May 29 PSA Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract

Transcription

1 May 29 PSA Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Part III: Pre-1865 Extensions Many of the sources come from the PBS Africans in America website, which provides excellent background on the sources. Check the links for background on other sources. 1. African Americans and the American Revolution Sources: Petition of African-Americans to the State of Massachusetts (January ) Charge of Chief Justice Cushing to the Jury in the Quock Walker case (1783) Drawing of American/French soldiers (c. 1781) Summary: The petition by free and enslaved blacks appeals to the Massachusetts government to act upon the liberal principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence and abolish slavery. The Massachusetts constitution of 1780 did not abolish slavery in so many words but, in 1783, a Massachusetts judge found slavery incompatible with the ideas expressed in the state s constitution and the interpretation set a precedent that effectively and gradually brought an end to slavery in the state. The drawing reflects the fact that African Americans served the Patriot cause in the Revolution, giving support to arguments for the end of slavery that contributed to its gradual abolition in the North after the war. 2. Banneker and Jefferson Exchange Letters, 1791 Sources: Cover of Benjamin Banneker s Almanac (1795): Banneker letter to Jefferson (August 1791) excerpts only: Jefferson s reply to Banneker (August 1791): Summary: Banneker made a direct appeal to Jefferson to use his influence to bring about the end of slavery and makes direct reference to the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson s reply suggests that he s sympathetic but also conveys his doubts about racial equality because of circumstances. The cover is from the 1795 edition of Banneker s famous Almanac, four years after the exchange of letters. 3. David Walker s Appeal and Nat Turner s Rebellion (Rebellion against Slavery) Sources: David Walker s Appeal (1829):

2 Depiction of Nat Turner s Rebellion (1831): Summary: Walker s Appeal calls on blacks to rise in rebellion to overthrow slavery and cites the Declaration of Independence. The image of Nat Turner s rebellion recalls that some slaves tried to take this approach. The sources show evidence of resistance to slavery in its most radical form and could be linked with other events such as Denmark Vesey and John Brown s raid. 4. The Abolition Movement Sources: William Lloyd Garrison To the Public (January 1831): Anti-slavery emblem Am I Not a Man and a Brother? (1787): The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro (1852): Summary: Garrison s speech lays out the case for immediate rather than gradual emancipation. He refers to the Boston s role in the Revolution and the words self-evident truth in the Declaration to make his case. The emblem was a symbol of the abolitionist movement as early as 1787 and some medallions were even shipped to Benjamin Franklin in the late 1780s. Douglass speech makes a direct critique of the Declaration and provides an African American view of the contradictions in American society and political ideals of the time. 5. Woman s Rights Report of the Women s Rights Convention (as printed in the North Star Printing Office by Frederick Douglass): Declaration of Sentiments (1848): Roll of Honor (1908): Summary: The report on the Seneca Falls Convention includes resolutions passed by the Convention. The Declaration of Sentiments was written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and outlined the rights that all women should be entitled to. She modeled the document on the Declaration of Independence. At the bottom of the link are the names of all the women and men that signed the document on July 20, The 1908 roll of honor memorial was published on the 60 th anniversary of the Convention at the height of the woman s suffrage campaign and helps to make the point that the movement had a long-lasting impact on American society and politics.

3 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Historical Thinking Skills Questions: African Americans and the Revolution (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #1) Source #1: Petition to the General Court of Massachusetts (January 13, 1777) Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this and when did it appear? 2. Who are the authors? What are their motives in writing the document? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What is the overall message and tone of the document? Contextualizing: 5. Where was the document written? Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the document was written? How might these have influenced the document itself?

4 Source #2: Charge of Massachusetts Chief Justice William Cushing to the Jury in the Case of Commonwealth v. Jennison (1783) Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this? 2. Who is the author? What is the author s motive in writing the document? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What is the overall message and tone of the document? Contextualizing: 5. Where was the document written? Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the document was written? How might these have influenced the document itself?

5 Source #3: Watercolor depiction of four foot soldiers in the Patriot army at Yorktown (c. 1781), drawn by Jean-Baptiste-Antoine DeVerger Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this? 2. Who is the artist? What were his motives in drawing the image? Close Reading: 3. What is depicted in the image? Are there colors, symbols, figures that stand out? 4. What is the overall message of the drawing? Contextualizing: 5. When was the art work created? Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the drawing was created? How might the drawing reflect these events?

