[45] Two things are noteworthy about this proposal. 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. These displays of humanity would naturally arouse the sympathy of non-slaveholders, a few of whom at first, and more with the passage of time, would take up the cause of abolition. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! No people can prosper, Douglass reiterated late in life, unless they have a home, or the hope of a home; and to have a home, one must have a country.[61] America was AfricanAmericans proper home, he maintained, their only realistic alternative and also the locus of their highest ideals. Douglass says that laws in the South are anti-black. In our example, you would need to give or cite some concrete evidence like, 'According to research, students with Internet access on their phones are more likely to make the Honor Roll.' https://www.facebook.com/groups/sorliteracyhub, Create Decodable Text with Artificial Intelligence, FREE Diagnostic Reading and ELA Assessments. . Two key components of an argumentative essay are the reasons and evidence. 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. That's your mom's counterclaim. [31] Douglass, Our Composite Nationality, December 7, 1869, in Douglass Papers, Vol. How many masters did Frederick Douglass have? Evidence tells your reader how your claim is proved. While Frederick Douglass made some key arguments, he also made common ground to make his . Douglas removed his residual doubts by diving into the Warm Lake and swimming across to the other shore and back. In the postwar decades, Douglasss initially bright hopes for rapid, lasting reforms faded as the nations governing majority, weary of conflict, flagged in its commitment to enforcing the civil and political rights of the freedpeople in the ex-rebel states. Frederick Douglass autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave offers a depiction of slavery like very few before him, from his firsthand accounts. 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. He analyzes the story of his wifes cousins death to provide a symbol of outrage due to the unfairness of the murderers freedom. [23] See especially Douglass, The Doom of the Black Power, July 27, 1855, in Life and Writings, Vol. Who is Frederick Douglass' intended audience in his autobiography, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass? 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. [37] Ibid., pp. [59] Douglass, African Civilization Society, February, 1859, in Life and Writings, Vol. Get the Writing Style Posters FREE Resource: Grammar/Mechanics, Literacy Centers, Study Skills, Writing argument essay, argumentative essay, common core writing standards, counterargument sentence frames, Counterarguments, Counterclaim and Refutation Sentence Frames, counterclaim sentence frames, counterclaim transitions, Counterclaims, essay argument, essay strategies, Mark Pennington, Opposing Claims, rebut, Rebuttal, Refutation, refute, Teaching Essay Strategies, writing style, and receive a free welcome gift! That Douglass sympathized, for a period in his youth, with anti-America radicalism is hardly surprising. V, p. 625. Note that the only factual claim on the topic is the claim of fact. 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. Now you turnthe opposing point of view, evidence, and analysis back to support your thesis statement. It was just what I wanted, and. Would you want to have stolid friends? How does learning to read and write change Douglas, as he outlines in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave? Because they can defend for theirselves, their thoughts, and beliefs, Give an example of a disparity that you have noticed between two groups In his successive responses to these developments, Douglass expressed not despair but rising hopefulness. Your argument can be summed up quickly. In fact, he contended, the Constitution was more than merely anti-slavery. 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]. In a formal paper, you might say something like, 'It is necessary for me to obtain a new cell phone.' Fair play meant at minimum that the nation must reject the alternatives of (1) re-enslavement, this time of the entire black American population; (2) colonization or expatriation; (3) persisting subordination of blacks as a degraded caste; and (4) outright extermination. Although, Douglass is able to be direct our thoughts to these experiences in such a light, you feel as if you are witnessing it happen right before you. Some of his works are obvious and others are a bit harder to see. 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. 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. Taking a long view, Douglass judged that there was no greater danger to the elevation of black people and the integration of America than this spirit of alienation. 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. This latter, of course, was the position of Lincoln and of the moderate center of the Free Soil and Republican parties during the 1850s. Step-by-step explanation: Answer options: a. dependence on a neighbor for water trade access; What have you learned about the struggle for freedom from reading this speech? Douglass has been taught a few reading lessons form his mistress. Post comments: direct characterization of clarisse fahrenheit 451 direct characterization of clarisse fahrenheit 451 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. If someone conceded a point, did he or she continue to argue against it? With due respect to King and to other stalwarts of the 20th-century movement, I submit that in the search for the most thoughtful proponents of the pro-integration, pro-America argument, there is no worthier object of our attention than the life and thought of the greatest of their 19th-century predecessors, the renowned abolitionist and advocate of civil and political equality Frederick Douglass. So, not only does the author work on proving their claim, but they work on disproving the counterclaim or opposition's argument. 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. This proclamation changed everything, Douglass later recalled. In the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," Douglass has the ability to show the psychological battle between the white slave holders and their black slaves, which is shown by Douglass' own intellectual struggles against his white slave holders. 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. Due to this criticism, he had to mask much of his work with irony. V, pp. Max Farrand (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1911), p. 135. 9 chapters | Create your account. After your mom's counterclaim, she'll probably ask, 'Why is it that you think you need a new cell phone? Space permits here only a brief sketch of Douglasss singularly remarkable life story, which sheds much light on the formation of his political philosophy. To many, the U.S. war with Mexico in 1846 signified an imperialist effort to expand the number and power of slaveholding states at the national level, and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850that most foul and fiendish of all human decrees, Douglass would call it[12]effectively nationalized slavery, conscripting non-slaveholding states and citizens in the recapture of persons fleeing for freedom. Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" has many of the elements of a good argumentative structure. The Belgian horse team, plus the faithful dog, _____ a fine addition to the parade. Under the whole Heavens, he remarked in 1894, there never was a people liberated from bondage under conditions less favorable to the successful beginning of a new and free mode of life, than were the Freedmen of the South. [51] With respect to corrective justice, he firmly endorsed the principle but took a subtle, carefully measured position with respect to its present application. He not only. A claim is the main argument. [19] Douglass, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? in Douglass Papers, Vol. If he had he would have faced much more threats than he did. He introduces this idea after his beginning steps in becoming educated and later reinforces it by providing extensive examples of his experience with; slave-masters, learning the alphabet, reading and writing, and the exposition of individual opinions in literature. First, it makes clear that Douglasss demand for nothing but fair play allowed for vigorous protective and remedial action by the federal government. