To start, how does the author write about Breen and Innes' study?
We know the author believes that scholars of African American history have spent too long focusing on the harms caused by slavery as opposed to what Africans in the United States were able to accomplish regardless of these effects.
In introducing Breen and Innes' work, the author writes that they "contribute significantly to a recent, welcome shift from a white-centred to a black-centred inquiry into the role of African Americans in the American colonial period" (lines 6 to 10). They do this by focusing on a small group of freed indentured servants in Virginia as opposed to focusing on slaves.
In the next part of the passage, the author clarifies that, while Breen and Innes did "acknowledge that political power...was asymmetrically distributed among black and white residents... [T]hey underemphasize much evidence that customary law, only gradually embodied in statutory law, was closing in on free African Americans..." (lines 37 to 46).
Overall, the author appreciates that Breen and Innes focused on the accomplishments of African Americans despite the effects of slavery but remains critical of their work which the author believes underemphasize S important evidence. In this way, the author approves of their work, but this approval is qualified.
We can eliminate answer choices (A) and (C) because the author does not directly challenge their original. In the final paragraph, the author suggests that Anthony Johnson's emigration from the Chesapeake Bay region may have been for different reasons than the authors of the study suggest, but the author of the passage does not outright challenge Breen and Innes' conclusions nor do they dismiss the study as a whole.
We can eliminate answer choice (E) because the author does not demonstrate confusion regarding Breen and Innes' work.
Finally, we can eliminate answer choice (B) because the author does not wholeheartedly accept the study. We know this because the author flags the issue of Breen and Innes' treatment of certain evidence.
Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.
