At the same time Douglass is disgusted with education because it lets him know and fully understand the extent and horrors of slavery. His first hand accounts of the cruel nature of slavery and the thought processes of the various slave owners help to substantiate his assertion. Why, or why not? Above all, the Constitution must be interpreted in light of its commitment to secure the blessings of liberty for all. Speaking in mid-1863 on the question What shall be done with the Negro? he specified four altogether objectionable responses. That's a reason. It did much more, that is, than convey the Framers general disapproval of slavery and their design to recognize slavery only as a local institution, to tolerate it only as a necessary, temporary evil, and to contain its expansion to the end of promoting its eventual abolition. Douglasss mind was opened to the wisdom of Lincolns statesmanship as he came to see the depth of Lincolns commitment to the anti-slavery cause. She has an M.A. how does douglass refute this counterclaim? - fater24.com V, p. 105. His first hand accounts of the cruel nature of slavery and the thought. He then state I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. Already a member? What Are the Parts of an Argumentative Essay? - Study.com The Union victory signified, for Douglass, much more than the defeat of one particular rebellion and more, too, than the defeat of the troublesome particular doctrines that inspired that rebellion. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. A great deal is at stake in this critique, and it demands a clear, forthright response: These charges against the Founders are false as well as pernicious. The conclusion should sum up the author's entire argument from the essay. 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]. Your mom's counterclaim is that you don't need one. [37] Ibid., pp. The effect of abolishing slavery, without conferring equal rights, he contended, would be [to doom] the colored race to a condition indescribably wretched and the dreadful contagion of their vices and crimes would fly like cholera and small pox through all classes. I was nothing before, he wrote in his autobiography, reflecting on the episode. 29 plumtrees road newtown, ct; popular subdivision names; how to cite the implicit association test II, p. 360. Here it is essential to note that Douglass, like James Madison, conceived of the right to property in its primary sense as a right to acquire material goods, grounded in the free use of ones faculties for productive labor. 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. Most urgently, he taught them to reject the spirit of alienation, which he saw as the greatest danger to any peoples liberation and elevation. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. Every nation, owing to its peculiar character and composition, has a definite mission in the world, Douglass observed in 1869, but Americas mission, clearer than ever in the aftermath of the war, marks it as exceptional. The KansasNebraska Act reversed a federal prohibition of slavery within those two territories, thus betraying the principles of the Declaration by making moral indifference to slavery the guiding principle of federal policy and prompting an alarmed Abraham Lincoln to return to electoral politics. Education empowers people to make good decisions and paves a future that provides opportunities. The persistence of Douglasss hopeful, energetic activism during that very difficult decade deserves further comment. He states, The offence for which this girl was thus murdered was this: She had been set that night to mind Mrs. Hickss baby, and during the night she fell asleep, and the baby cried. This anecdote, among many others, is helpful in persuading the reader to understand the severity of rule slaveholders hold above their slaves. 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. Douglass rejected the various white disintegrationists for obvious reasons, and he rejected the black variants too. As the author of three autobiographies, Douglass framed his life story as a series of reversals of fortune suggestive of the possibility of liberating revolutionary change. This commitment not only appears in the Preamble, but also reflects a bedrock rule of legal interpretationa rule as old as law itself, Douglass observed, and grounded in the very nature of law, according to which a legal instrument must be construed strictly in favor of liberty and justice.[17], In Douglasss argument, these interpretive principles yielded powerfully anti-slavery results. Not only will people need to know where you got your evidence, they might even want to see it. In the Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass, we are exposed to the iniquity of slavery and the dehumanization of the black race, which then led Frederick Douglass to recognize that literacy and education would aid him in his flight to freedom. Douglass's central claim in his autobiography is that slavery is as harmful to whites as it is to slaves. While Frederick Douglass made some key arguments, he also made common ground to make his appeal for the abolition of slavery. [45] Two things are noteworthy about this proposal. 61, 6465. II, p. 375. Log in here. In Douglasss day, the forces of disintegration were represented by slaveholders, white supremacists, segregationists, colonizationists, and the more extreme partisans of state or regional sovereignty, and also by black emigrationists and other proponents of black nationalism in its own more extreme forms. The three other claims are up for debate and need to be supported by a lot more reasoning and evidence in order to persuade an audience to believe the argument. but his relative moderation in this proposal is certainly in keeping with his classical-liberal respect for property rights, along with his longtime concern to sustain and strengthen a spirit of virtuous self-reliance among black Americans. The position of Douglass and constitutional radicals, by contrast, was that the Constitution was in the strict sense abolitionist. Another is that slavery is an institution fundamentally based on violence, telling the story