What was Douglass's purpose in writing his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave? It was doubtful liberty at most, and almost certain death is we failed. [51] Frederick Douglass was one of the most commonly known slaves to have existed. 2 - Evidence. -he's hopeful that they hear what he's saying & things change over time, Write a summary of this excerpt from "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Everybody has asked the question, he complained in early 1865, and they learned to ask it early of the abolitionists, What shall we do with the negro after emancipation? 3 - Reasons. 348349 (emphasis in original). Through the use of first person encounters, Frederick Douglass in his narrative A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass argues that the key to freedom is claimed through education. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. The standard format for an argumentative essay is as follows: An effective argument contains all of the necessary components (claim, reasons, evidence, counterclaims) while keeping the intended audience in mind. Criticizethe evidence and analysis of the counterclaimas being unimportant, irrelevant, or a misinterpretation. Your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberatelyand with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you. 'Because I said so,' doesn't work, and 'Just because,' doesn't work - until you're a parent. Protagoras (pictured right) engaging in a public debate. If you've ever watched a detective show, then you know evidence. Post author: Post published: junho 22, 2022 Post category: when would the undeposited funds feature not be necessary? II, pp. He is set free, in an educational sense. 280 (1981), established criteria that supervisors must consider in determining an appropriate penalty to impose for an act of employee misconduct. [50] My Bondage and My Freedom, in Autobiographies, p. 286; Douglass to Stowe, March 8, 1853, in Life and Writings, Vol. Children would be separated from their mothers before they were twelve months in age-Frederick too was separated from his mother. But the final, unimpeachable confirmation of Lincolns anti-slavery commitment came for Douglass in August 1864, when the President, fearing that a demoralized electorate would soon force a premature end to the war, summoned Douglass to the White House to discuss a covert scheme for liberating as many as possible in the meantime. Such practices implicated southern white landowners in a conspiracy to refrain from selling land to black would-be buyers and to compensate black laborers only by means that prevented them from accumulating any savings. With our Essay Lab, you can create a customized outline within seconds to get started on your essay right away. Fortunately, his master never treated him unkindly, until he was sent to be with a master that was the extreme opposite. TheEight Writing Process Essays(printables and 170 Google slides) each feature an on-demand diagnostic essay assessment, writing prompt with connected reading, brainstorming, graphic organizer, response, revision, and editing activities. An education can open doors that were once closed. Key Items Necessary: 1 - Transition. Debate participants will often prepare counterclaims in order to have a rebuttal ready for their opponent. Religion and intellectual inferiority were concepts that were used to manipulate the minds of everyone around into believing that practicing slavery was acceptable. John W. Blassingame and John R. McKivigan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 19791992), p. 430 (hereinafter Douglass Papers). I hope you win your next argument! No people can make desirable progress or have permanent welfare outside of their own independent and earnest efforts. The more difficult ones were put in place by Douglass in order to provide a deep and profound statement, without arousing too much opposition. The claim is the author's argument that they are attempting to prove in the essay. The implication was that the agitation that abolitionists had begun could never be finally pacified until slavery was finally abolished. For Douglass as for Abraham Lincoln, America was, after all, the last, best hope of Earth.[62]. [9] Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, in Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies (New York: Library of America, 1994), p. 286. That's your mom's counterclaim. Argumentative essays have a basic structure that allows some room for the author's discretion. The Constitution, as well as the Declaration of Independence, and the sentiments of the founders of the Republic, give us a plat-form broad enough, and strong enough, to support the most comprehensive plans for the freedom and elevation of all the people of this country, without regard to color, class, or clime. While Frederick Douglass made some key arguments, he also made common ground to make his appeal for the abolition of slavery. Every year adds to the black mans numbers. : Da Capo Press, 2001), p. 688. Douglass presented this speech to an antislavery societyan audience that was already on his side. Including using the example of Joseph and his brothers, as well as the Israelites being slaves in Egypt (a) In what ways is Douglass's word choice suited to his audience? Here again, two points are especially salient. We must not beg men to do for us what we ought to do for ourselves. work!! The position of Douglass and constitutional radicals, by contrast, was that the Constitution was in the strict sense abolitionist. What have you learned about the struggle for freedom from reading this speech? [24] Douglass, The Late Election, December 1860, in Life and Writings, Vol. For a standard 5-paragraph essay, the introduction is one paragraph and contains the thesis statement, or overall claim for the essay. Viewed in its larger significance, the Union victory meant a victory not only over an extreme, implicitly anarchic variant of the state-sovereignty doctrine, but also over the no less pernicious doctrines of sectionalism and racial supremacy. 