were shaped by fear. _Source: Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), public domain_