Space permits here only a brief sketch of Douglasss singularly remarkable life story, which sheds much light on the formation of his political philosophy. For Douglass especially, the stakes of that contest were matters of concrete urgency as well as of larger national destiny. 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. III, p. 218 (emphasis added). Introduction--The introduction of a five-paragraph essay is one paragraph. The one thing needful, then, was to elect an abolitionist governing majority at the federal level. III, p. 274. Fortunately, his master never treated him unkindly, until he was sent to be with a master that was the extreme opposite. His first hand accounts of the cruel nature of slavery and the thought processes of the various slave owners help to substantiate his assertion. Above all, the Constitution must be interpreted in light of its commitment to secure the blessings of liberty for all. Use etymological information in a dictionary to verify your choices, -obstacle: prevents progress The position of Douglass and constitutional radicals, by contrast, was that the Constitution was in the strict sense abolitionist. 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. In the book called The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he attempts to shine light on the American Slave system in the 1800s. In addition to using Counterclaim and Refutation Sentence Frames, writing teachers may also be interested in these related articles:Why Use an Essay Counterclaim?,Where to Put the Essay Counterclaim, andWhat is the Essay Counterclaim? 9, how does Douglass come to know the date? safeguard properties lawsuit 2017; syl johnson chad ochocinco father IV, p. 514. Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. The following sentence frames helped out my students considerably: First Contrasting Transition +Name the Opposition +Strong Verb + Opposing Point of View +Evidence + Analysis + Second Contrasting Transition + Reference the Opposing Point of View + Turn, However, But, Admittedly, Although, Alternatively, Strong Verbs + Denial/Assertion or Assertion, Denial:reject, oppose, disagree, question, doubt thisview andAssertion:argue that, reason that, claim that, support, conclude that. 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. 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. Key Items Necessary: 1 - Transition. Dvidas? 217, 219. Let us consider first the difficulties. 380382. This counterclaim both disagrees with the claim and disproves it with on-topic reasoning. Slavery not only expropriated the fruits of its victims labor, but also assaulted the moral and mental faculties by which, once freed, they might otherwise have put their labor to profitable and elevating uses. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it's much more costly to execute a person than to imprison them for life" (Andre and Velasquez). In that position, Douglasss fame grew rapidly, and with it came controversy and heightened personal danger. Thousands of black Americans did just that. Finally, answer the question at the bottom of the page. If you're ever going to convince your mom to get that new cell phone that's just perfect for you, you're going to have to move beyond mere opinions. The conclusion should sum up the author's entire argument from the essay. 61, 6465. Neither do we address you as enemies, (although the recipients of innumerable wrongs); but in the spirit of patriotic good will. As a result of entering slave-hood at an early age, he did not know his birthdate (like most slaves). [59] Douglass, African Civilization Society, February, 1859, in Life and Writings, Vol. Slavery was brought to America in the 1600s taking millions of Africans from West Africa. jim preston mchenry, il obituary. 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. Reasons for a claim can also be written as a "because" statement with the claim: the United States should ban capital punishment because capital punishment costs taxpayers more than life in prison. They that can, may; I cannot. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! 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. 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. how does douglass refute this counterclaim? How would you expect obdurate people to respond to advertisements? A claim of fact (or a factual claim) is a claim arguing that something is or is not true. 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. II, p. 235; Address on the Twentieth Anniversary of Emancipation, April 16, 1883, in Douglass Papers, Vol. Douglass labored throughout his postwar career to preserve and propagate this enlarged, moralized understanding among a war-weary loyalist population longing for reunion and a stable peace. 19 Step-by-step answer 17.02.2022, solved by verified expert Bhaskar Singh Bora p PhD Mathematics, Physics. 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]. I know of no country where the conditions for affecting great changes in the settled order of things, for the development of right ideas of liberty and humanity, are more favorable than here in these United States. Pro-slavery whites pointed out that black people, when questioned, said they were happy with their situation. If someone conceded a point, did he or she continue to argue against it? I have had but one answer from the beginning. In these three stories, as well as in a sizable number of other articles, lectures, and letters, Douglass strongly advocated against slavery. He analyzes the story of his wifes cousins death to provide a symbol of outrage due to the unfairness of the murderers freedom. He understands that education is his only way out of slavery. 