For example, This view ignores the conclusive evidence that This position is mistaken because, 3. 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. : Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), chapter 1. 4. Supporters of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 believed that. How does Douglass refute this counterclaim? Body--The body of a five-paragraph essay is three paragraphs. At the same time, Douglass' exploration of Christianity, and its hypocrisy when used to justify slavery, and the idea that the promise of freedom cannot be realized when a group of people are enslaved, helps to bolster the claims that slavery is America's "original sin.". The evils which are now crushing the Negro to earth have their root and sap, their force and mainspring, in this narrow spirit of race and color and the Negro has no more right to excuse or to foster it than men of any other race. 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. [54] Douglass, To the Editor of the National Republican, in Life and Writings, Vol. The short essay, Slavery as a Mythologized Institution, explains how people in that time period justified the disgusting behavior that was demonstrated regularly. I, ed. 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. 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". Douglass describes this memory as the "blood-stained gate" through which he entered slavery, and he is struck throughout at how the institution made tyrants of whites. That the natural-rights principles epitomized in the Declaration of Independence were universally and permanently true; That the everlasting glory of Americas Founding lay in its dedication to those principles; and. 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. His evidence for this claim is that when he first meets her in Baltimore, she is a very kind woman. 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]. 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. 790, 795797. The claim is the author's argument that they are attempting to prove in the essay. 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. Debate participants will often prepare counterclaims in order to have a rebuttal ready for their opponent. II, pp. 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. Less than 20 inmates were executed in the United States in 2020. [2] Cornel West, Race Matters (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993), chapter 1. I, ed. Evidence - something that proves the truth of a claim, or leads to a . [6] James Madison, Speech of June 6, 1787, in Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Vol. Not just, 'Because I said so.' The overall claim for an essay is also known as the thesis and can be found in the introduction of the essay. The climactic reversal in his youth came when he resolved to resist, and successfully resisted, a cruel slavemasters attempt to whip him. When Douglass wrote this book, slavery was still legal in a large portion of the United States. III, p. 274. The counterclaim is the opposite argument which the author addresses in order provide a rebuttal. Attorney Douglass does not refute any specific findings by the trial court, but simply claims in a conclusory manner that there was . 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. 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. We are able to explore new ideas and concepts, which leads to more knowledge. A claim of cause and effect is a claim that one thing influences or affects another. An education can open doors that were once closed. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out (47). Yet, while Douglass narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. 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. He can no longer stand his new sense of education and knowledge. The evidence is the facts, data, and quoted experts used to provide support for the reasoning. Your mom's counterclaim is that you don't need one. I explain Douglasss argument more elaborately in Frederick Douglass, pp. Suppose that you are trying to get information from people who equivocate. 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. [51] Douglass, The Blessings of Liberty and Education, September 3, 1894, in Douglass Papers, Vol. 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. 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. [32] Douglasss response was disarmingly blunt. Evidence is usually some kind of research. In that speech, often considered the greatest of all abolitionist speeches, he excoriated Americas injustices no less vigorously than he ever had, but he took great care to distinguish Americas practice from its first principles and the actions of its subsequent generations from those of its Founders. 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. position? Douglasss great cause was integration, and his great theme was hopefulnessrationally grounded hopefulnessin Americas capacity to secure justice for all, irrespective of race, color, sex, or creed. At the end of this excerpt, what encouraging signs does Douglass find? How does learning to read and write change Douglas, as he outlines in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave? 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]. III, pp. 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. For each of the following sentences, write the correct word or expression from the pair in parentheses. What was Douglass's purpose in writing his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave? Douglasss new office as editor broadened his education as an abolitionist, and over the next few years, his differences with his erstwhile mentors grew more pronounced. Later, he finds out that while the conditions are slightly better there is still a great deal of injustice. 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. 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. Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" has many of the elements of a good argumentative structure. 