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Read these lines: "They both advised me to run away to the north; that I should find friends there, and that I should be free. I pretended not to be interested in what they said, and treated them as if I did not understand them; for I feared they might be treacherous. White men have been known to encourage slaves to escape, and then, to get the reward, catch them and return them to their masters." Why did the narrator hide his interest?
AHe had already booked a place on a boat going north
BHe did not believe that the north would ever take him in
CHe thought the two men were mocking him for their sport
DHe could not be sure the two men would not betray him
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: D. He could not be sure the two men would not betray him
1. The two men give him real advice and real encouragement to go north.
2. He hides his interest, and the quoted lines give the reason with the word for: he feared they might be treacherous.
3. The next sentence explains the fear, that some men encourage an escape and then collect a reward for the capture.
4. Being unable to rule out betrayal is option D.
5. Option C would make the men insincere in a different way, mockery rather than a trap, which the quoted lines do not say.
_Source: Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), public domain_
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