Arguments Against Slavery Directions: Use the two excerpts on this page to answer the questions that follow. To deliver their messages, most abolitionists relied on either publishing antislavery literature or giving lectures. Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852. In this passage from the book, slave master Simon Legree reacts to slave Tom's refusal to beat a fellow slave. Legree shook with anger; his greenish eyes glared fiercely. "Here you rascal, you make believe to be so pious-didn't you never hear out of yer Bible: Servants, obey yer masters? Ain't I yer master? Didn't I pay down $1,200 cash for all there is inside your cussed black shell? Ain't you mine, now, body and soul?" he said, giving Tom a violent kick with his heavy boot. "Tell me!" In the very deep of... suffering... this question shot a gleam of joy and triumph through Tom's soul. He suddenly stretched himself up and, looking to heaven while tears and blood that flowed down his face mingled, he exclaimed, "No, no! no! My soul ain't yours.... You can't harm me...." "I can't," said Legree, with a sneer. "We'll see.. we'll see." Frederick Douglass, a former slave, once spoke in Rochester, New York, at a Fourth of July celebration. Douglass's strong speaking style made him an especially effective abolitionist. Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I or those I rep- resent to do with your national independence? ... What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebra- tion is a sham... your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your ser- mons and thanksgivings... deception ... and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of more shocking and bloody acts than are the people of the United States at this very hour. Interpreting Information 1. Describe Simon Legree. Why might Uncle Tom's Cabin be considered propaganda? ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY Chapter 13, Section 1 2. What did Frederick Douglass mean when he called the Fourth of July a "sham"? DANIE Discovering the Relationship Between Parts 3. What do Harriet Beecher Stowe's characters do that encourages readers to form a low opinion of Legree and a high opinion of Tom? Raising Significant Questions 4. Imagine that you are a newspaper reporter. What questions would you ask Frederick Douglass? Harriet Beecher Stowe? Comparing and Contrasting 5. What do the two excerpts have in common? In what ways are they different? 6. What reactions to Douglass and Stowe might be common in the North? in the South?

Arguments Against Slavery Directions: Use the two excerpts on this page to answer the questions that follow. To deliver their messages, most abolitionists relied on either publishing antislavery literature or giving lectures. Uncle Tom's Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852. In this passage from the book, slave master Simon Legree reacts to slave Tom's refusal to beat a fellow slave. Legree shook with anger; his greenish eyes glared fiercely. "Here you rascal, you make believe to be so pious-didn't you never hear out of yer Bible: Servants, obey yer masters? Ain't I yer master? Didn't I pay down $1,200 cash for all there is inside your cussed black shell? Ain't you mine, now, body and soul?" he said, giving Tom a violent kick with his heavy boot. "Tell me!" In the very deep of... suffering... this question shot a gleam of joy and triumph through Tom's soul. He suddenly stretched himself up and, looking to heaven while tears and blood that flowed down his face mingled, he exclaimed, "No, no! no! My soul ain't yours.... You can't harm me...." "I can't," said Legree, with a sneer. "We'll see.. we'll see." Frederick Douglass, a former slave, once spoke in Rochester, New York, at a Fourth of July celebration. Douglass's strong speaking style made him an especially effective abolitionist. Pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I or those I rep- resent to do with your national independence? ... What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebra- tion is a sham... your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your ser- mons and thanksgivings... deception ... and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of more shocking and bloody acts than are the people of the United States at this very hour. Interpreting Information 1. Describe Simon Legree. Why might Uncle Tom's Cabin be considered propaganda? ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY Chapter 13, Section 1 2. What did Frederick Douglass mean when he called the Fourth of July a "sham"? DANIE Discovering the Relationship Between Parts 3. What do Harriet Beecher Stowe's characters do that encourages readers to form a low opinion of Legree and a high opinion of Tom? Raising Significant Questions 4. Imagine that you are a newspaper reporter. What questions would you ask Frederick Douglass? Harriet Beecher Stowe? Comparing and Contrasting 5. What do the two excerpts have in common? In what ways are they different? 6. What reactions to Douglass and Stowe might be common in the North? in the South?