Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-65 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Think of a time you got lost, or almost missed a bus. Write two sentences about it as you would tell it: 'I...'. Then write two sentences a classmate might write about the same moment for the school newsletter: 'She...' or 'He...'. What could you say that the classmate could not?"

   Take a few pairs of answers. Students usually notice that only the person who lived the moment can say what he or she felt and thought ("my heart was pounding"), while the classmate has to guess or ask, and may add a judgment the person would not make ("She stayed calm, like always"). Tell students that these are the two kinds of true stories they will compare today: a memoir, told by the person who lived the events, usually in the first person ("I"), and a biography, told by someone else, in the third person ("he" or "she"). A memoir that covers a whole life is also called an autobiography.

2. Direct Instruction15 minutes

   Teach the terms and leave them on the board:

   • Compare: tell how two things are alike. Contrast: tell how they are different.
   • Presentation of events: how an author tells what happened. Look at four things: what is included or left out, point of view (whose eyes we see through), word choice, and judgments (what the author thinks the events mean or what they show about the person).
   • A fact can be checked (a date, a place, what someone did). A judgment is the author's opinion or guess, such as "he was brave."

   Background. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland around 1818. As a young man he was sent to work in the shipyards of Baltimore as a calker (a worker who seals the seams of wooden ships). On September 3, 1838, he escaped north by train and boat. He became a famous speaker, writer and newspaper editor against slavery. Free Black people in Maryland had to carry free papers, official papers that described them and proved they were free; a Black traveler without papers could be arrested. In his first book (1845), Douglass would not say how he escaped, because telling could hurt the people who helped him and close the route to others. Once slavery had ended, he told the story in Life and Times (Source 1). Booker T. Washington, who was born into slavery in Virginia in 1856 and later led Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, wrote a biography of Douglass that appeared in 1907, twelve years after Douglass died (Source 2).

   Words to know: sailor's protection (a paper that described a sailor and said he was a free American); address (here, an old meaning: skill and cleverness in dealing with people); hackman (the driver of a carriage for hire); scrutiny (a close, careful look). Read Source 1 aloud while students follow, then Source 2. Say out loud each time you notice that the two authors tell the same thing, or tell it differently.

   1I should perhaps have yielded to that feeling sooner, had there been anything very heroic or thrilling in the incidents connected with my escape, for I am sorry to say I have nothing of that sort to tell; and yet the courage that could risk betrayal and the bravery which was ready to encounter death if need be, in pursuit of freedom, were essential features in the undertaking. My success was due to address rather than courage; to good luck rather than bravery. My means of escape were provided for me by the very men who were making laws to hold and bind me more securely in slavery.

   [...]

   2I was not so fortunate as to sufficiently resemble any of my free acquaintances as to answer the description of their papers. But I had one friend--a sailor--who owned a sailor’s protection, which answered somewhat the purpose of free papers--describing his person, and certifying to the fact that he was a free American sailor. The instrument had at its head the American eagle, which gave it the appearance at once of an authorized document. This protection did not, when in my hands, describe its bearer very accurately. Indeed, it called for a man much darker than myself, and close examination of it would have caused my arrest at the start. In order to avoid this fatal scrutiny on the part of the railroad official, I had arranged with Isaac Rolls, a hackman, to bring my baggage to the train just on the moment of its starting, and jumped upon the car myself when the train was already in motion. Had I gone into the station and offered to purchase a ticket, I should have been instantly and carefully examined, and undoubtedly arrested.

