Question

"What, To a Slave, is the Fourth of July?"
by Frederick Douglass

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.



What, to a Slave, is the Fourth of July?



"JFK Inaugural Speech"
by John F. Kennedy

"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves not distributed generally over the union but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease.



President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address (1961)

Question
Use the passages from Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln to answer the question.

How does the use of tone and point of view differ in the passages?

(1 point)
Responses

Douglass uses a righteous tone to speak from the point of view of an enslaved person, while Lincoln employs a neutral tone to speak about slavery from a detached perspective.
Douglass uses a righteous tone to speak from the point of view of an enslaved person, while Lincoln employs a neutral tone to speak about slavery from a detached perspective.

Douglass uses a fiery tone to speak from the point of view of an outside observer, while Lincoln employs an impartial tone to speak about slavery from a first-hand perspective.
Douglass uses a fiery tone to speak from the point of view of an outside observer, while Lincoln employs an impartial tone to speak about slavery from a first-hand perspective.

Douglass uses a humorous tone to speak from the point of view of a white American, while Lincoln employs an angry tone to speak about slavery from a moral perspective.
Douglass uses a humorous tone to speak from the point of view of a white American, while Lincoln employs an angry tone to speak about slavery from a moral perspective.

Douglass uses an impartial tone to speak from the point of view of an enslaved person, while Lincoln employs an authoritative tone to speak about slavery from the point of view of an enslaved person.
Douglass uses an impartial tone to speak from the point of view of an enslaved person, while Lincoln employs an authoritative tone to speak about slavery from the point of view of an enslaved person.

Answer 1

The correct response is:

**Douglass uses a righteous tone to speak from the point of view of an enslaved person, while Lincoln employs a neutral tone to speak about slavery from a detached perspective.**

In Frederick Douglass's passage, the tone is passionate and filled with righteous indignation, reflecting the deep injustices faced by slaves. He speaks from the perspective of an enslaved person, emphasizing the hypocrisy of celebrating freedom while perpetuating slavery.

In contrast, Lincoln's tone is more neutral and detached, as he discusses the context of slavery in America. His perspective is more analytical and historical, focusing on its implications for the nation rather than expressing the emotional weight of the enslaved experience directly.