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AP U.S. History Exam 2.24 168 Views
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AP U.S. History Exam 2.24. The goal of the author in writing the excerpt was to...what?
Transcript
- 00:00
[ musical flourish ]
- 00:03
And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by cannibals,
- 00:07
people with a refined taste for, uh, canned goods.
- 00:12
[ sigh ]
- 00:13
All right, here's the excerpt.
Full Transcript
- 00:14
[ mumbles ]
- 00:18
[ mumbling continues ]
- 00:23
Okay, and the question:
- 00:24
The goal of the author in writing the excerpt was to... what?
- 00:28
And here are your potential answers.
- 00:30
[ mumbles ]
- 00:34
In the excerpt, Fitzhugh
- 00:36
argues that "the free laborer must be employed
- 00:39
or starve, yet no one is obliged to employ him.
- 00:43
The slave is taken care of,
- 00:46
whether employed or not."
- 00:47
All right, well, it seems like slaves wouldn't consider living under
- 00:50
the thumb of a violent master as being taken care of.
- 00:55
But let's see which answer best captures
- 00:58
Fitzhugh's not-so-worthy goal.
- 01:01
Was Fitzhugh's main intention in the excerpt to A -
- 01:05
criticize the use of free labor?
- 01:07
Well, while Fitzhugh does paint slavery as superior
- 01:10
to free labor, criticizing the North's economic system
- 01:13
doesn't seem to be the primary goal of the excerpt.
- 01:16
So A's out.
- 01:19
Is the main focus of the excerpt to C -
- 01:22
encourage the abolition of the slave trade?
- 01:24
Well, slavery was the dominant force in the Southern economy
- 01:27
and Fitzhugh certainly wouldn't advocate for its eradication.
- 01:30
So that gets rid of C.
- 01:32
Could Fitzhugh's primary goal have been to D -
- 01:34
highlight the difference between races?
- 01:37
Well, while some essayists employed
- 01:39
racial stereotypes to justify the institution of slavery,
- 01:43
this strategy wasn't used in this particular piece.
- 01:46
Which means the main goal of the excerpt was to B -
- 01:49
defend the institution of slavery.
- 01:51
On the eve of the Civil War, many Southerners took up arms
- 01:54
by writing essays to defend the institution of slavery,
- 01:57
praising it as an economic necessity for the Southern way of life.
- 02:01
So B is the answer.
- 02:03
And with the nation on the brink of collapse, these authors
- 02:05
used their words as weapons, believing the
- 02:07
pen to be mightier than the, uh, rifled muskets.
- 02:15
[ sigh ]
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