“Not far from this time Nat Turner’s insurrection [a slave rebellion] broke out; and the news threw our town into great commotion. . . . “It was always the custom to have a muster every year. On that occasion every White man shouldered his musket. The citizens and the so-called country gentlemen wore military uniforms. . . .

“I knew the houses were to be searched; and I expected it would be done by country bullies and the poor Whites. . . .

“It was a grand opportunity for the low Whites, who had no Negroes of their own to scourge. They exulted in such a chance to exercise a little brief authority, and show their subserviency to the slaveholders; not reflecting that the power which trampled on the colored people also kept themselves in poverty, ignorance, and moral degradation. . . . Colored people and slaves who lived in remote parts of the town suffered in an especial manner. In some cases the searchers scattered [gun]powder and shot among their clothes, and then sent other parties to find them, and bring them forward as proof that they were plotting insurrection.”

Harriet Ann Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861, describing events earlier in the nineteenth century

Which of the following pieces of evidence best supports the excerpt’s depiction of reactions to slave rebellions?

Southern states banned the importation of slaves from Africa.

Northerners agreed that slavery was a positive institution for society.

Additional restrictions were placed on enslaved and free African Americans.

The majority of slaveholders moved toward using alternative forms of labor.