Opinions and Judgements
Objectives:
E3.Students will articulate personal opinions to clarify stated positions, persuade or influence groups.
E3.Students will present reasons, examples, and details from text to defend opinions and judgments.
E4.Students will Speak informally with peers and in group settings
E4.Respect the age, gender, social position, and cultural traditions of peers
Background for understanding: Students would have read Chapters 11 to 15.
Aim: How can we present reasons, examples, and details from the text to defend opinions and judgments?
Do Now:(ties to the Critical Lens of ELA Regents) Read the following quote and state if you agree or disagree with the quote and why “To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.”
—Bernadette Devlin
The Price of My Soul, 1969
I agree with this quote if you want something really bad you will do whatever it takes to get it. It is worth the risk to lose what you have because in the end you will gain something more valuable.
Share out!
Cooperative Learning: Form groups of 3-4 and each group will be responsible for responding to one selected chapter in 15 minutes and present to class on chart paper. Groups must also cite sources and “direct quotes”. The audience will take notes on each presentation.
XI “The New Tie to Life”
Comprehension Check:
Linda’s first child was a boy, and his name was Benjamin. He was named after Linda's uncle Benjamin.
Interpret:
What is Dr. Flint suggesting to Linda when he said “he is a physician [who] could save [her] from exposure?”.
Flint is suggesting that he can give Linda an abortion so she won't have to carry out her whole pregnancy in shame.
Explain what Linda is inferring when she said “I did not feel as proud as I had done. My strongest weapon with him was gone”?
When Linda says this she means that she is no longer powerful because she lost her purity to Mr. Sands. Linda's purity was the only thing she held onto that couldn't be taken away. She had full control over Flint, but now its gone.
Linda made choices with deliberate calculation. How did her plan backfire?
Linda's plan backfired because Flint didn't sell her and her child to another owner.
Vocabulary:
Avowal- acknowledgment or admission
Obstinate- not easily controlled or overcome
Insolence- rude behavior or speech
Solace- to console; to soothe
XII “Fear of Insurrection”
Comprehension Check:
What historical insurrection is Brent referring to in this chapter? What is an insurrection?
Linda is referring to the insurrection of Nat Turner. An insurrection is a civil revolt or rebellion.
Analyze and Interpret:
In this chapter Linda points out that some whites can’t read. However, why were they looking for written correspondence among the slaves?
The whites were looking for written correspondence among the slaves because the letters could have a connection to the insurrection of Nat Turner.
Vocabulary:
Marauders- to raid and destroy and strip of its possession
Consternation- a sudden, alarming amazement or dread that results in utter confusion
XIII “The Church and Slavery”
Teacher will read the following excerpt from Graduate Thesis. Students will analyze and discuss.
How does Christianity masks some of slavery’s atrocities in Jacobs’ narrative?
Christianity masks slavery's atrocities because the slaveholders thought that it would be a good idea to give the slaves religious instruction. The slaveholders thought they were doing the slaves a favor by allowing them to fellowship together. Christianity is a religion that brings people together and this was the main reason the slaveholders wanted to force their religion on the slaves. Christianity was supposed to blindside the slaves and make them feel more hopeful, but the reality was that they were always going to be slaves.
Jacobs also exposes the Christian hypocrisy when Reverend Mr. Pike calls for “Servants, [to] be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in the singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. If you disobey your earthly master, you offend your heavenly Master” (70). Rather than denounce slavery, he enforces a dogma that obedience to white masters will lead to spiritual liberation. Slaves are therefore brainwashed believing there is a direct correlation between Christ and their white slave masters. Furthermore, they must be submissive to their masters. This hypocrisy is seen when a Northern clergyman visits a southern slave master’s home and is exposed to a dinner table “loaded with luxuries,” lush gardens, spiritual talks, and the “comfortable huts of the favored household slaves,” who [slaves] tell him that they do not want to be free for fear of their lives (76). He returns to the North publicizing that he has seen “slavery for himself; that it is a beautiful “patriarchal institution” and the terrible acts of slavery are exaggerations of abolitionists. However, Jacobs exposes slave masters’ totalitarianism and the ignorance and trickery of the clergyman stating: does he know of the half-starved wretches toiling from dawn till dark on the plantations? of mothers shrieking for their children, torn from their arms by slave traders? of young girls dragged down into moral filth? of pools of blood around the whipping post? of hounds trained to tear human flesh? of men screwed into cotton gins to die? (76).
Furthermore, Jacobs was “much surprised [when Dr. Flint, her oppressive slave master had joined the Episcopal church, and thought] that religion has a purifying effect on the character of men; but the worst persecutions [she] endured from him were after he was a communicant” (70, 77). Flint announces that he joined the church because he is aging and his social position in the community requires it. It would also end the gossip of his transgressions on his plantation.
