Reference no: EM133233942
Assignment - Frederick Douglass Worksheet
Description - As the Civil War drew near in the early 1860s, Abraham Lincoln gave notice to the entire country that he intended to free the slaves in states still in rebellion against the Union, a promise fulfilled by the Emancipation Proclamation issued on January 1, 1863. But in addition to Lincoln's heroic efforts, there were many other powerful voices leading the country toward abolition, and none more prominent than Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave whose oral and written advocacy made him one of the most visible social reformers. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, appeared in 1845, the first of Douglass's three autobiographies and likely the most famous American slave narrative ever published. The book found a wide transatlantic audience and was an early, powerful proponent and accelerator of the abolitionist movement.
Instructions -
1. Complete the assigned reading from Frederick Douglass:
i. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass excerpts
ii. "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July"
2. Review the resources for understanding Frederick Douglass's work.
3. After you have spent some time with the texts and supplementary resources, it's time to annotate the text with your classmates. Annotating is reading and thinking together in the margins of the text. To get started, click on the big gray button below that says, "Load 2.1 Social Annotation: Frederick Douglass" to be taken to the Hypothesis-enabled Douglass readings that have been combined into one document.
4. Using Hypothesis, create at least 10 annotations that focus on the themes of humanity and inhumanity found in Douglass' work. You will be working on the text with many other classmates, but these are long texts with different "entry points" for your annotations. Avoid annotating the same passages as someone else as much as possible. Try to consider the following in your annotations:
i. How does Douglass create arguments proving the humanity of enslaved people?
ii. What are the effects of slavery on the enslaved? How does Douglass document or demonstrate them?
iii. What are the effects of slavery on the slave holders? How does Douglass document or emonstrate them?
iv. Where, how and why does Douglass strike an optimistic tone?