790, 795797. Less than 20 inmates were executed in the United States in 2020. V, p. 105. II, pp. Douglasss suggestions in these remarks about the proper way to conceive of reparation for slavery nicely encapsulate his political thought in the postwar period and indeed throughout his entire career. However a very courageous man, Frederick Douglass challenges those beliefs. position? Identify the parts of an argumentative essay. [3] William Jefferson Clinton, Memphis Church of God in Christ Convention Speech, November 13, 1993, at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/wjclintonmemphis.htm (November 8, 2010). In the opinion shared by Taney, Marshall, and many present-day professors, teachers, and students, the stain of racial exclusion suffuses both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Frederick Douglass went on to write books and give speeches in hope that one day all slaves would be free. IV, p. 514. It was above all in Americas original and unforgettable dedication to those principles that Douglass found reason to love and identify with his country, despite the injustices that he and his people had suffered. Douglass attempts to show us how African American slaves were still human beings like their white counterparts, there have been numerous instances where it is shown that many whites did not want to accept slaves as true humans. A broad array of racially freighted social problems persists and even intensifies in the postCivil Rights Era, in the face of which the ideals of the civil rights cause cannot be said to have been fully realized. Key Arguments in "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass", There are a number of key arguments in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The labor and stripes that accompanied slaveryeven its lasting material deprivationsdid not reach the depth of its harmful effects in Douglasss estimation. Dvidas? Slaverys primary victims, mostly knowing nothing of the Declaration itself, would corroborate its truth by their various acts of resistance, displaying their natural love of liberty and their moral humanity as rights-possessors. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. At the center of Kings dream was the hopeful expectation that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creedwe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equaland that all men, yes black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.[1]. V, pp. Additionally, it comes from a credible source: an academic paper from the. [31] Douglass, Our Composite Nationality, December 7, 1869, in Douglass Papers, Vol. A counterclaim is an argument that argues in opposition to the author's claim. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. [37] Ibid., pp. [32] Douglasss response was disarmingly blunt. III, pp. His embrace of the arguments of the rival political abolitionist school freed him to involve himself in politics, and his increasing political activism through the 1850s and into the Civil War years eventually brought him face to face with President Abraham Lincolnfirst in the role of harshly critical petitioner and later, after the Emancipation Proclamation and the deepening of their acquaintance, as Lincolns valued adviser and friend. Plus, each essay includes a detailed analytical (not holistic) rubric for assessment-based learning. Using stories to illustrate each of his points, Douglass shows that black slaves only tell whites they are happy to avoid retribution, that they sing to mourn and lament their fate, and that owners who have gone to revival meetings and come back "converted" to Christianity feel even more emboldened to beat and mistreat their slaves, because it is Biblically sanctioned that slaves must obey their masters. [1] Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream, in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., ed. America must be envisioned and remade by its white and black citizens alike as AfricanAmericans genuine home, not merely by the accident and force of necessity but as an object of their rational and sentimental identification. He barely knew his mother, who died shortly before or after he turned eight years old. Frederick. Sophia Auld, described as "a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings," nevertheless became "even more violent in her opposition than her husband himself" after her husband convinced her that slaves should not be taught to read. The reason "capital punishment costs taxpayers more than life in prison" answers "why" capital punishment should be banned. how does douglass refute this counterclaim? How he acquired it is a part of his story not to be neglected. In response, Garrison intensified his calls for the dissolution of the American Union, while influential black abolitionists urged blacks to surrender their hopes in America and emigrate. : Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), chapter 1. Who can reason on such a proposition? Above all, the Constitution must be interpreted in light of its commitment to secure the blessings of liberty for all. To find an adequate measure of compensation for any wrong, Douglass explained, we must first ascertain the nature and extent of the wrong itself. The extent of the wrongs of slavery over hundreds of years simply beggared any possible response. Douglass made these particular remarks in a speech at the dedication of an industrial education institution in the state of Virginia, but they represent an extension of his broader advocacy, in this period, of a federally established system of public schools. How to Teach Essaysincludes 42 skill-based essay strategy worksheets (fillable PDFs and 62 Google slides), beginning with simple 3-word paragraphs and proceeding step-by-step to complex multi-paragraph essays. In the end, these elements of freedom-becoming educated-led to his last act of rebellion, which he thought would bring him freedom. I explain Douglasss argument more elaborately in Frederick Douglass, pp. [8] The reader interested in a fuller account of Douglasss life should begin by reading Douglasss autobiographies: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845); My Bondage and My Freedom (1855); and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881; expanded 1892). She has something to say against your claim that you need a new cell phone, and it goes something like, 'No, you don't.'