: Da Capo Press, 2001), p. 688. Due to this criticism, he had to mask much of his work with irony. What was Douglass's purpose in writing his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave? What did Frederick Douglass oppose? While Frederick Douglass made some key arguments, he also made common ground to make his . She is certified to teach 6-12 grade ELA. As he explained to an audience of Boston abolitionists in early 1862, fair play meant that the ruling majority should do nothing with us, by us, or for us as a particular class. As a result of entering slave-hood at an early age, he did not know his birthdate (like most slaves). 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]. Counterclaims are arguments of the opposing side which the author will address. athenaeum club southend membership fees. 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. The main purpose of a counterclaim is to address the opposite side of the argument and provide a rebuttal. In other words, rather than attempting to restore what slavery took from its victims in actual or potential acquirements of wealth and status, governments should secure opportunities and lend support for the freedpeoples own efforts in self-improvement and self-elevation. Measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined. Douglass endures unequalled as the invincible adversary of racial despair and disaffectionthe pre-eminent exemplar and apostle of hopefulness in the American promise of justice for all. It is difficult to challenge the accuracy of the first hand account offered. Objecting to the efforts of some white benevolent societies, he urged his black compatriots indignantly to reject any condition of dependence: A new condition has brought new duties. 59 lessons. ', Then it's time for the reasons you've prepared well in advance, because you know exactly what she'll ask. He includes personal accounts he received while under the control of multiple different masters. We must not beg men to do for us what we ought to do for ourselves. One skill builds upon another. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Latest answer posted March 08, 2021 at 10:42:24 AM. Douglass refutes Fitzhughs pro-slavery argument of the average slave living an ideal life, by disproving early ideas of the free labor system and paternalism through real life encounters of the physical oppression slaves faced on the day to day basis in the forms of inhumane treatment and violence, as well as the true harsh, The brutality that slaves endured form their masters and from the institution of slavery caused slaves to be denied their god given rights. [13] Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, in Autobiographies, p. 392. He analyzes the story of his wifes cousins death to provide a symbol of outrage due to the unfairness of the murderers freedom. He cites literacy as a pathway to humanity and ultimately freedom, one which he ironically discovered when Mr. Auld made his feelings about black literacy known. Evaluating an Argument Guidelines & Examples | What is an Argument? Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. Identify the parts of an argumentative essay. 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? First, it makes clear that Douglasss demand for nothing but fair play allowed for vigorous protective and remedial action by the federal government. V, pp. What [Lincoln] said on this day, Douglass wrote in his final autobiography, showed a deeper moral conviction against slavery than I had ever seen before in anything spoken or written by him.[26]. Introduction--The introduction of a five-paragraph essay is one paragraph. 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. Central to the question of the wars larger moral legacy was the fate of those with whom he peculiarly identified: those lately emancipated. Douglass publicly announced his change of opinion in the spring of 1851, but his most powerful statement of his revised view appears, fittingly enough, in his speech at an Independence Day celebration in 1852. Likewise, it went hand-in-hand with his wariness of the moral hazards attendant on whites benevolence. He was appealing to the public to honor those victims claim for a slight measure of compensation in a fashion carefully tailored to their needs and to the deepest of the wrongs that they had suffered. Every year adds to the black mans numbers. Douglass unveils the atrocious truth about slavery that was hidden for so many years. [38] What the Black Man Wants, in Douglass Papers, Vol. Drawing upon that faith, he taught black Americans and all other Americans to stand up for justice and to strive for excellence. The federal government would find itself surrounded by a hostile spirit in the lately rebellious states, he warned, and the strength to counterbalance this spirit would be found in the negroes of the south.[40] Moreover, a policy of equal suffrage would have, over time, a more profound integrative effect in the healing of racial divisions. Second, any truly salutary public assistance must also be integrative, not divisive, in its design and effects. In the end, these elements of freedom-becoming educated-led to his last act of rebellion, which he thought would bring him freedom. 