6 Corroborating Questions: 1. What connections are there among the three sources? 2. What do the sources tell us about the role of African Americans in the American Revolution and the impact of the Revolution s ideals on their condition? 3. How do the sources connect with the ideas expressed in John Locke s Second Treatise on Government and both the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Declaration of Independence? How do they build on and/or challenge the ideals expressed in the documents?

7 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract African Americans and the Revolution (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #1) Source #1: Petition to the General Court of Massachusetts (January 13, 1777) To the Honorable Counsel & House of Representatives for the State of Massachusetts Bay in General Court assembled, January 13, 1777: The petition of A Great Number of Blackes detained in a State of slavery in the bowels of a free & Christian County Humbly sheweth that your Petitioners apprehend that they have in Common with all other men a Natural and Unalienable Right to that freedom which the Grat Parent of the Universe that Bestowed equally on all menkind and which they have Never forfeited by any Compact or agreement whatever but that wher Unjustly Dragged by the hand of cruel Power and their Derest friends and sum of them Even torn from the Embraces of their tender Parents from A populous Pleasant and Plentiful country and in violation of Laws of Nature and of Nations and in Defiance of all the tender feelings of humanity Brough here Either to Be sold like Beast of burthen & Like them Condemned to Slavery for Life Among A People Professing the mild Religion of Jesus A people Not Insensible of the Secrets of Rational Being Nor without spirit to Resent the unjust endeavors of others to Reduce them to a state of Bondage and Subjugation your hononuer Need not to be informed that A Live of Slavery Like that of your petitioners Deprived of Every social privilege of Everything Requisite and render Life Tolable is far worse that Nonexistance. (In imitat)ion of the Lawdable Example of the Good People of these States your petitioners have Long and Patiently waited the Event of petition after petition. By them presented to the Legislative Body of this state and cannot but with Grief Reflect that their Success hath been but too similar they Cannot but express their Astonishment that It have Never Bin Considered that Every Principle from which America has Acted in the Course of their unhappy Difficulties with Great Briton Pleads Stronger than A thousand arguments in favors of your petitioners they therfor humble Beseech your honours to give this petition its due weight and consideration & cause an act of the legislature to be past Wherby they may be Restored to the Enjoyments of that which is the Natural right of all men and their Children who wher Born in this Land of Liberty may not be held as Slaves after they arrive at the age of twenty one years so may the Inhabitance of this States No longer chargeable with the inconstancy of acting themselves that part which they condemn and oppose in others Be prospered in their present Glorious struggle for Liberty and have those Blessings to them, &c.

8 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract African Americans and the Revolution (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #1) Source #2: Charge of Massachusetts Chief Justice William Cushing to the Jury in the Case of Commonwealth v. Jennison (1783) Charge of Chief Justice Cushing As to the doctrine of slavery and the right of Christians to hold Africans in perpetual servitude, and sell and treat them as we do our horses and cattle, that (it is true) has been heretofore countenanced by the Province Laws formerly, but nowhere is it expressly enacted or established. It has been a usage--a usage which took its origin from the practice of some of the European nations, and the regulations of British government respecting the then Colonies, for the benefit of trade and wealth. But whatever sentiments have formerly prevailed in this particular or slid in upon us by the example of others, a different idea has taken place with the people of America, more favorable to the natural rights of mankind, and to that natural, innate desire of Liberty, with which Heaven (without regard to color, complexion, or shape of noses--features) has inspired all the human race. And upon this ground our Constitution of Government, by which the people of this Commonwealth have solemnly bound themselves, sets out with declaring that all men are born free and equal--and that every subject is entitled to liberty, and to have it guarded by the laws, as well as life and property--and in short is totally repugnant to the idea of being born slaves. This being the case, I think the idea of slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct and Constitution; and there can be no such thing as perpetual servitude of a rational creature, unless his liberty is forfeited by some criminal conduct or given up by personal consent or contract....

