Question

I understand you were never a slave, but what connection do you have to these former slaves that makes you understand why they caused a slave uprising and created their own country? Think about your identity, your experience, the level of identity you are at to where they were at, the enlightened ideas you both share as important, etc.

a) I can relate to their struggle for freedom
b) My identity allows me to empathize with their experience
c) I have no personal connection to their situation
d) Enlightenment ideas are irrelevant to their actions

Answer 1

The contradiction between the ideals of freedom and the presence of slavery during the Revolutionary era showcases a profound societal hypocrisy. Enlightenment concepts of natural rights help understand the slave uprisings as an assertion of those intrinsic human rights.

Step-by-step explanation:

The discord between the founding ideals of freedom and the reality of slavery during the Revolutionary era in America was an abiding contradiction.

The struggle for independence by the colonists, which was rooted in the enlightenment idea of natural rights, was fundamentally incompatible with the existence of slavery. Despite this, enslaved African Americans themselves saw the revolutionary rhetoric as an opportunity to claim their own freedom and challenge the prevailing injustice. It's through examining my own identity and experience with the concept of human rights that I can sympathize with their aspiration for autonomy.

While no personal experience can truly parallel the severe conditions faced by slaves, understanding the importance of freedom and the stark hypocrisy in the colonists' demands versus their actions allows me to relate and empathize. The fact that enlightenment ideas about liberty and equality were extolled by the same population that enforced racial bondage reveals deep societal complexities and injustices of that time.