Question

How does Douglass’s allusion to the biblical story of the sons of ham affect his memoir

A) it provides a means for proving that slavery was a just institution because it was directed by god.


B) it serves to point out that basing the justification of slavery on the story of ham is unsound.

C) it demonstrates that slavery harms both slaves and slave holders.

D) it condemns the enslavement of biracial people.

Answer 1

B.

Step-by-step explanation:

'The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass' is a memoir of Frederick Douglass. The memoir narrates the time when Douglass was in slavery, and how, now, Douglass interprets it.

Douglass used an allusion of a biblical story in which Noah curses his son Ham, who saw him naked and made fun of his drunken state. During the slavery period, the whites used this biblical reference to justify their slavery. The allusion, by Douglass, is used to signal that justifying slavery based on this biblical story is unsound. He is showing that how whites used to hide behind this scriptures their evil and corruptive works.

Thus option B is correct.

Answer 2

B) It serves to point out that basing the justification of slavery on the story of Ham is unsound.

Step-by-step explanation:

Frederick Douglass's memoir "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" contains the slave days and younger days of the author and progresses to his own education and eventual freedom from being a slave. The memoir served and continues to serve as one of the greatest proofs of life writings by a former slave.

In the very first chapter of the memoir, Douglass mentioned how "God cursed Ham and therefore American slavery is right". But, he counters this point by stating that "If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural; for thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who, like myself, owe their existence to white fathers, and those fathers most frequently their own masters."

This allusion to the biblical story of how God cursed the sons of Ham to be "the lowest of slaves" (Genesis 9:24) among his brothers serves as a means to bring out the point that justifying slavery based on this biblical story is unsound and even maybe untrue.

Thus, the correct answer is option B.g