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?
Which group in nineteenth-century America would likely be the most receptive audience for "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
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?
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?
Read the excerpt from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood?What do the rhetorical questions in the excerpt suggest?
What was most likely the author’s immediate purpose in writing "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
In "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, Douglass refers to the Declaration of Independence. Which of the following best describes the historical significance of this reference?
Read the excerpt from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.How does the repetition of the word “must” affect the tone of the piece?
How does the speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” relate to life in the United States during Douglass’s time?
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?
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