Eng III Argumentative Speeches

What is the chief claim of "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

• Black people deserve equal treatment and status in the United States.

  
  

• Slavery is unconstitutional, and it should be abolished.

  
  

• Black people are deserving of more respect.

  
  

• The tradition of slavery in the United States has harmed the Black population.

  
  

Which line from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” supports Douglass’s claim that the Fourth of July is not a cause worthy of celebration by all?

• Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too great enough to give frame to a great age.

  
  

• Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful.

  
  

• Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.

  
  

• But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light?

  
  

Tags

CCSS.RL.2.6

CCSS.RL.8.3

Read the excerpt from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?".

But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, “It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed.” But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it.

Which statement best explains why this is an example of a counterclaim by Douglass?

• Douglass addresses a potential argument of the other side and makes a case against it.

  
  

• Douglass addresses a potential argument of the other side and admits the point is solid.

  
  

• Douglass makes a claim and offers facts to support it.

  
  

• Douglass makes a claim and admits the flaws within it.

  
  

Read the excerpt from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the “lame man leap as an hart.”

Which statement best describes why this excerpt contains an example of deductive reasoning?

• It contains specific details that support a variety of different ideas.

  
  

• It begins with broad statements and ends with more specific ones.

  
  

• It uses clear examples that are easily understood by all readers.

  
  

• It starts with a very simple idea and builds to a much grander idea.

  
  

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.1

CCSS.RI.8.8

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RI.7.8

CCSS.RL.9-10.1

Read the excerpt from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!” To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave’s point of view.

Which best describes why this is an example of inductive reasoning?

• It starts with details and uses them to support a more sweeping statement.

  
  

• It makes an assertion, then counters arguments against that assertion.

  
  

• It defends an argument with carefully researched facts and excerpts.

  
  

• It uses an anecdote to support a broad claim about the injustices of slavery.

  
  

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.1

CCSS.RI.8.8

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RI.7.8

CCSS.RL.7.1

Which excerpt is a counterclaim in "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

• What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded.

  
  

• There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment.

  
  

• It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write.

  
  

• What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken?

  
  

Which statement best explains why "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" is an example of inductive reasoning, as a whole?

• It contains one primary claim in its first paragraph and then supports that claim throughout the rest of the speech.

  
  

• It offers a claim and then rebuts all arguments against that claim throughout the rest of the speech about the holiday.

  
  

• It uses a specific holiday as a basis for the broader conclusion that is constructed throughout the rest of the speech.

  
  

• It begins with a grandiose statement and then explains that statement in parts throughout the rest of the speech.

  
  

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.1

CCSS.RI.8.8

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RI.7.8

CCSS.RI.7.1

Read the excerpt from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.

What is the effect of the repetition of “your”?

• It reminds the reader of the speaker’s identity.

  
  

• It reinforces the speaker’s feeling of separation.

  
  

• It suggests a dialogue between speaker and audience.

  
  

• It indicates that the speaker is addressing a large crowd.

  
  

Tags

CCSS.RL.2.6

CCSS.RL.8.3

Read the excerpt from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!

What effect does the repetition of the word “when” have?

• The repetition gives the excerpt a philosophical quality.

  
  

• The repetition distracts readers from Douglass’s original point.

  
  

• The repetition clarifies the time in which the speech was delivered.

  
  

• The repetition reinforces Douglass’s incredulity at the opposition’s attitudes.

  
  

Tags

CCSS.RL.2.6

CCSS.RL.8.3

Read the excerpt from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?

How does this rhetorical question contribute to the passage’s central idea?

• It encourages Black people to discuss the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence.

  
  

• It reinforces the idea that the rights given to others are not extended to Black people.

  
  

• It reveals that Douglass has an in-depth knowledge of the Declaration of Independence.

  
  

• It gives the rest of the speech importance by referring to a famous historical document.

  
  

Tags

CCSS.RL.2.6

CCSS.RL.8.3