9 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract African Americans and the Revolution (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #1) Source #3: Watercolor depiction of four foot soldiers in the Patriot army at Yorktown (c. 1781), drawn by Jean-Baptiste-Antoine DeVerger

10 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Historical Thinking Skills Questions: Banneker & Jefferson (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #2) Source #1: Benjamin Banneker s Letter to Thomas Jefferson (August 19, 1791) Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this and when did it appear? 2. Who is the author? What are the author s motives in writing the source? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What is the overall message and tone of the source? Contextualizing: 5. Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the source was written? How might these have influenced the source itself?

11 Source #2: Cover of Benjamin Banneker s 1795 Almanac Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this? 2. Who is the author? What is the author s motive in creating the source? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What images or symbols stand out? Contextualizing: 5. Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the source was created? How might these have influenced the source?

12 Source #3: Jefferson s Reply to Banneker (August 30, 1791) Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this? 2. Who is the author? What are the author s motives in writing this document? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What is the overall message and tone of the document? Contextualizing: 5. Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the source was written? How might these have influenced the source itself?

13 Corroborating Questions: 1. What connections are there among the three sources? 2. What do the sources tell us about the status of African Americans following the Revolution and the views of Banneker and Jefferson? 3. How do the sources connect with the ideas expressed in John Locke s Second Treatise on Government and both the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights? How do they build on and/or challenge the ideals expressed in the documents?

14 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Banneker & Jefferson (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #2) Source #1: Benjamin Banneker s Letter to Thomas Jefferson (August 19, 1791) SIR, I AM fully sensible of the greatness of that freedom, which I take with you on the present occasion; a liberty which seemed to me scarcely allowable, when I reflected on that distinguished and dignified station in which you stand, and the almost general prejudice and prepossession, which is so prevalent in the world against those of my complexion. I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you, to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings, who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world; that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt; and that we have long been considered rather as brutish than human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments. Sir, I hope I may safely admit, in consequence of that report which hath reached me, that you are a man far less inflexible in sentiments of this nature, than many others; that you are measurably friendly, and well disposed towards us; and that you are willing and ready to lend your aid and assistance to our relief, from those many distresses, and numerous calamities, to which we are reduced. Now Sir, if this is founded in truth, I apprehend you will embrace every opportunity, to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions, which so generally prevails with respect to us; and that your sentiments are concurrent with mine, which are, that one universal Father hath given being to us all; and that he hath not only made us all of one flesh, but that he hath also, without partiality, afforded us all the same sensations and endowed us all with the same faculties; and that however variable we may be in society or religion, however diversified in situation or color, we are all of the same family, and stand in the same relation to him. Sir, if these are sentiments of which you are fully persuaded, I hope you cannot but acknowledge, that it is the indispensible duty of those, who maintain for themselves the rights of human nature, and who possess the obligations of Christianity, to extend their power and influence to the relief of every part of the human race, from whatever burden or oppression they may unjustly labor under; and this, I apprehend, a full conviction of the truth and obligation of these principles should lead all to. Sir, I have long been convinced, that if your love for yourselves, and for those inestimable laws, which preserved to you the rights of human nature, was founded on sincerity, you could not but be solicitous, that every individual, of whatever rank or distinction, might with you equally enjoy the blessings thereof; neither could you rest satisfied short of the most active effusion of your exertions, in order to their promotion from any state of degradation, to which the unjustifiable cruelty and barbarism of men may have reduced them. Sir, I freely and cheerfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race, and in that color which is natural to them of the deepest dye; and it is under a sense of the most profound gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, that I now confess to you, that I am not under that state of tyrannical thraldom, and inhuman captivity, to which too many of my brethren are doomed, but that I have abundantly tasted of