Another well-known Christian hypocrisy is the forbidding of slaves from reading the Bible. Jacobs tells of Uncle Fred whom she taught to read the Bible in concealment because it was “contrary to the law; and that slaves were whipped and imprisoned for teaching each other to read” (74). Here, her audience are compelled to reflect on their own ethos and scruples about God’s laws and man made laws that prohibits the inferior slave like Uncle Fred (who only wanted to better serve God) from reading the Bible. She boldly attacks both institution of Church and Slavery and illustrates how they unite in the oppression of slaves: There are thousands, who, like good uncle Fred, are thirsting for the water of life; but the law forbids it, and the churches withhold it. They send the Bible to heathen abroad, and neglect the heathen at home. I am glad that missionaries go out to the dark corners of the earth; but I ask them not to overlook the dark corners at home. Talk to American slaveholders and you talk to savages in Africa. Tell them it is wrong to traffic men, [women and children]. Tell them it is sinful to sell their own children, and atrocious to violate their own daughters. Tell them that all men are brethren, and that man has no right to shut out the light of knowledge from his brother. Tell them they are answerable to God for sealing up the Fountain of Life from souls that are thirsting for it (75-76). Jacobs illustrates race superiority and moral contradictions in church teachings. Furthermore, slave masters; intentionally use them to deny slaves their freedom.
XIV “Another Link to Life”
Comprehension Check:
How old is Linda in this chapter?
Linda is nineteen years old.
What was Linda’s near death experience?
Dr. Flint threw Linda down the stairs.
Analyze and Interpret:
According to Linda Brent “the slave child shall follow the condition of the mother, not the father; thus taking care that licentiousness shall not interfere with avarice.” Explain.
Women and Children were treated and thought of as the same, even if the father was a free man the children had to stay with the mother. The children of slaves would be slaves for the rest of their lives if their freedom wasn't bought. This idea keeps the cycle going for the slaveholders to make more money. The more children a women has equals more profit for their masters.
What heinous act did Mr. Flint bestowed on Linda when he learned that she was pregnant with another child?
Flint cut all her hair off.
Why was Linda highly concerned that her second born was a girl?
Linda was concerned that her second born was a girl because she knows that her daughter is going to have to go through the same things she went through when she grows up. She was going to have "sufferings and mortifications of her own." (pg 85)
Literary analysis:
Identify device “he was like a restless spirit from the pit”.
simile
Linda refers to her daughter’s gift of the gold chain as an emblem. What literary device is this?
symbolism
Vocabulary:
Forbearance- refraining from something
Reprobate- a person rejected by God and beyond hope of salvation
Descanting- the highest part sung in part music
Lacerated- to tear roughly; to distress or torture mentally or emotionally
Vituperations- verbal abuse
Skeins- a length of thread or yarn wound in a loose long coil
Genealogies- a record or account of the ancestry and descent of a person
Emblem- a sign, design, or figure that identifies or represents something
XV “Continued Persecution”
Comprehension Check:
How much money was offered to Flint for the purchase of Linda?
Flint was offered $900 then $1200 for the purchase of Linda.
How is child abuse evident in this chapter?
Dr. Flint threw Ben across the room because he was trying to protect Linda.
"He caught him up and hurled him across the room. I thought he was dead, and rushed towards him to take him up. Not yet!" exclaimed the doctor. Let him lie there till he comes to." (pg 89)
How is Flint trying to domesticate Linda in this chapter?
Flint is trying to domesticate Linda by giving her rules to live by if she wants freedom for herself and her children.
"Linda, you desire freedom for yourself and your children, and you can obtain it only through me. If you agree to what I am about to propose, you and they shall be free. There must be no communication of any kind between you and their father. I will procure a cottage, where you and the children can live together. Your labor shall be light, such as sewing for my family. Think what is offered you, Linda--a home and freedom!" (pg 92)
One can say that the constant conflict between Linda and Flint is a power struggle. According to Linda, Dr. Flint loved money, but he loved power more.” Can we find/recall further support for this in the previous chapters?
"He was to begin with nine hundred dollars, and go up to twelve. My master refused his offers. "Sir," said he, "she don't belong to me. She is my daughter's property, and I have no right to sell her." (pg 88 of Continued Persecutions)
"...he told me that I was made for his use, made to obey his command in every thing; that I was nothing but a slave, whose will must and should surrender to his..." (pg 15 of The Slave who dared to feel like a Man)
"I understood his object in making this false representation. It was to show me that I gained nothing by seeking the protection of my mistress; that the power was still all in his own hands." (pg 35 of The Jealous Mistress)
Interpret:
According to Linda Brent “My master had power and law on his side; [and] I had a determined will—How is there might in each?
For Flint there is might because the white man is thought to always be right and is trusted more than a slave. For Linda there is might because she has an iron will for justice and will stand for what she believes is right no matter what anyone says.
Vocabulary:
Paramour- any lover especially of a married person
Indignant- expressing strong displeasure at something considered unjust, offensive, and insulting
Sanctioning-support or encouragement, as from public opinion or established custom
Compulsion- a strong, usually irresistible impulse to perform an act
Facetious- amusing; humorous
Jeers- to abuse vocally
Willfulness- unreasonably stubborn or headstrong