Excerpt 1
"We are here, and here we must remain. The attempt to transport us to other lands is a cruel conspiracy against our rights and our humanity. Our labor has cleared the forests and cultivated the fields of this continent, and we are determined to claim our rightful inheritance as citizens of the United States."
—Frederick Douglass, address to the National Convention of Colored People, 1853
Excerpt 2
"To refuse to emigrate to a land of freedom simply because our ancestors cleared the fields of our oppressors is to prioritize sentiment over liberty. Under the shadow of the Fugitive Slave Act, the colored man in the Republic is stripped of all protection. In Canada, we are recognized as men and citizens under the law, free to build our own communities and exercise our political rights."
—Mary Ann Shadd Cary, *A Plea for Emigration; or, Notes of Canada West*, 1852
Based on these excerpts, which of the following best analyzes the core debate between the two authors regarding Black self-determination in the mid-nineteenth century?
- AThe first author believes that the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made the North a permanent haven for free Black people, whereas the second author asserts that the law required all abolitionist activity to relocate to the Caribbean.
- The first author defines citizenship as a claim earned through generations of Black labor and residency within the United States, whereas the second author views true citizenship as an immediate legal status that must be secured by leaving the country due to systemic oppression.Cevap
- CThe first author supports the efforts of the American Colonization Society to return free Black people to Liberia, while the second author argues for immediate integration into Southern agricultural labor systems.
- DThe first author advocates for a slow, gradual approach to civil rights through economic self-reliance, while the second author supports immediate mass emigration to West Africa as the only solution to racial inequality.