   1Douglass had not many friends among the free colored people in Baltimore who resembled him sufficiently to make it safe for him to use their papers. Fortunately, however, he had one who owned a “sailor’s protection,” a document describing the holder and certifying to the fact that he was a “free American sailor.” This “protection” did not describe its bearer very accurately. But, it called for a man very much darker than himself, and a close examination would have betrayed him at the start. In the face of all these conditions young Douglass was relying upon something beside a dubious written passport. This something was his desperate courage. He had learned to act the part of a freeman so well that no one suspected him of being a slave. He had early acquired the habit of studying human nature. As he grew to understand men, he no longer dreaded them. No one knew better than he the kind of human nature that he had to deal with in this perilous undertaking. He knew the speech, manner, and behavior that would excite suspicion; hence he avoided asking for a ticket at the railway station because this would subject him to examination. He so managed that just as the train started he jumped on, his bag being thrown after him by some one in waiting. He knew that scrutiny of him in a crowded car en route would be less exacting than at the station. He had borrowed a sailor’s shirt, tarpaulin, cap and black cravat, tied in true sailor fashion, and he acted the part of an “old salt” so perfectly that he excited no suspicion. When the conductor came to collect his fare and inspected his “free papers,” Douglass, in the most natural manner, said that he had none but promptly showed his “sailor’s protection,” which the railway official merely glanced at and passed on without further question. Twice on the trip he thought he was detected. Once when his car stood opposite a south-bound train, Douglass observed a well-known citizen of Baltimore who knew him well, sitting where he could see him distinctly. At another time, while still in Maryland, he was noticed by a man who had met him frequently at the ship-yards. In neither of these cases, however, was he interfered with or molested. When he got into the free state of Pennsylvania, he felt more joy than he dared express. He had by his cool temerity and address passed every sentinel undetected and no slave, to his knowledge, he afterward said, ever got away from bondage on so narrow a margin of safety.

   • Compare: the same fact in nearly the same words

     What do both authors say about the sailor's protection? Put a sentence from each side by side.

     Result: Both say the paper did not fit Douglass. Douglass: "This protection did not, when in my hands, describe its bearer very accurately" and "it called for a man much darker than myself" (Source 1, paragraph 2). Washington: "This 'protection' did not describe its bearer very accurately. But, it called for a man very much darker than himself." The wording is so close that Washington was almost certainly working from Douglass's own book. A biographer who was not there has to get his facts from somewhere.

   • Contrast: luck or courage?

     How does each author explain why the escape worked?

     Result: Douglass plays down his own bravery: "My success was due to address rather than courage; to good luck rather than bravery" (Source 1, paragraph 1). Washington says the opposite: Douglass "was relying upon something beside a dubious written passport. This something was his desperate courage." Same events, different explanation: the memoir is modest, and the biography presents Douglass as a hero.

   • Contrast: point of view

     Douglass writes "I had arranged with Isaac Rolls, a hackman, to bring my baggage to the train." How does Washington tell the same step?

     Result: In the third person, with the name gone: "He so managed that just as the train started he jumped on, his bag being thrown after him by some one in waiting." Douglass can name his helper and explain his own plan ("Had I gone into the station ... I should have been ... arrested"). Washington tells it from outside, and he adds claims about Douglass's mind that only a biographer would make, such as "He had early acquired the habit of studying human nature."

   • Where the biographer's facts come from

     Find the words in Source 2 that show Washington is passing on what Douglass himself said.

     Result: The last sentence: "no slave, to his knowledge, he afterward said, ever got away from bondage on so narrow a margin of safety." "He afterward said" tells the reader that this claim comes from Douglass. When a biography repeats what its subject said, it can repeat the subject's view, but it chooses which parts to keep.

   Teacher tip. Model the chart in Diagram 2 as you go: sort each detail into "only in the memoir," "in both" or "only in the biography," and write the source and paragraph next to it. Students will fill a blank copy of the same chart in Guided Practice.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs read Source 3, the next part of Douglass's story, and compare it with the middle of Source 2, from "He had borrowed a sailor's shirt" to "passed on without further question." Words to know: tarpaulin hat (a sailor's waterproof hat); cravat (a scarf tied at the neck); old salt (an experienced sailor); peremptory (bossy, expecting to be obeyed at once); Havre de Grace (a town in Maryland on the Susquehanna River). Each pair fills a blank copy of the Diagram 2 chart for the conductor scene. Circulate and hear from each pair at least once.