42% of the inmates are black, although African-Americans only account for 12.5% of the U.S. population" (Walter). 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. V, pp. Wiki User. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it will help you be a good interviewer. 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. [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. Undaunted by these setbacks, however, he maintained to the end a strenuous schedule of speaking and writing, laboring to remind the succeeding generations that there was a right side and a wrong side in the late war and to propagate his undying faith in the mission and promise of America. Protagoras was a Greek philosopher who is widely considered the father of argument and debate. IV, p. 319. How many masters did Frederick Douglass have? Your claim is that you need a new cell phone. Including using the example of Joseph and his brothers, as well as the Israelites being slaves in Egypt. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,did the mistress's initial kindness or her eventual cruelty have a greater effect on Frederick Douglass? He in a sense manipulates the children around him into teaching him how to read and write. Frederick Douglass, J. M. Whitfield, H. O . 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. [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. Douglass's central claim in his autobiography is that slavery is as harmful to whites as it is to slaves. The Essay Skills Worksheets include 97 worksheets (printables and 97 Google slides) to help teachersdifferentiate writing instructionwith bothremedial and advancedwriting skills. The reason "capital punishment costs taxpayers more than life in prison" answers "why" capital punishment should be banned. Do nothing with us! Educators go through a rigorous application process, and every answer they submit is reviewed by our in-house editorial team. For radical critics, Americas betrayals of the ideals of liberty and equality for all are betrayals in the nations founding principles rather than betrayals of them. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. 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. 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. 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. 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. A counterclaim is the argument opposing the author's claim. 350351. I have no country. He could feel no attachment to America, he explained, for reasons that ran deeper than the countrys unjust practices. You're going to need to support your claim to get rid of that crummy, old, obsolete phone that's holding you back. II, p. 235; Address on the Twentieth Anniversary of Emancipation, April 16, 1883, in Douglass Papers, Vol. Who can reason on such a proposition? The function of a claim is to provide the author's argument. The rise of this abolitionist agitation would alarm slaveholders, who would respond by attempting to suppress abolitionist speech and to strengthen and perpetuate their political power by expanding slaverys presence in federal territories, thus preparing the admission of additional slave states. I, p. 311. In an argument, your, 'My cell phone doesn't have Internet access,' would need to be beefed up a little, to, 'My current cell phone doesn't provide Internet access, which is necessary for me to complete all my homework.' Conclusion--The conclusion of a five-paragraph essay is one paragraph. Making a claim is just a fancy way of saying that you're stating your main point. -yes! Douglass states that "scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed." 202203 (emphasis added). -his language is different, it proves hes educated, (b) How effective would it be for a modern audience? They were great men too. Douglass's sometimes stern emphasis on the virtues of self-reliance and self-elevation does not mean that he had grown insensitive to the magnitude of the difficulties yet to be overcome; nor . The body of the essay is three paragraphs and contains the author's reasoning, evidence, and counterclaims. An argumentative essay is an essay in which the writer tries to persuade a particular audience that their claim or point of view is correct. Post author: Post published: junho 22, 2022 Post category: when would the undeposited funds feature not be necessary? [47] Douglass, Self-Made Men, in Douglass Papers, Vol. : Da Capo Press, 2001), p. 688. The 1850s witnessed a series of what, to many, must have appeared to be catastrophic setbacks for the abolitionist cause, beginning with the execrated Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, including also the KansasNebraska Act of 1854, and culminating in the Dred Scott ruling in 1857. [9] Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, in Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies (New York: Library of America, 1994), p. 286. The body can be organized by reasoning, with the author providing three reasons as the topic sentences for the three paragraphs, then using further reasoning and evidence to prove the topic sentence. The hook should be on-topic and supportive of the author's argument. 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. . 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. Counterclaim and Refutation Sentence Frames. Come what will, I hold it to be morally certain that, sooner or later, by fair means or foul means, in quiet or in tumultslavery is doomed to cease out of this otherwise goodly land, and liberty is destined to become the settled law of this Republic.[20]. Human nature cannot honor one who is helpless, Douglass had observed long before, but it is bound to respect those who display a forceful, virtuous self-reliance. Frederick Douglass devoted his singular 54-year career of public advocacy to the grand, mutually inseparable causes of the liberation and elevation of his fellow black Americans and the racial and moral integration of America.