15 the fruition of those blessings, which proceed from that free and unequalled liberty with which you are favored; and which, I hope, you will willingly allow you have mercifully received, from the immediate hand of that Being, from whom proceedeth every good and perfect Gift. Sir, suffer me to recall to your mind that time, in which the arms and tyranny of the British crown were exerted, with every powerful effort, in order to reduce you to a state of servitude : look back, I entreat you, on the variety of dangers to which you were exposed; reflect on that time, in which every human aid appeared unavailable, and in which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the conflict, and you cannot but be led to a serious and grateful sense of your miraculous and providential preservation; you cannot but acknowledge, that the present freedom and tranquility which you enjoy you have mercifully received, and that it is the peculiar blessing of Heaven. This, Sir, was a time when you clearly saw into the injustice of a state of slavery, and in which you had just apprehensions of the horrors of its condition. It was now that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you publicly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding ages : ``We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'' Here was a time, in which your tender feelings for yourselves had engaged you thus to declare, you were then impressed with proper ideas of the great violation of liberty, and the free possession of those blessings, to which you were entitled by nature; but, Sir, how pitiable is it to reflect, that although you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of Mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of these rights and privileges, which he hath conferred upon them, that you should at the same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren, under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves. I suppose that your knowledge of the situation of my brethren, is too extensive to need a recital here; neither shall I presume to prescribe methods by which they may be relieved, otherwise than by recommending to you and all others, to wean yourselves from those narrow prejudices which you have imbibed with respect to them, and as Job proposed to his friends, ``put your soul in their souls' stead;'' thus shall your hearts be enlarged with kindness and benevolence towards them; and thus shall you need neither the direction of myself or others, in what manner to proceed herein. And now, Sir, although my sympathy and affection for my brethren hath caused my enlargement thus far, I ardently hope, that your candor and generosity will plead with you in my behalf, when I make known to you, that it was not originally my design; but having taken up my pen in order to direct to you, as a present, a copy of an Almanac, which I have calculated for the succeeding year, I was unexpectedly and unavoidably led thereto. This calculation is the production of my arduous study, in this my advanced stage of life; for having long had unbounded desires to become acquainted with the secrets of nature, I have had to gratify my curiosity herein, through my own assiduous application to Astronomical Study, in which I need not recount to you the many difficulties and disadvantages, which I have had to encounter. And now, Sir, I shall conclude, and subscribe myself, with the most profound respect, Your most obedient humble servant, BENJAMIN BANNEKER.

16 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Banneker & Jefferson (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #2) Source #2: Cover of Benjamin Banneker s 1795 Almanac

17 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Banneker & Jefferson (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #2) Source #3: Jefferson s Reply to Banneker (August 30, 1791) To Mr. BENJAMIN BANNEKER. Philadelphia, August 30, SIR, I THANK you, sincerely, for your letter of the 19th instant, and for the Almanac it contained. No body wishes more than I do, to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren talents equal to those of the other colors of men ; and that the appearance of the want of them, is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that no body wishes more ardently to see a good system commenced, for raising the condition, both of their body and mind, to what it ought to be, as far as the imbecility of their present existence, and other circumstances, which cannot be neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac to Monsieur de Condozett, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and Member of the Philanthropic Society, because I considered it as a document, to which your whole color had a right for their justification, against the doubts which have been entertained of them. I am with great esteem, Sir, Your most obedient Humble Servant, THOMAS JEFFERSON.

18 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Historical Thinking Skills Questions: Rebellion against Slavery (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #3) Source #1: David Walker s Appeal (1829) Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this and when did it appear? 2. Who is the author? What is the author s motive in writing the document? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What is the overall message and tone of the document? Contextualizing: 5. Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the document was written? How might these have influenced the document itself?

19 Source #2: Horrid Massacre in Virginia, Nat Turner's Rebellion, Page one In Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical Scene, By Samuel Warner, New York: Warner West, 1831 Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this? 2. What is the artist s motive in creating the source? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What images or symbols stand out? 5. What is the overall message and tone of the source? Contextualizing: 6. Who was the audience? 7. What significant events were taking place at the time the source was created? How might these have influenced the source?

20 Corroborating Questions: 1. What connections are there between the two sources? 2. What do the sources tell us about resistance to slavery prior to the Civil War? 3. How do the sources connect with the ideas expressed in John Locke s Second Treatise on Government and both the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights? How do they build on and/or challenge the ideals expressed in the documents?

