Problem: Which of the following statements regarding the colonists' desire to break away from the British is true? a. While elite colonists supported the new taxes imposed by the British, merchants strongly opposed them and sought to break away from the British. b. Profits gained through the enslavement of people for forced labor were critical to the early development of the colonial economy and made it possible for the colonists to imagine a future without the British. c. The colonists wished to break free from British rule because the colonists opposed the practice of slavery, while the British embraced it. d. Most colonists were opposed to breaking away from the British; only the royalists supported the idea.