. Douglass states that "scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed." What would you ask them to do? While conceding that these critics have a point, Peter C. Myers faults them for embracing a radical critique of America that rejects Americas founding principles as racist, abandons the goal of integration, and fosters alienation. To this day, Douglass endures unequalled as the invincible adversary of racial despair and disaffectionthe preeminent exemplar and apostle of hopefulness in the American promise of justice for all. He says of Sophia Auld, "Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me" (page 28). [36] The Present and Future of the Colored Race in America, May 1863, in Life and Writings, Vol. Working with the above claim and reasoning (the United States should ban capital punishment because capital punishment costs taxpayers more than life in prison), below is an example of strong evidence and weak evidence to support the claim and reason. . A character which might pass without censure as a slave cannot so pass as a freeman. The first of his positive reversals occurred as he was sent to serve as a house slave in Baltimore, where, aided by his kindly slavemistress Sophia Auld, he learned the rudiments of literacy. international legion of territorial defense of ukraine pay. Which words helped you convey information precisely? (make). The Declarations affirmation, as self-evident truths, of the principles that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is now commonly read as a declaration only of the rights of propertied white males. A few of which include inequality, education, and Christianity as the keys to freedom in terms of its true values within the institution of slavery. He allowed that Lincolns election has demonstrated the possibility of electingan anti-slavery reputation to the Presidency of the United States.[24] But an anti-slavery reputation was a far cry from a genuine abolitionist, in Douglasss estimation, and Douglass at first expected little of Lincoln, who did not share his radically abolitionist reading of the Constitution. [21], Douglass believed that slavery was doomed, first and foremost, because he believed that the law of nature as epitomized in the Declaration was, at some deep level, not only true but known or felt to be true by all concerned in the conflict over slavery. Criticizethe reasoning of the counterclaimas being flawed, illogical, or biased. The United States should ban capital punishment. That's a reason. The one thing needful, then, was to elect an abolitionist governing majority at the federal level. This reassuring view is not, however, the prevailing opinion among postCivil Rights Era scholars and activists concerned with race relations. As he renewed his labors for justice and progress for the freedpeople, Douglass had to confront a nettlesome question, lingering in the minds even of many anti-slavery whites, that had long obstructed the abolitionist cause. By learning to read and write, Douglass eventually came to the conclusion that he was not living the life he wanted and longed to get away. [If] the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall. [27], Through long and deep reflection, Douglass finally came to regard Lincoln as the one manto whom we are more indebted for a United Nation and for American liberty than to any otherthe greatest statesman that ever presided over the destinies of this Republic.[28], Lincolns assassination was the crowning crime of slavery, as Douglass declared in his 1876 memorial, and it was also a damaging blow to hopes for a just and prudent policy for the nations postwar reconstruction. Douglasss arguments on this subject extended back to his early abolitionist years, when he saw very clearly that slaves natural rights to liberty were fundamentally identical with their natural rights to propertywith their natural properties in their own persons, in their own labor, and in the fruits of that laborand that the fundamental evil of slavery was to deprive them, at once, of both. Argumentative Writing - ELA.8.C.1.3: Write to argue a position, supporting at least one claim and rebutting at least one counterclaim with logical reasoning, credible evidence from sources . (a) In what ways is Douglass's word choice suited to his audience? He point-by-point counters a Southern narrative that argued that slavery benefitted black people. When providing evidence to support reasoning, always make sure that the evidence comes from a credible source and that it is directly relevant to the reasoning. In like manner, the election of Barack Obama as President might be viewed as the culminating, climactic event of the Civil Rights Era, signifying the advent of a post-racial America and vindicating once and for all the mainstream, integrationist tradition in AfricanAmerican political thought lately exemplified by King. Such attention is properly directed toward, but also beyond, the icons of the recent era of reform. He condemned not only Americas Government, but also its Constitution for supporting and perpetuating this monstrous system of injustice and blood.[11]. The thesis provides the main argument for the essay as well as an outline for the rest of the essay. In Ch. Here is where the author has a bit of discretion over how to organize their essay. America is said, and not without reason, to be preeminently the home and patron of self-made men. How does Douglass refute this counterclaim? [8] The boy who became Frederick Douglass was born, enslaved, on Marylands Eastern Shore in February 1818 and given the improbably dignified name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. Evidence is sourced facts, statistics, data, or quoted experts the author uses to provide factual support for their claims and reasoning. [34] Douglass, Let the Negro Alone, May 11, 1869, in Douglass Papers, Vol. You're going to need to support your claim to get rid of that crummy, old, obsolete phone that's holding you back. [39] Address of the Colored National Convention to the People of the United States, October 47, 1864, in Life and Writings, Vol. [48] What the Black Man Wants, in Douglass Papers, Vol. Douglass saw slavery as a, It is at this time that Frederick Douglass learns one of the greatest freedoms of all. State what role curiosity plays in an interview. I will focus my attention on how education allowed Douglass to understand how slavery was wrong, and how the Americans saw the