21 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Rebellion against Slavery (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #3) Source #1: David Walker s Appeal (1829) My dearly beloved Brethren and Fellow Citizens. Having travelled over a considerable portion of these United States, and having, in the course of my travels, taken the most accurate observations of things as they exist -- the result of my observations has warranted the full and unshaken conviction, that we, (coloured people of these United States,) are the most degraded, wretched, and abject set of beings that ever lived since the world began; and I pray God that none like us ever may live again until time shall be no more. They tell us of the Israelites in Egypt, the Helots in Sparta, and of the Roman Slaves, which last were made up from almost every nation under heaven, whose sufferings under those ancient and heathen nations, were, in comparison with ours, under this enlightened and Christian nation, no more than a cypher -- or, in other words, those heathen nations of antiquity, had but little more among them than the name and form of slavery; while wretchedness and endless miseries were reserved, apparently in a phial, to be poured out upon, our fathers ourselves and our children, by Christian Americans! The world knows, that slavery as it existed was comparatively speaking, no more than a cypher, when compared with ours under the Americans. Indeed I should not have noticed the Roman slaves, had not the very learned and penetrating Mr. Jefferson said, "when a master was murdered, all his slaves in the same house, or within hearing, were condemned to death." -- Here let me ask Mr. Jefferson, (but he is gone to answer at the bar of God, for the deeds done in his body while living,) I therefore ask the whole American people, had I not rather die, or be put to death, than to be a slave to any tyrant, who takes not only my own, but my wife and children's lives by the inches? Yea, would I meet death with avidity far! far!! in preference to such servile submission to the murderous hands of tyrants. Mr. Jefferson's very severe remarks on us have been so extensively argued upon by men whose attainments in literature, I shall never be able to reach, that I would not have meddled with it, were it not to solicit each of my brethren, who has the spirit of a man, to buy a copy of Mr. Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia," and put it in the hand of his son. But let us review Mr. Jefferson's remarks respecting us some further. Comparing our miserable fathers, with the learned philosophers of Greece, he says: "Yet notwithstanding these and other discouraging circumstances among the Romans, their slaves were often their rarest artists. They excelled too, in science, insomuch as to be usually employed as tutors to their master's children; Epictetus, Terence and Phaedrus, were slaves, -- but they were of the race of whites. It is not their condition then, but nature, which has produced the distinction." See this, my brethren!! Do you believe that this assertion is swallowed by millions of the whites? Do you know that Mr. Jefferson was one of as great characters as ever lived among the whites? See his writings for the world, and public labours for the United States of America. Do you believe that the assertions of

22 such a man, will pass away into oblivion unobserved by this people and the world? If you do you are much mistaken-see how the American people treat us -- have we souls in our bodies? Are we men who have any spirits at all? I know that there are many swell-bellied fellows among us, whose greatest object is to fill their stomachs. Such I do not mean -- I am after those who know and feel, that we are MEN, as well as other people; to them, I say, that unless we try to refute Mr. Jefferson's arguments respecting us, we will only establish them. Let no man of us budge one step, and let slave-holders come to beat us from our country. America is more our country, than it is the whites-we have enriched it with our blood and tears. The greatest riches in all America have arisen from our blood and tears: -- and will they drive us from our property and homes, which we have earned with our blood? They must look sharp or this very thing will bring swift destruction upon them. But Americans. I declare to you, while you keep us and our children in bondage, and treat us like brutes, to make us support you and your families, we cannot be your friends. You do not look for it do you? Treat us then like men, and we will be your friends. And there is not a doubt in my mind, but that the whole of the past will be sunk into oblivion, and we yet, under God, will become a united and happy people. The whites may say it is impossible, but remember that nothing is impossible with God. I count my life not dear unto me, but I am ready to be offered at any moment, For what is the use of living, when in fact I am dead. But remember, Americans, that as miserable, wretched, degraded and abject as you have made us in preceding, and in this generation, to support you and your families, that some of you, (whites) on the continent of America, will yet curse the day that you ever were born. You want slaves, and want us for your slaves!!! My colour will yet, root some of you out of the very face of the earth!!!!!! You may doubt it if you please. I know that thousands will doubt-they think they have us so well secured in wretchedness, to them and their children, that it is impossible for such things to occur. See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own language? Hear your languages, proclaimed to the world, July 4th, "We hold these truths to be self evident -- that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL!! that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!!" Compare your own language above, extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us -- men who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation!!!!!!