of the vicious beatings an aunt of his would often receive: I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. safeguard properties lawsuit 2017; syl johnson chad ochocinco father The existence of capital punishment deters violent crimes, Bringing up counterclaims provides the author with a sense of, Bringing up counterclaims allows the author to provide a, This above quote is an example of strong evidence because it directly relates to the claim and reasoning, providing factual evidence of the actual cost of capital punishment versus life in prison. The more difficult ones were put in place by Douglass in order to provide a deep and profound statement, without arousing too much opposition. [62] Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862, in Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings, ed. In the long history of AfricanAmerican political thought, there is no more forceful proponent of the cause of integration than Douglass, and there is no more insightful analyst of the varieties and dangers of national and racial disintegration. He writes: "Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. In Americas dedication to principles of natural human rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence, Douglass found reason to love and identify with his country, despite the injustices that he and his people had suffered. Latest answer posted September 30, 2016 at 3:50:30 PM. [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). In August 1845, two months after his book was published, Douglass fled to Great Britain, where his speeches won him international fame. For its first 18 months, Douglass found in Lincolns presidency mostly a confirmation of his doubts. Evidence provides factual proof for the reasons in an argument and can consist of facts, data, statistics, published study results, and quoted experts. To the enslaved and battered millions [who] have come, suffered, died, and gone, he observed, no recompense can be made. The same was true for those millions living descendents: If the American people could put a school house in every valley; a church on every hill top in the South and supply them with a teacher and a preacher respectively and welcome the descendents of the former slaves to all the moral and intellectual benefits of the one and the other, without money and without price, such a sacrifice would not compensate their children for the terrible wrong done to their fathers and mothers, by their enslavement and enforced degradation.[52]. An argumentative essay is an essay in which the author makes a claim (argument) and then attempts to persuade their audience to believe their claim through reasons, evidence, and the addressing of counterclaims. 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. Douglass' primary claim in his narrative is that a nation predicated upon individual freedom cannot allow slavery to exist. Some of the above points adapted from theHarvard Writing Center. Frederick Douglass shows her fast transformation from generosity to hard-heartedness to show the pernicious effect slavery has on white slave owners. As a result of entering slave-hood at an early age, he did not know his birthdate (like most slaves). Formulated more precisely, his demand Let [the Negro] alone meant Give him fair play and let him alone, but be sure you give him fair play.[34] In its most general meaning, fair play or justice to black Americans was to be determined by a principle of non-exceptionalism. This technique helps to make the argument more effective by strengthening the claim being made. In Ch. We want [the voting right], Douglass explained in his most extended discussion of the question, because it is our right, first of all. To the contrary, it was a hard-won achievement, and as such, it contains valuable lessons for all Americans and especially for those who, like the young Douglass himself, find themselves dispirited about their place and prospects in their country. 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. V, p. 78. He gives reasons for this claim and backs them up with evidence. 364366. In a formal paper, you might say something like, 'It is necessary for me to obtain a new cell phone.' Soon enough after AfricanAmericans gained the vote, Douglass believed, the interests of white politicians and voters would overcome their prejudices; blacks would be courted by the leaders of all parties, and their rights and interests would be recognized in law and policy.[41]. The reason "capital punishment costs taxpayers more than life in prison" answers "why" capital punishment should be banned. He states This battle with Mr. jim preston mchenry, il obituary. On one side, he rejected as plainly blasphemous the radical positivism expressed in the eminent Senator Henry Clays assertion that what the law makes property, is property.[42] At the other extreme, he judged it arrant nonsense to conflate the causes of abolitionism and socialism, as some abolitionists did in the belief that they could eradicate the desire for property in another human being only by eradicating the desire for private property of any kind. [18] Douglass, The Republican PartyOur Position, in Life and Writings, Vol. An effective argumentative essay will bring up counterclaims for two reasons: An effective counterclaim will both disagree with and disprove a claim. The charge of a pro-slavery Constitution was a slander upon [the] memory of the Framers, he contended; interpreted as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a glorious liberty document. Consider the constitution according to its plain reading, Douglass continued, and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. Americas mission and destiny are to supply the [most] perfect national illustration of the unity and dignity of the human family that the world has ever seen. This is the essential bequest of our fundamental principles of government, world-embracing in their scope and character.[31] The Union victory, in Douglasss view, signified a momentous victory for a grand politics of integration. [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.
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