Take a Stand on Slavery
Read the following pro- and anti-slavery documents
Pro-Slavery:
George Fitzhugh Advocates Slavery: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3141t.html
Diseases and Peculiarities of the Negro Race: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3106t.html
James Henry Hammond Advocates Slavery: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3439t.html
Excerpts from Edmund Ruffin’s “The Political Economy of Slavery”: http://www.shoppbs.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lincolns/filmmore/ps_ruffin.html
Abolitionists:
David Walker’s Appeal: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2931t.html
Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july/
The American Antislavery Society: Declarations of Sentiments: http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/abeswlgct.html
Directions
Part 1: Essay
Focus Questions:
1. What stereotypes do these documents promote about African-Americans?
2. How do these men justify slavery? Or what points do they make about the need to abolish slavery? Should the emancipated slaves remain “on-soil,” that is, in the United States?
3. How do these men envision civilized society and slavery’s place in it? What remarks do the abolitionists make about the conditions under which the slaves worked and lived? The pro-slavery writers?
4. What are your impressions about the attitudes these men had about slavery, whether they were slavery proponents or abolitionists?
5. In what ways are the arguments of these men reflective of racial prejudice?
Format:
For your essay, you must read the primary sources listed above and examine the descriptions of, and defense or attack of slavery offered in the documents. After selecting one side of the debate, you must write a two page essay (between 500 and 750 words) that addresses the focus questions. Your essay should have an introduction, supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. In the supporting paragraphs, you should include specific examples or support of your position (quotations or paraphrases) from the primary sources for this activity.
Regarding citations, you must provide citations for all of the information that you looked up in your sources and you must include a works cited page for those sources.