   1In my clothing I was rigged out in sailor style. I had on a red shirt and a tarpaulin hat and black cravat, tied in sailor fashion, carelessly and loosely about my neck. My knowledge of ships and sailor’s talk came much to my assistance, for I knew a ship from stem to stern, and from keelson to cross-trees, and could talk sailor like an “old salt.” On sped the train, and I was well on the way to Havre de Grace before the conductor came into the negro car to collect tickets and examine the papers of his black passengers. This was a critical moment in the drama. My whole future depended upon the decision of this conductor. Agitated I was while this ceremony was proceeding, but still externally, at least, I was apparently calm and self-possessed. He went on with his duty--examining several colored passengers before reaching me. He was somewhat harsh in tone, and peremptory in manner until he reached me, when, strangely enough, and to my surprise and relief, his whole manner changed. Seeing that I did not readily produce my free papers, as the other colored persons in the car had done, he said to me in a friendly contrast with that observed towards the others: “I suppose you have your free papers?” To which I answered: “No, sir; I never carry my free papers to sea with me.” “But you have something to show that you are a free man, have you not?” “Yes, sir,” I answered; “I have a paper with the American eagle on it, and that will carry me round the world.” With this I drew from my deep sailor’s pocket my seaman’s protection, as before described. The merest glance at the paper satisfied him, and he took my fare and went on about his business. This moment of time was one of the most anxious I ever experienced.

   1. Compare: what both include. Teacher note: both authors say Douglass dressed as a sailor, could pass for an "old salt," said he had no free papers, showed the sailor's protection, and that the conductor barely looked at it ("The merest glance at the paper satisfied him"; "merely glanced at").
   2. Contrast: feelings. Teacher note: Douglass tells what he felt inside: "Agitated I was ... but still externally, at least, I was apparently calm," and "This moment of time was one of the most anxious I ever experienced." Washington shows only the calm outside: Douglass spoke "in the most natural manner" and "excited no suspicion." Ask: which author could know about the agitation?
   3. Contrast: how much space. Teacher note: Douglass gives the conversation word for word and notices that the conductor, harsh with other passengers, was friendly to him, "strangely enough." Washington covers the scene in one sentence. A memoir can slow down on the moment its author remembers most; a biography of a whole life has to move on.
   4. Contrast: a detail that does not match. Teacher note: Washington says Douglass "had borrowed a sailor's shirt." Source 3 describes "a red shirt" but does not say it was borrowed. Ask pairs what a careful reader should do with a detail that appears in only one account: note it, and ask where the author could have learned it.

   Close with one question: which account would you use to learn how Douglass felt, and which to learn how others saw him? Pairs usually choose the memoir for feelings and notice that the biography's view of Douglass as calm and brave is Washington's judgment. Tell students that next they will compare two accounts on their own, with words to know but no teacher notes.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Each student reads Sources 4 and 5 alone. They tell what happened about two weeks after the escape, when Douglass and his new wife, Anna, reached New Bedford, Massachusetts, a whaling port where he hoped to work as a calker. They had come by steamboat to Newport, Rhode Island, and then by stage-coach, a horse-drawn coach for hire, without enough money for the fare. Words to know: fortnight (two weeks); mine host (an old way of saying "my host"); domicile (home); Lady of the Lake (a long poem by the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, published in 1810; one of its heroes is a Scottish lord named Douglas); fibre (here, a person's inner character). Students mark facts found in both sources in one color and details found in only one source in the other. Quiz questions 1-11 and 14-20 use these two sources.

   1When, however, we reached New Bedford he took our baggage, including three music books,--two of them collections by Dyer, and one by Shaw,--and held them until I was able to redeem them by paying to him the sums due for our rides. This was soon done, for Mr. Nathan Johnson not only received me kindly, and hospitably, but, on being informed about our baggage, at once loaned me the two dollars with which to square accounts with the stage-driver. [...]

   2Thus, in a fortnight after my flight from Maryland, I was safe in New Bedford,--a citizen of the grand old commonwealth of Massachusetts.

