Slavery and Racisim essays

Slavery and Racisim essays No issue, of course, raises deeper questions about the founders' commitment to liberty and self-government than slavery. Critics of the Founding Fathers ask how can we take seriously anything said by Jefferson, Madison, and their contemporaries on the subject of liberty and democracy when these men and many of their countrymen were denying liberty and self-government to some hundreds of thousands of black Americans. Common today is the view that "the founders excluded the Negroes from the rights of man' expressed in the Declaration of Independence and sanctioned slavery and Negro inferiority in the Constitution" (chapter 6). As Storing shows, this critique embraces both the radical Abolitionists' view that the Constitution was a "compact with the devil" and the view of mid-nineteenth century slavery defenders, who held that the principle of human equality in the Declaration of Independence was a "self-evident lie." Yet these interpretations of the founders' approach to slavery were rejected by no less a person than Frederick Douglass, former slave and the most prominent and gifted black orator and spokesman during the decades surrounding the Civil War. Storing's close analysis of the constitutional provisions related to slavery is a masterful defense of Douglass's view (chapter 7)one also shared by Abraham Lincoln and other leaders of the Republican Party, but now all but forgotten and therefore little taught. The Civil War ended slavery in the United States, but in so doing it precipitated a challenge of perhaps equal difficulty: bringing the two races together onto a plane of social and political equality. Storing shows that leading American statesmen such as Jefferson and Lincoln had entertained grave doubts as to whether white prejudice and black resentment for past wrongs would allow the creation of a peaceful biracial democratic society. He speculates that a thoughtful Founding Father reviewing present-day circumstance ...

Seduce, Seduction and Seductive

Seduce, Seduction and Seductive Seduce, Seduction and Seductive Seduce, Seduction and Seductive By Maeve Maddox Wording in an astrological meme I saw on Facebook prompted this post: People born under the sign of Cancer are very observing. They are very seducing and captivating. I thought it odd to use seducing and not seductive in this context. (I was also bothered by the use of observing instead of observant, but that’s another post.) Seduce The most common meaning of seduce in modern usage is probably this one: seduce: To induce a woman to surrender her chastity. In the 16th century, the meaning of seduce was â€Å"to persuade a vassal or soldier or other sworn follower to desert his allegiance or service.† The sexual meaning came along in the 18th century. Seduce is used in a non-sexual sense to mean â€Å"to tempt† or â€Å"to lead astray†: Those brightly coloured palettes  of lipsticks are put at the front of  displays to seduce you into  buying  more.   People are seduced into evil by dehumanizing and labeling others. The principal parts of the verb are seduce, seduced, (have) seduced. The present participle form seducing is used as a verb or a gerund: The earl’s footman was seducing the kitchen maid. (verb used to form the past continuous tense) Don Juan had a reputation for seducing women. (gerund, object of a preposition) Seductive Although seducing was occasionally used as if it were cognate with French seduisant (â€Å"alluring, very attractive†), that meaning in English is conveyed by the adjective seductive. For example, â€Å"Sophia Loren is one of the most beautiful and seductive women in the world.† Like the verb seduce, the adjective seductive is not limited to a sexual connotation. Anything that evokes a strong emotional attraction can be said to be seductive: Tips for Creating a  Seductive  Email  Campaign Cameron’s ‘them and us’ message is a seductive one The seductive appeal of cultural stereotypes The disenfranchised  elements of society are highly vulnerable to the  seductive appeal  of intolerant belief systems. Seducing Used as a qualifier, the participle seducing means, â€Å"tempting to evil† or â€Å"corrupting†: Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.- 1 Timothy 4:1. Freud notes that the abrogation by nations of their moral ties has a seducing influence on the morality of individuals. When I did a web search for the phrase â€Å"very seducing,† I found it predominantly in descriptions of sexually explicit videos. I suppose the purveyors of prurient videos think â€Å"seducing† means sexy, unaware that they’ve stumbled upon a more apt description of their wares. Bottom line: seductive (adjective): sexy, tempting. seducing (adjective): tempting to evil, corrupting. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Homograph ExamplesPeace of Mind and A Piece of One's MindWhat is an Anagram?