Cutting cane was hard work, but it was nothing like what came next: Piles of freshly cut cane had to be fed into the ever-turnin
g mill wheels, until they were completely crushed. The owners insisted that during the work hours the grinding never stop, no matter what. The mills were most often tended by women who were doing dangerous work while getting almost no rest. That was a very bad combination. An ax was often propped up near the rollers so if a slave closed her eyes for a second while pushing the cane, her arm could be hacked off before she was pulled through the merciless grinders. Guests at sugar plantations often remarked on how many one-armed people they saw. Day after day, week after week, month after month, the cane was cut, hauled to the mill, and fed through the rollers. The mills kept going as long as there was cane to grind—the season varied between four and ten months, depending on the local growing conditions. A visitor who came to Brazil in 1630 described the scene: "People the color of the very night, working briskly and moaning at the same time without a moment of peace or rest, whoever sees all the confused and noisy machinery . . . will say that this indeed is the image of Hell.” In this illustration by William Clark, sugar cane is fed into a mill to be ground. How does the illustration help the reader understand the text? The illustration shows that grinding sugar with mechanical equipment is inefficient. The illustration emphasizes why grinding sugar cane into white sugar is necessary. The illustration depicts enslaved sugar mill workers as completely exhausted. The illustration depicts the people, equipment, and oxen required to manufacture sugar.
The answer is The illustration depicts enslaved sugar mill workers as completely exhausted.
The excerpt describes in detail how the working conditions on these Sugar Cane mills was inhumane, working people into life-threatening exhaustion because of how dangerous the machines they had to operate were
