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 reinforces the idea that the rights given to others are not extended to African Americans.
How does the speech "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" relate to American life during Douglass's time?
It addresses the need for equality for all people.
Which group in nineteenth-century America would likely be the most receptive audience for "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"
abolitionists
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?
It is significant because a prominent leader was suggesting that the unequal treatment of African Americans was in direct opposition to the principles of the Declaration of Independence.
What is the chief claim of "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"
African Americans deserve equal treatment and status in American society.
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.
Read the excerpt from "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshiping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men! Based on the excerpt above, what was most likely true about this time in the nation's history?
African Americans were performing the same duties as others without the same rights.
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 reinforces the speaker's feeling of separation.
Which statement best explains why "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" is an example of inductive reasoning, as a whole?
It uses a specific holiday as a basis for the broader conclusion that is constructed throughout the rest of the speech.
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 reinforces Douglass's incredulity at the opposition's attitudes.