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. A character which might pass without censure as a slave cannot so pass as a freeman. Frederick Douglasss account on slavery could be seen as biased as a result of first hand experiences with being held as a slave. 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. Nevertheless, his speech does make an argument. "Florida has estimated that the true cost of each execution is approximately $3.2 million, or approximately six times what it would cost to keep that person in prison for all of his or her natural life" (Spangenberg and Walsh 15). How he acquired it is a part of his story not to be neglected. Fortunately, his master never treated him unkindly, until he was sent to be with a master that was the extreme opposite. They were great men too. In these three stories, as well as in a sizable number of other articles, lectures, and letters, Douglass strongly advocated against slavery. For example, in Virginia, "there are seventy-two crimeswhich, if committed by a black man, subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment". Of the Blair bill, he insisted that the Negro needs it, the illiterate white needs it and the nation needs it.[56] Arguing in 1872 against racial segregation in public schools, Douglass described his purpose as patriotic as well as beneficent, on the premise that the public schools should function as a common platform of nationality.[57] Any measure that authorizes or deepens ones self-identification in predominantly racial terms is to be opposed, he maintained, insisting that race is a morally arbitrary quality. Pick the best evidence to support the opposing point of view. IV, p. 253. Douglass made these appeals to greatest effect in the most popular and frequently presented of his postwar speeches, his lecture on Self-Made Men. After briefly considering a few alternative explanations of worldly success, Douglass declares it evident that we may explain success mainly by one word and that word is work! It is an effort to cast out Satan by Beelzebub. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tigerlike fierceness" (page 28). to this land, when it strips five millions of its people of all motives for cultivating an upright character.[36]. But he makes it equally clear that slavery was not successful in achieving this aim. John W. Blassingame and John R. McKivigan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 19791992), p. 430 (hereinafter Douglass Papers). At the end of this excerpt, what encouraging signs does Douglass find? Latest answer posted August 21, 2018 at 9:25:03 PM. [31] Douglass, Our Composite Nationality, December 7, 1869, in Douglass Papers, Vol. Typifying a view of the Founding now common among scholars of race are remarks by Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first AfricanAmerican Supreme Court Justice and a hero of the legal struggle that paved the way for the Civil Rights Era. If someone conceded a point, did he or she continue to argue against it? It means uplifting the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.[53]. III, p. 420; Douglass, Womens Rights Are Not Inconsistent with Negro Rights, November 19, 1868, in Douglass Papers, Vol. 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. Not only will people need to know where you got your evidence, they might even want to see it. Educators go through a rigorous application process, and every answer they submit is reviewed by our in-house editorial team. Spirited and independent-minded by nature, Douglass could abide mentors only to a limited degree even as a young man. [9] Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, in Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies (New York: Library of America, 1994), p. 286. Below is an example of an effective claim, supported by reason and on-topic, credible evidence, followed by an effective counterclaim that disagrees with and disproves the claim through its own reasoning, evidence to support the counterclaims, as well as an effective rebuttal to the counterclaim with evidence of its own. 364365. Reiterating at the end of his life a powerful theme of his earliest writings, Douglass insisted that educationmeans emancipation. [47] Douglass, Self-Made Men, in Douglass Papers, Vol. -reinforces the idea of the great principles of political freedom and natural justice, Identify two biblical allusions Douglass makes, and then explain how each contributes to Douglass's overall argument, -He wants to use any means to convince people to end slavery. Taking the policy claim from earlier, if an author is arguing that the United States should ban capital punishment, their reasons would be the reasons why they believe this is the case. Douglass says that laws in the South are anti-black. [54] Douglass, To the Editor of the National Republican, in Life and Writings, Vol. How might a group of people denounce a government policy? "In addition to wasting lives, the death penalty also wastes money. These will speak for him. Soon thereafter, Frederick Douglass uses some smart tactics to resume his learning. I, p. 311. [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. There he worked proudly as a day laborer and refined his oratorical powers, both as a lay preacher in New Bedfords African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and as a participant in the meetings of local black abolitionists. [43] Douglass, Property in Soil and Property in Man, November 18, 1848, in Life and Writings, Vol. He condemned not only Americas Government, but also its Constitution for supporting and perpetuating this monstrous system of injustice and blood.