   3Once initiated into my new life of freedom, and assured by Mr. Johnson that I need not fear recapture in that city, a comparatively unimportant question arose, as to the name by which I should be known thereafter, in my new relation as a free man. The name given me by my dear mother was no less pretentious and long than Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. I had, however, while living in Maryland disposed of the Augustus Washington, and retained only Frederick Bailey. Between Baltimore and New Bedford, the better to conceal myself from the slave-hunters, I had parted with Bailey and called myself Johnson; but finding that in New Bedford the Johnson family was already so numerous as to cause some confusion in distinguishing one from another, a change in this name seemed desirable. Nathan Johnson, mine host, was emphatic as to this necessity, and wished me to allow him to select a name for me. I consented, and he called me by my present name,--the one by which I have been known for three and forty years,--Frederick Douglass. Mr. Johnson had just been reading the “Lady of the Lake,” and so pleased was he with its great character that he wished me to bear his name. Since reading that charming poem myself, I have often thought that, considering the noble hospitality and manly character of Nathan Johnson, black man though he was, he, far more than I, illustrated the virtues of the Douglas of Scotland. Sure am I that if any slave-catcher had entered his domicile with a view to my recapture, Johnson would have been like him of the “stalwart hand.”

   1His newly discovered friends decided it was best for him not to stay longer in New York, and that New Bedford, Mass., was a much safer place. There he could work at his trade without danger of re-capture. He cheerfully started on his journey, though he had not enough money to pay his way. The stage-driver, plying between Newport and New Bedford, held a part of his baggage as security for his unpaid passage and when he and his wife arrived at their destination they had nothing to live on except faith. In this New England town everything was strange to Douglass, but he was not long in finding a friend, a colored man named Nathan Johnson. The latter, the first important acquaintance the refugee made among Northern colored people, had a good home, good standing in the community, and more than ordinary intelligence. He very soon discovered that Frederick Douglass was a man of superior fibre and became his firm friend.

   2Johnson’s house was well furnished with books and music, and bore other evidences of good taste and a cultivated mind. He was in a position to render just that kind of help which the young fugitive and his new wife needed at this time. He at once redeemed the baggage held by the stage-driver, and gave Douglass needed directions and advice as to how to get work and to establish himself.

   3Nathan Johnson had the further distinction of being the man who gave to the Maryland slave the name he ever afterward bore. Douglass left the South as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. His new-found friend had just been reading Scott’s Lady of the Lake, and persuaded the young man that Douglas was a name of poetic and historical significance; he was sure it would be further glorified by its new owner. With so auspicious a beginning, the refugee started out bravely to seek work and make a living for himself and his wife.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Write one way Sources 4 and 5 are alike, with a quotation from each. (2) Write one way they differ, and explain why a memoir and a biography might differ in that way.

   Teacher note on the language and the history. The passages are quoted exactly as published. They use words of their time: "colored" and "Negro," which were the usual terms then and are not used today, and "the negro car" (Source 3), a separate railroad car for Black passengers. When Douglass writes that Nathan Johnson showed noble character, "black man though he was" (Source 4), he is answering the prejudice of his own readers, many of whom doubted that a Black man could be a hero, not agreeing with it. The sources describe slavery, slave-catchers and the danger of being sent back; prepare students for that and give them room to ask questions. No words are removed for offensive language; the cuts marked [...] only shorten the passages.

   Teacher note on the biography. Washington did not write Frederick Douglass alone. In its preface he thanks S. Laing Williams, a Chicago lawyer who had known Douglass for many years, and his wife, Fannie Barrier Williams, for their "incalculable service" in preparing the book, and historians such as John Hope Franklin note that it has been attributed largely to Williams. Busy public figures often had such help. The book appeared under Washington's name, and this lesson calls him its author. Either way, the biographer was not present at the escape.

   For homework: students compare Sources 6 and 7, the two accounts of Douglass's first days in New York, on September 4, 1838, and the days after. Words to know: succor (help); destitution (having nothing, not even food or shelter); vigilance committee (a group that hid people escaping slavery and helped them move on); "The Tombs" (a New York prison); oblivious (unaware).

   1My free life began on the third of September, 1838. On the morning of the 4th of that month, after an anxious and most perilous but safe journey, I found myself in the big city of New York, a free man; one more added to the mighty throng which like the confused waves of the troubled sea, surged to and fro between the lofty walls of Broadway. Though dazzled with the wonders which met me on every hand, my thoughts could not be much withdrawn from my strange situation. For the moment the dreams of my youth, and the hopes of my manhood, were completely fulfilled. The bonds that had held me to “old master” were broken. No man now had a right to call me his slave or assert mastery over me. I was in the rough and tumble of an outdoor world, to take my chance with the rest of its busy number.