23 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Rebellion against Slavery (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #3) Source #2: Horrid Massacre in Virginia, Nat Turner's Rebellion, Page one In Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical Scene, By Samuel Warner, New York: Warner West, 1831, Accession F232.S7 W2, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. Transcription of Text: The scenes which the above Plate is designed to represent are Fig. 1. A mother entreating for the lives of her children 2. Mr. Travis, cruelly murdered by his own Slaves 3. Mr. Burrow, who bravely defended himself until his wife escaped 4. A comp. of mounted Dragoons in pursuit of the Blacks.

24 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Historical Thinking Skills Questions: The Abolition Movement (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #4) Source #1: William Lloyd Garrison, To the Public, The Liberator (January 1, 1831) Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this and when did it appear? 2. Who is the author? What are the author s motives? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What is the overall message and tone of the source? Contextualizing: 5. Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the source was created? How might these have influenced the source itself?

25 Source #2: Am I Not a Man and a Brother? (medallion, c. 1787) Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this? 2. What is the artist s motive in creating this source? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out? 4. What images or symbols stand out? 5. What is the overall message and tone of the source? Contextualizing: 5. Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the source was created? How might these have influenced the source itself?

26 Source #3: Frederick Douglass, The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro (July 5, 1852) Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this and when did it appear? 2. Who is the author? What are the author s motives? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What is the overall message and tone of the source? Contextualizing: 5. Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the source was created? How might these have influenced the source itself?

27 Corroborating Questions: 1. What connections are there among the three sources? 2. What do the sources tell us about the abolition movement and its views on slavery in the years prior to the Civil War? 3. How do the sources connect with the ideas expressed in John Locke s Second Treatise on Government and both the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights? How do they build on and/or challenge the ideals expressed in the documents?

28 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract The Abolition Movement (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #4) Source #1: William Lloyd Garrison, To the Public, The Liberator (January 1, 1831) During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting the minds of the people by a series of discourses on the subject of slavery, every place that I visited gave fresh evidence of the fact, that a greater revolution in public sentiment was to be effected in the free states -- and particularly in New-England -- than at the south. I found contempt more bitter, opposition more active, detraction more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, and apathy more frozen, than among slave owners themselves. Of course, there were individual exceptions to the contrary. This state of things afflicted, but did not dishearten me. I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of emancipation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill and in the birth place of liberty. That standard is now unfurled; and long may it float, unhurt by the spoliations of time or the missiles of a desperate foe -- yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free! Let southern oppressors tremble -- let their secret abettors tremble -- let their northern apologists tremble -- let all the enemies of the persecuted blacks tremble. Assenting to the "self-evident truth" maintained in the American Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights -- among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population. In Park-street Church, on the Fourth of July, 1829, in an address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented to the popular but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition. I seize this opportunity to make a full and unequivocal recantation, and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, and of my brethren the poor slaves, for having uttered a sentiment so full of timidity, injustice and absurdity. A similar recantation, from my pen, was published in the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore, in September, My conscience in now satisfied. I am aware, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire, to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hand of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; -- but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

29 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract The Abolition Movement (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #4) Source #2: Am I Not a Man and a Brother? (medallion, c. 1787)

30 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract The Abolition Movement (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #4) Source #3: Frederick Douglass, The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro (July 5, 1852) Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory......fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart." But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. 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

31 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. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just. Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. 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? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Amercans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him. What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed. At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. 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.

32 What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. 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. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour....allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.

33 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Historical Thinking Skills Questions: Woman s Rights (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #5) Source #1: Report of the Woman s Rights Convention in the North Star (1848) Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this and when did it appear? 2. Who is the author? What are the author s motives? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What is the overall message and tone of the source? Contextualizing: 5. Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the source was created? How might these have influenced the source itself?

34 Source #2: Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments (1848) Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this and when did it appear? 2. Why was this source created? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What is the overall message and tone of the source? Contextualizing: 5. Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the source was created? How might these have influenced the source itself?

35 Source #3: Roll of Honor containing all the signatures to the Declaration of Sentiments (1908) Sourcing: 1. What kind of source is this? 2. Why was this source created? Close Reading: 3. What words or phrases stand out in the text? 4. What is the overall message and tone of the source? Contextualizing: 5. Who was the audience? 6. What significant events were taking place at the time the source was created? How might the source reflect these events?