[11]. It will tell that people and all others that the nation has the disposition if not entire ability to do the Negro right and justice.[54]. For Douglass especially, the stakes of that contest were matters of concrete urgency as well as of larger national destiny. You really want a new cell phone, after all. This proclamation changed everything, Douglass later recalled. According to Douglass, how do laws in the South prove that slaves are human beings? This strategy displays the idea that slaves were seen as property and could be discarded easily. A counterclaim is the opposite of the argument, or the opposing argument. I feel like its a lifeline. Of these four possibilities, he was especially fearful of the third in view of the terrible damage it would doboth directly to the character and morale of its primary victims and indirectly to the entire country. Abstract: Nearly 50 years after Martin Luther King delivered his memorable I have a dream speech, there is a growing consensus that the civil rights movement, despite some important victories, has been a failure. In that position, Douglasss fame grew rapidly, and with it came controversy and heightened personal danger. : Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), chapter 1. A rebuttal is when the author disproves an argument. These were indeed terrible enough; but deeper down, and more terrible still, were the mental and moral wrongs that slavery inflicted. In response, however, influential scholars and activists have embraced a radical critique of America that is much more likely to worsen those problems than it is to resolve them. He gives reasons for this claim and backs them up with evidence. Douglas first swam alone in the pool to remove his residual doubts about his fear of water. He talks of the ways in which black men and women struggle to hold their families together, and the importance of music as a way to express deep sadness. A fair-minded observer could scarcely deny that for many Americans, race still does matter. These paragraphs contain the author's sub-claims/reasoning, counterclaims, and evidence. In this respect, what is notable in Douglasss advocacy of education reforms is that whereas he justified them primarily as the payment of a debt due specifically to those formerly enslaved and their relationsspecifically to black Americanshe proposed the payment of that debt by a policy framed in nonracial terms, designed to benefit Americans irrespective of race. This provides more room to address the counterclaim and apply a rebuttal of the counterclaim. This latter, of course, was the position of Lincoln and of the moderate center of the Free Soil and Republican parties during the 1850s. Accessed 4 Mar. This is an effective counterclaim because it disagrees with the claim (stating that it should not be banned) and provides reasoning that disproves it (that it provides closure). . In this reassuring view, the era of momentous reforms that Kings speech and actions did much to elicit vindicates the character of America, displaying the nations renewed determination to make good on its original commitment to securing the equal natural rights of all its members. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Good reasoning for a claim is on topic, logically sound, factual, and can be supported by evidence. [27] Douglass, Speech at the Unveiling of The Freedmens Monument in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1876, in Douglass Papers, Vol. One is that slavery was an institution that corrupted whites and robbed (or attempted to rob) blacks of their humanity. Its easy for us to admit that slavery is wrong but, in Frederick Douglasss time no one thought that it was. [46] See Madison, Property, in Madison: Writings (New York: Library of America, 1999), pp. Frederick Douglass pure story telling in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass directly goes against any argument for slavery from Fitzhugh, by revealing the harshness of the institution of slavery and the individuals behind it. Philip S. Foner (New York: International Publishers, 195075), p. 236 (hereinafter Life and Writings). 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? Including using the example of Joseph and his brothers, as well as the Israelites being slaves in Egypt. 