Political and Social Development Essay
Read the two excerpts from The American Yawp, which are secondary sources. Also read the primary source “George Fitzhugh Advocates Slavery” and the brief biographical information about Fitzhugh. And re-read the Frederick Douglass’s speech “What to the Slave is the 4th of July” and the biographical information about Douglass. (I have re-opened the discussion board which included the Douglass document, so you can re-read your posts and comments.)
Fitzhugh lays out many of the popular pro-slavery arguments from the 1850s. Write an essay in which you develop an argument about how Douglass challenges the justifications for slavery. Make sure to provide historical context for the development of and justification of slavery and the abolition movement. Explain the justifications Fitzhugh uses to support slavery, and how Douglass counters those arguments. Use specific evidence from the text, including both brief quotations from each document. Make sure to explain how the evidence supports your thesis (argument).
As you write, keep these factors in mind:
Make you have an introduction which clearly states your thesis.
Each paragraph in the body of the paper should have a topic sentence which explains the main point of the paragraph.
As you work, remember the type of analysis of you have been doing of primary sources throughout the semester. This essay asks you to take those same skills—selecting evidence and explaining its significance—in a more formal essay.
