Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
4.21.3 Reading and Review Questions
1. In “Resistance to Civil Government,” why does Thoreau believe
government should function not through majority rule but through
individual conscience? How do his thoughts related to those of Adams
and Hamilton? Why?
2. How do Thoreau’s arguments in “Resistance to Civil Government” relate
to his views on the whole of man in Waldon? How do Emerson’s views
on self-reliance relate to Thoreau’s here?
3. In “Economy,” what are Thoreau’s reasons for advocating the economic
use of one’s time and energy? For what purpose? How does simplicity
correct the “enslaving” eects of complex economy, according to Thoreau?
4. What about ourselves and our lives does Thoreau want to make his
readers aware of, for example, through simplicity and deliberateness?
Consider “Where I Lived.”
5. In Walden, why does the cycle of the year end in Spring? How do you
know?
4.22 FREDERICK DOUGLASS
(1818–1895)
A human rights activist, Frederick
Douglass encountered nineteenthcentury
dichotomies that dened him
as ‘other’ both in himself and his work.
The dominant white hegemony into
which Frederick Augustus Washington
Bailey was born enslaved him because
he was the black son of a black slave,
though his father was probably her white
master. The dominant white hegemony
prospered in a land founded ostensibly
on the principles of equality and freedom
for all, but which in practice refused
to accept the American populous as it
then already was: multiracial. Douglass
worked throughout his life to bring
Image 4.20 | Frederick Douglass
these principles of equality and freedom Photographer | Unknown
Source | Wikimedia Commons
to all men and women in America.
License | Public Domain
Born a slave to Aaron Anthony (c.
1766–1826) at Holme Hill Farm in Talbot County, Maryland, Frederick Douglass
was left to the care of his grandmother, Betsey Bailey, who was given the charge of
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