36 Corroborating Questions: 1. What connections are there among the three sources? 2. What do the sources tell us about the woman s rights movement? 3. How do the sources connect with the ideas expressed in John Locke s Second Treatise on Government and both the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights? How do they build on and/or challenge the ideals expressed in the documents?

37 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Woman s Rights (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #5) Source #1: Report of the Woman s Rights Convention in the North Star (1848) Held at Seneca Falls, N.Y., July 19th and 20th, Rochester: Printed by John Dick at the North Star Office REPORT. A Convention to discuss the SOCIAL, CIVIL, AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF WOMAN, was called by the Women of Seneca County, N.Y., and held at the village of Seneca Falls, in the Wesleyan Chapel on the 19th and 20th of July, The question was discussed throughout two entire days: the first day by women exclusively, the second day men participated in the deliberations. Lucretia Mott, of Philadelphia, was the moving spirit of the occasion. In the afternoon, the meeting assembled according to adjournment, and was opened by reading the minutes of the morning session. Elizabeth Cady Stanton then addressed the meeting, and was followed by Lucretia Mott. The reading of the Declaration was called for, an addition having been inserted since the morning session. A vote taken upon the amendment was carried, and papers circulated to obtain signatures. The following resolutions were then read: Whereas, the great precept of nature is conceded to be; "that man shall pursue his own true and substantial happiness." Blackstone, in his Commentaries, remarks, that this law of Nature being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times; not human laws are of any validity if contrary to this, and such of them as are valid, derive all their force, and all their validity, and all their authority, mediately and immediately, from this original; Therefore, Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any way, with the true and substantial happiness of woman, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and of no validity; for this is "superior in obligation to any other." Resolved, That all laws which prevent woman from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore of no force or authority. Resolved, That woman is man's equal--was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such. Resolved, That the women of this country ought to be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they live, that they may no longer publish their degradation, by declaring themselves satisfied with their present position, not their ignorance, by asserting that they have all the rights they want.

38 Resolved, That inasmuch as man, while claiming for himself intellectual superiority, does accord to woman moral superiority, it is pre-eminently his duty to encourage her to speak, and teach as she has an opportunity, in all religious assemblies. Resolved, That the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and refinement of behavior, that is required of woman in the social state, should also be required of man, and the same transgressions should be visited with equal severity on both man and woman. Resolved, That the objection of indelicacy and impropriety, which is so often brought against woman when she addresses a public audience, comes with a very ill grace from those who encourage, by their attendance, her appearance on the stage, in the concert, or in the feats of the circus. Resolved, That woman has too long rested satisfied in the circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted application of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and that it is time she should move in the enlarged sphere which her great Creator has assigned her. Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise. Resolved, That the equality of human rights results necessarily from the fact of the identity of the race in capabilities and responsibilities. Resolved, Therefore, That, being invested by the Creator with the same capabilities, and the same consciousness of responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause, by every righteous means; and especially in regard to the great subjects of morals and religion, it is self-evidently her right to participate with her brother in teaching them, both in private and in public, by writing and by speaking, by any instrumentalities proper to be used, and in any assemblies proper to be held; and this being a self-evident truth, growing out of the divinely implanted principles of human nature, and custom or authority adverse to it, whether modern or wearing the hoary sanction of antiquity, is to be regarded as self-evident falsehood, and at war with the interests of mankind.

39 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Woman s Rights (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #5) Source #2: Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments (1848) When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course. We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled. The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men - both natives and foreigners. Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides. He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns. He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes, with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to

40 promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master - the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement. He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes of divorce; in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women - the law, in all cases, going upon the false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands. After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it. He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction, which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known. He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education - all colleges being closed against her. He allows her in Church as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church. He has created a false public sentiment, by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated but deemed of little account in man. He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and her God. He has endeavored, in every way that he could to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life. Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation, - in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States. In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions, embracing every part of the country. Firmly relying upon the final triumph of the Right and the True, we do this day affix our signatures to this declaration.

41 Teaching American History (TAH): Understanding Freedom Primary Source Activity (PSA) Freedom, Equality, Justice, and the Social Contract Woman s Rights (Pre-1865 Extension Activity #5) Source #3: Roll of Honor containing all the signatures to the Declaration of Sentiments (1908)