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. [13] Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, in Autobiographies, p. 392. [48] What the Black Man Wants, in Douglass Papers, Vol. He says of Sophia Auld, "Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me" (page 28). What is the "mournful wail" that gives Douglass the topic for his speech? It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out (47). He returned also a more confident and independent thinker, and in late 1847, against Garrisons advice, he launched his own newspaper, originally titled The North Star. Whereas Douglass from the outset called urgently and insistently for the Civil Wars prosecution as an abolition war, Lincoln saw in such a course of action only a self-destructive rashnessa premature radicalizing of the war, most likely to result in the disaffection of vital allies and, ultimately, the catastrophic failure of the Union cause. In his heart of hearts, Douglass would later reflect, Lincoln loathed and hated slavery.[25] The foundation of this deepened appreciation was of course Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation, promised in September 1862 and delivered the following January. Are there predictions to be made about future developments of this issue? In fact, weve already writtenour argumentative essays on whether Phoebe was a good friend to Sal. Of course the writing prompt is a bit more complex. Explain. Additionally, it comes from a credible source: an academic paper from the. Douglass never mentions the fact that many of the fathers were slave owners. (b) How early in the speech does he introduce this claim? [10] See, for example, Douglass, Speech at the Unveiling of the Freedmens Monument in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1876, in The Frederick Douglass Papers: Series One, Vol. At the end of this excerpt, what encouraging signs does Douglass find? In all such policies, Douglass protested, there is clearly seen the purpose to crush our spirits, to cripple our enterprise and doom us to a condition of destitution and degradation.[44]. 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]. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass is thrown into a new world of knowledge and opportunity, once he learns how to read and write. 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. 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. What was Douglass's purpose in writing his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave? It is particularly important also to pay renewed attention to the most thoughtful apostles of the integrationist faith among the major figures of the AfricanAmerican protest tradition. But there are two sides to every argument. The overall claim for an essay is also known as the thesis and can be found in the introduction of the essay. Most enslaved people did not resist so openly, and fewer still ran away as Douglass did, but all, he makes clear, struggled to retain their humanity in the face of slavery's brutality. "The demographics of the death row population show a racial bias as well. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. America is said, and not without reason, to be preeminently the home and patron of self-made men. [N]o one seems to have doubted the correctness of the prevailing opinion of the time.[4]. Frederick Douglasss account on slavery could be seen as biased as a result of first hand experiences with being held as a slave. II, p. 528 (emphasis in original). It made of Americans one glorious and homogeneous people (as Douglass said of the Emancipation Proclamation)[30] and elevated America to its rightful place among nations as exemplar of the humanitarian spirit of the age. Debate participants will often prepare counterclaims in order to have a rebuttal ready for their opponent. Following this lesson, you should be able to: To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. V, p. 105. In a formal paper, you might say something like, 'It is necessary for me to obtain a new cell phone.' Woe, woe! The implication was that the agitation that abolitionists had begun could never be finally pacified until slavery was finally abolished. The most telling, the most killing, refutation of slavery, he wrote to Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1853, is the presentation of an industrious, enterprising, thrifty, and intelligent free black population. Ever confident in the power of virtue to dispel prejudice, Douglass affirmed in 1883 that the moral government of the universe is on our side. Due to this criticism, he had to mask much of his work with irony. 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. He barely knew his mother, who died shortly before or after he turned eight years old. Education empowers people to make good decisions and paves a future that provides opportunities. To the contrary, among such commentators there appears to be a growing consensus that, despite its important victories, the civil rights movement must be judged as on the whole a failure. [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. For the audience? 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. [5] As Abraham Lincoln and many others have observed, the claim that the Founders regarded blacks or nonwhites as beings lacking equal natural rights is altogether false. Create your account. The grave danger was that reunion and peace would be purchased at the cost of obscuring the moral principles that remained in contest. 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. 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. Slavery can be viewed as one of the greatest examples of immoral treatment towards African Americans in the United States alone. A claim of policy is an argument in support of, in opposition or, or for the alteration of an existing policy, law, or mandate. of people, -two football teams competing for State Champion. In all this talk of race, the motive may be good, but the method is bad. There are a number of key arguments in "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass". Accessed 4 Mar. Through his knowledge, he learns more about his situation and potential. Because they can defend for theirselves, their thoughts, and beliefs, Give an example of a disparity that you have noticed between two groups Rebecca Simon is an ELA and social studies Master Teacher. [12] Douglass, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? July 5, 1852, in Douglass Papers, Vol. The 4 parts of an argumentative essay are the claim, counterclaim, reasoning, and evidence. If the author's claim is that organ selling should be legalized, an example of an effective counterclaim would be that organ selling should not be legalized because it can drive up the cost of organ transplants, meaning that only the rich could afford to receive a transplant. III, pp. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. 2017-12-11 03:56:25. (a) In what ways is Douglass's word choice suited to his audience? Seeking such a consummation, Douglass hurled himself into political activism throughout the 1850s. Q&A Expert 3 851 answers 4.8 rating He acknowledges that some can debate him Explanation: Quick expert help Get an expert answer for 15 minutes 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. how does douglass refute this counterclaim? -he wishes he could present a speech that was positive for the people. Facebook Instagram. It was specifically on grounds of reparative justice that he urged support of one particular federal public-education proposal, a bill put forward by Senator Henry Blair of New Hampshire. 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. 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. A reader can see bleak picture of black slavery from the narration of Frederick Douglass who confronts brutal conduct of white masters throughout his childhood. V, pp. Reasoning is the author's logic used to support and prove their claims. With the election of the first Republican President in 1860, Douglasss hopeful predictions would soon be vindicated, but this was not what he initially expected of an Abraham Lincoln Administration. [50] My Bondage and My Freedom, in Autobiographies, p. 286; Douglass to Stowe, March 8, 1853, in Life and Writings, Vol. [6] James Madison, Speech of June 6, 1787, in Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Vol. The evidence is the facts, data, and quoted experts used to provide support for the reasoning. Your reason is because yours doesn't have Internet access, and your evidence says that students with Internet access make better grades. When he spoke those words he was less than 10 years removed from the depredations of slavery, and the position he took in that 1847 speech reiterates the signature doctrine of his early Garrisonian mentors, for whom condemnation of the Constitution as a villainous compromise with slavery represented an article of abolitionist faith. He can no longer stand his new sense of education and knowledge. He claims that African Americans like himself have been denied the freedom that the holiday supports. Whom was he trying to reach? -yes! All of the violence and the degradation was intended, Douglass makes clear, to rob African-Americans of their humanity. To be deprived of the vote in America, or in any democracy, he continued, is to suffer a double injustice. What is the Function of a Claim in an Argument? Is there a solution for how to address or resolve the issue going forward? What I ask for the negro, he explained in 1865, is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.[48]. He includes personal accounts he received while under the control of multiple different masters. This strategy displays the idea that slaves were seen as property and could be discarded easily. 'My friends that have Internet access make the Honor Roll.'. Having witnessed her transformation from a sympathetic to a hard-hearted mistress, Douglass concludes that slavery was as injurious to her soul as it was to his. 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. Additionally, the conclusion of an argumentative essay should look to the future. Doubts arose as to whether so skilled an orator could ever have been a slave, and Douglass responded by writing his first autobiography. Use the present tense of the verb. Douglass never tired of quoting the lines of Byron to this effect: Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow. To the end, he held strongly to the principle that he stressed in an 1855 editorial: our elevation as a race, is almost wholly dependent upon our own exertions.[55]. Shubhra Mohanty June 09, 2022 Who is Frederick Douglass' intended audience in his autobiography, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass? The Belgian horse team, plus the faithful dog, _____ a fine addition to the parade. Note that every step of the argument is supported by credible evidence. -it allows the student to prove his/her point even further by refuting a misconception. Argumentative essays have a basic structure that allows some room for the author's discretion. I was a man now.[9]. It contains a hook or way of gathering the audience's attention. In fact, he contended, the Constitution was more than merely anti-slavery. A claim of value makes a judgement on something's worth, morality, or merit. [45] The manuscript is available in the Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress (Speech, Article, and Book File; Miscellany, Folder 7 of 20) and also online at the librarys Douglass Papers Web site, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/doughtml/doughome.html. A fair-minded observer could scarcely deny that for many Americans, race still does matter. IV, ed. Evidence provides factual proof for the reasons in an argument and can consist of facts, data, statistics, published study results, and quoted experts. When Douglass remarked on Americas inexpiable debt to those who had been enslaved, he was not demanding an effort to restore, however imperfectly, the actual and potential material wealth that slavery had stolen from its victims. Second, it indicates Douglasss reluctance to support more radical measures such as the plan for confiscation proposed in 1867 by Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, leader of the Radical Republicans in the House of Representatives.
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