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. In developing his own proposal, Douglass did not identify the precise grounds of his disagreement with Stevens. Douglass found solid reasons for believing what he repeatedly affirmed throughout the decade, as in his Dred Scott speech: I base my sense of the certain overthrow of slavery, in part, upon the nature of the American Government, the Constitution, the tendencies of the age, and the character of the American people. Writing Revision: How to Fix Mistakes in Your Writing, AEPA English Language Arts (NT301): Practice & Study Guide, AEPA Middle Grades English Language Arts (NT201): Practice & Study Guide, Common Core ELA Grade 8 - Literature: Standards, 10th Grade English: Homework Help Resource, 11th Grade English: Homework Help Resource, Study.com ACT® Test Prep: Help and Review, Study.com ACT® Test Prep: Tutoring Solution, 11th Grade English Curriculum Resource & Lesson Plans, 12th Grade English Curriculum Resource & Lesson Plans, Common Core ELA Grade 7 - Speaking & Listening: Standards, Create an account to start this course today. [46] One of the most corrupting, debilitating effects of slavery, in Douglasss analysis, was its fostering of a cultural disdain for laboring as an activity beneath the dignity of truly free, truly human beings. Douglass saw slavery as a, It is at this time that Frederick Douglass learns one of the greatest freedoms of all. Argumentative Writing Overview & Facts | How to Write A Claim & Counterclaim, Study.com ACT® English Test Prep Practice: Commas, Concluding Statements: Supporting Your Argument, How to Establish and Maintain a Formal Writing Style, How to Analyze an Argument's Effectiveness & Validity, Study.com ACT® English Test Prep Practice: Verb Tense and Subject-Verb Agreement, Writing for An Audience: How to Structure Your Argument, How to Structure an Argument in Your Essay, Providing Effective Feedback on Writing Samples, Claim Statements in Arguments | Strong & Weak Reasons, Evidence, & Examples, How to Add, Subtract and Multiply Complex Numbers, Supporting Claims with Evidence & Reasoning | How to Write a Claim Statement, Citing Textual Evidence to Support Analysis, The Importance of Using Precise Language in Writing. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. Kimberly has taught Reading/Language Arts to intermediate and middle school students and holds a Master's Degree. 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. A claim of cause and effect is a claim that one thing influences or affects another. A counterclaim is the argument opposing the author's claim. In Stevenss plan, lands belonging to the former Confederate states and their soldiers would be deemed forfeited and then distributed in parcels of 40 acres as homesteads to the freedpeople. 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. A claim tells what you think is true about a topic based on your knowledge and your research. Later, he finds out that while the conditions are slightly better there is still a great deal of injustice. [18] Douglass, The Republican PartyOur Position, in Life and Writings, Vol. Slavery, in their view, was simply unconstitutional; the Constitution delegated to the federal government both the right and the duty to abolish slavery immediately, everywhere in the Union.[18]. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, and the doom of slavery is certain.[19] Stronger still was his statement following the Dred Scott ruling: My hopes were never brighter than now. Douglass, was an African American writer, abolitionist, and so much more, but before any of this, he was a slave. A claim is the main argument. 'My friends that have Internet access make the Honor Roll.'. In paragraph 5, what does douglass acknowledge as a counterclaim to his position? [2] Cornel West, Race Matters (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993), chapter 1. James Madison, the commonly acknowledged Father of the Constitution, in a speech at the Constitutional Convention denounced slavery grounded in the mere distinction of colour as the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man.[6] Likewise, Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, in his original draft of that document denounced slavery (not only the slave trade) as a cruel war against human naturean institution creating and depending on a market, he emphasized to excite outrage in his readers, where MEN should be bought & sold. All the major figures of the Founding forwarded similar denunciations of slavery. That is provable, because your phone is so old it barely has texting! Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. Once again, that hopefulness was grounded primarily in his appreciation of the unique virtue of Americas beginning; first things are always interesting, he liked to say,[10] and most of all in the case of a new nation dedicated to universal principles of justice. He in a sense manipulates the children around him into teaching him how to read and write. [24] Douglass, The Late Election, December 1860, in Life and Writings, Vol. He attempts to demonstrate this in the Narrative by describing some of the horrific experiences he witnessed. An education can open doors that were once closed. A counterclaim is the argument opposing the author's claim. His evidence for this claim is that when he first meets her in Baltimore, she is a very kind woman. Standing in the foreground of the Lincoln Memorial nearly 50 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered the most famous speech by any American in the 20th century. It is very clear that Douglass wants us as readers understand the true humanity of him and other slaves and wants to show the extent to which perceptions of inequality are flawed.