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! [7] I develop this argument at length in Frederick Douglass: Race and the Rebirth of American Liberalism (Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 2008). how does douglass refute this counterclaim? [26] Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, in Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies, pp. 7282. Counterclaims are also provable and supportable by reasons and evidence. The main purpose of a counterclaim is to address the opposite side of the argument and provide a rebuttal. Evidence is usually some kind of research. 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]. If you've ever said this or something like it, you've made a claim. In your thesis paragraph, you make it . Speed swimmers have made (alot/a lot) of progress since the 1924 Olympics. 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. Here again, two points are especially salient. When you're preparing an argument, make sure to note where you got your evidence. 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. [28] Douglass, Address on the Twentieth Anniversary of Emancipation, April 16, 1883, in Douglass Papers, Vol. That the salvation of the nation lay in its rededication to them. ete the task. 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. 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. The hook should be on-topic and supportive of the author's argument. Following this lesson, you should be able to: To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. At the end of this excerpt, what encouraging signs does Douglass find? I will also contrast how Douglass' view was very similar to that of the women in antebellum America, and the role that Christianity played in his life as a slave and then. Knowing that your mom could care less about the newest games, appeal to what she thinks is important - your grades. It is very difficult to see how the forward- and upward-looking labor required to achieve the ends of justice for all and black elevation in America is to be sustained amid a spreading sentiment of alienation from America. Every year adds to the black mans numbers. The reasons of an argument are the reasoning or logical proof provided to prove the argument. 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. They were great men too. 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. What does Frederick Douglass mean when he says "Bread of Knowledge"? 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. 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. For a standard 5-paragraph essay, the introduction is one paragraph and contains the thesis statement, or overall claim for the essay. While Frederick Douglass made some key arguments, he also made common ground to make his appeal for the abolition of slavery. In a more formal way, she might say, 'Your current situation does not require a new cell phone.' II, pp. He talks about how grateful he is that america is young because it has time to create its own path without a past to hold it down. This grand achievement taught Douglass something, as he says, From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. That's a reason. The principles of natural human rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence, Douglass was convinced, represent a permanent, universal truth as well as the most practically powerful moral and political theory ever conceived. Hannover Turismo Neither do we address you as enemies, (although the recipients of innumerable wrongs); but in the spirit of patriotic good will. Making a claim is just a fancy way of saying that you're stating your main point. A counterclaim is the opposite of the argument, or the opposing argument. There are four types of argumentative claims: claims of fact, claims of value, claims of policy, and claims of cause and effect. Addressing a womens rights convention in 1868, Douglass made the point simply and bluntly: If the elective franchise is not extended to the negro, he dieshe is exterminated.[39], Moreover, as the voting right was an imperative of justice, it was also, Douglass argued, a powerful agency for the cause of integration. 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. 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]. He point-by-point counters a Southern narrative that argued that slavery benefitted black people. June 14, 2022 The conclusion ties to the claim and. But there are two sides to every argument. Woe, woe! The first of those, described above, was the most flagrantly pro-slavery legislation in U.S. history. He gives reasons for this claim and backs them up with evidence. 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. -I have learned that African Americans have always been bullied and degraded by others, and they didn't get their freedom in the US until the mid 19th century, A discussion of a controversial or debatable issue, A particular belief, conclusion, or point of view. Sometimes, an author breaks their overall claim, or thesis, into smaller claims called sub-claims. Accessed 4 Mar. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out (47). Education empowers people to make good decisions and paves a future that provides opportunities. 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. His first hand accounts of the cruel nature of slavery and the thought. Attorney Douglass does not refute any specific findings by the trial court, but simply claims in a conclusory manner that there was . 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. 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. 29 plumtrees road newtown, ct; popular subdivision names; how to cite the implicit association test Are there predictions to be made about future developments of this issue? His fair-play principle required, first and foremost, the cessation of various practices in the post-Reconstruction South that were designed to frustrate blacks efforts to acquire property for themselves. 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. Evaluating an Argument Guidelines & Examples | What is an Argument? The persistence of Douglasss hopeful, energetic activism during that very difficult decade deserves further comment. I, p. 311. Slavery can be viewed as one of the greatest examples of immoral treatment towards African Americans in the United States alone. Douglass also describes the way it corroded his soul to not know his birth date, to be told he couldn't learn to read after the wife of his Baltimore owner started to teach him, and to realize that slavery was a condition he would never grow out of. The reasoning is about the cost of the death penalty, while the evidence is about racial disparities in the implementation of the death penalty. How would you like to be able to win any argument? He never had a pair of shoes, no matter how cold it got ,and had only a single thin shift to wear, summer and winter. For each of the following sentences, write the correct word or expression from the pair in parentheses. An education can open doors that were once closed. How does Douglass's opening reference to the Declaration of Independence reinforce his message? No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. Ivo Silveira 8877, km. Douglasss 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 does it mean that he had resorted to blaming the victim or placing exclusive responsibility on the freedpeople for their condition. 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. a) the regulation of business protected consumers. 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. [60] He feared that such a development among black Americans likewise would be the effect of continuing failures to do justice by American institutions, as it could result also from the disaffection propagated by black advocates of emigration, despairing of Americas prospects for reform. Posted on June 22, 2022 by June 22, 2022 by Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. 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. 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.