blacks as not equal, and only suitable for slave work. Although the election meant that a new order of eventsis now fairly opening upon the country, he reserved judgment as to just how significant a change was in prospect. According to Douglass, how do laws in the South prove that slaves are human beings? Scarcely less important than suffrage as a guarantor of personal security were property rights. Twenty months later, he returned a free man by law, his freedom having been purchased with funds raised by English friends, and resumed his abolitionist labors in the U.S. in Professional Writing and Rhetoric from the University of New Orleans and a B.A. What kind of "essay and delightful" speech does Douglas wish he could present? Reiterating at the end of his life a powerful theme of his earliest writings, Douglass insisted that educationmeans emancipation. His careful planning paid off in September 1838, when he fled Baltimore disguised as a seaman and made his way ultimately to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he settled, a newly married man, and took the surname Douglass from the hero in Sir Walter Scotts epic poem The Lady of the Lake. Latest answer posted September 30, 2016 at 3:50:30 PM. But he makes it equally clear that slavery was not successful in achieving this aim. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. II, p. 235; Address on the Twentieth Anniversary of Emancipation, April 16, 1883, in Douglass Papers, Vol. Step-by-step explanation: Answer options: a. dependence on a neighbor for water trade access; What is remarkable, then, is not that Douglass felt alienated from his country for most of the 1840s, but rather that, by the force of his character and intellect, he overcame this alienation as rapidly and thoroughly as he did. Dont pick a straw man. In other words, dont pick a weak opposing argument that is too easy to refute. For the audience? Making a claim is just a fancy way of saying that you're stating your main point. Viewing it amid the grand course of human events, Douglass saw in the Civil War an event of epochal moral significance. Ivo Silveira 8877, km. I was nothing before, he wrote in his autobiography, reflecting on the episode. Central to the question of the wars larger moral legacy was the fate of those with whom he peculiarly identified: those lately emancipated. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. When you're planning an argument, you need to know what the counterclaim might be so that you can make sure that you disprove it with your reasons and evidence. Speaking in mid-1863 on the question What shall be done with the Negro? he specified four altogether objectionable responses. A reason tells why. His first hand accounts of the cruel nature of slavery and the thought. Worst of all was Dred Scott, in which the nations highest court endorsed the pro-slavery, white-supremacist reading propagated by both the Constitutions Garrisonian enemies and slaverys most determined defenders. Speaking in 1993 to a black congregation at the Memphis church where King had delivered the final sermon of his life, President Bill Clinton lamented that King did not live and die to see the American family destroyed or for the freedom of people to kill each other with reckless abandon.[3]. We want [the voting right], Douglass explained in his most extended discussion of the question, because it is our right, first of all. Would you want to have stolid friends? Explain, -no, he/she first denied it, then comes out telling the truth, Write a definition of obstruction based on your understanding of the prefix ob-. It is appealing to think that Kings dream has been realized, at least in its essentials, by the reforms of the Civil Rights Erareforms that King himself characterized as the third, the greatest, and the culminating American Revolution. A claim of value makes a judgement on something's worth, morality, or merit. His first hand accounts of the cruel nature of slavery and the thought processes of the various slave owners help to substantiate his assertion. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it will help you be a good interviewer. Up from Alienation: Douglasss Abolitionist Years, Speaking to the Garrisonian American Anti-Slavery Society in 1847, a youthful Douglass posed a poignant question and supplied a dispiriting answer. III, p. 420; Douglass, Womens Rights Are Not Inconsistent with Negro Rights, November 19, 1868, in Douglass Papers, Vol. IV, ed. His life was transformed yet again in August 1841, when the nations foremost abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, heard him speak at meetings in New Bedford and Nantucket, Massachusetts, and promptly offered him a position as a lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Most of the slaves were hungry because they were ill-fed, and they were expected to toil sun-up to sundown. Her husband tells her that instructing her slave in literacy will spoil him as a slave, and she stops teaching young Frederick. As for the kind of cradle-to-grave care slaves get, Douglass graphically describes the frequent and brutal beatings his master, Mr. Auld, dealt out, and then discusses his own treatment as a child slave on the plantation. Your argument can be summed up quickly. And it is no less difficult to see how the propagation of the opinion that the American Founders ostensibly universal principles and ostensibly free institutions were meant to secure the oppression of people of color could fail to spread and to deepen that demoralizing sentiment. In his 1894 Blessings of Liberty and Education speech, presented a few months before his death, Douglass ventured on the subject a last word that he feared would be more useful than palatable: Since emancipation we hear much said of our modern colored leaders in commendation of race pride, race love, race effort, race superiority, race men and the like. [55] My Bondage and My Freedom, in Autobiographies, p. 287; Douglass, Self-Elevation, in Life and Writings, Vol. Douglass has been taught a few reading lessons form his mistress. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. This deep, Lockean insight, which he shared, once again, with Americas Founders, moved Douglass to defend the natural right of property against errors and attacks from divergent positions.