   [...]

   2But my gladness was short lived, for I was not yet out of the reach and power of the slaveholders. I soon found that New York was not quite so free, or so safe a refuge as I had supposed, and a sense of loneliness and insecurity again oppressed me most sadly. [...] Every door seemed closed against me. I was in the midst of an ocean of my fellowmen, and yet a perfect stranger to every one. I was without home, without acquaintance, without money, without credit, without work, and without any definite knowledge as to what course to take, or where to look for succor.

   [...]

   3I kept my secret to myself as long as I could, but was compelled at last to seek some one who should befriend me, without taking advantage of my destitution to betray me. Such an one I found in a sailor named Stuart, a warm-hearted and generous fellow, who from his humble home on Centre street, saw me standing on the opposite sidewalk, near “The Tombs.” As he approached me I ventured a remark to him which at once enlisted his interest in me. He took me to his home to spend the night, and in the morning went with me to Mr. David Ruggles, the secretary of the New York vigilance committee, a co-worker with Isaac T. Hopper, Lewis and Arthur Tappan, Theodore S. Wright, Samuel Cornish, Thomas Downing, Phillip A. Bell and other true men of their time. [...] Once in the hands of these brave and wise men, I felt comparatively safe.

   1After reaching Philadelphia, he hurried on to New York. It took him just twenty-four hours to make the run from the slave city of Baltimore to the free city of New York. Measured by his intense anxiety, the distance and time must have seemed without end. For fifteen years he had been patiently planning to get his feet upon free soil and breathe the air of a free state. No one ever did more to free himself or to deserve the liberty into which he was now about to enter. He came to New York, his pulses throbbing with high hopes. He soon learned, however, that his stay there was not safe and that the slave-traders plied their vocation even in the free-states.

   2Douglass’s instinct for right action seldom failed him. Although he was totally ignorant of New York and its people, and had never heard of a “Vigilance Committee,” he had managed, in a few days after his arrival, to put himself under the protection and guidance of such influential friends of the Negro race as Lewis and Arthur Tappan, Thomas Downing, and Theodore Wright, who were at that time high officials in that extensive Underground Railway system which had already safely carried thousands of passengers from bondage to freedom.

   3He retained a keen remembrance of his former experiences in Baltimore and was conscious of a sense of protection in his Abolition friends; yet at the age of twenty-one years, in this new environment of freedom, he was in many respects as ignorant as a child. To what was north, or east, or west of New York, he was entirely oblivious neither did he know the kind and the condition of the people among whom he was to live and work out his destiny. Where to go, what to do, and how to use his freedom, were questions he could ask, but could not answer. It was enough, now, just to know that he was free. What was to be his relationship to these non-slave-holding people was yet to be discovered.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which statement is true of both Source 4 and Source 5?

   AThe stage-driver kept some of the baggage, and Nathan Johnson helped get it back BTwo Quaker gentlemen paid the whole fare so that Douglass could ride the stage-coach CDouglass chose his new name himself from a poem that he had read as a child DNathan Johnson told Douglass to leave New Bedford at once because it was unsafe

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   How do Sources 4 and 5 differ about paying for the baggage?

   ADouglass says he never got the baggage back; Washington says Johnson carried it to his house himself BDouglass says Johnson lent him two dollars to pay the driver; Washington says Johnson redeemed the baggage CDouglass says the driver let them ride for free; Washington says the driver kept the whole of their baggage DDouglass says his wife paid the driver; Washington says Douglass paid with money that he had saved in Baltimore

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which pair of phrases shows that Source 4 is a memoir and Source 5 is a biography?

   A"a colored man named Nathan Johnson" and "the grand old commonwealth of Massachusetts" B"the Lady of the Lake" and "Scott's Lady of the Lake" C"Nathan Johnson, mine host" and "the young fugitive and his new wife" D"three music books" and "books and music"

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Washington writes, "Douglass left the South as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey" (Source 5, paragraph 3). How does Source 4 present this differently?

   ADouglass says the name Bailey was given to him by Nathan Johnson on the first night he spent in New Bedford BDouglass says he had never used the name Bailey at all, because his mother named him Frederick Johnson CDouglass agrees exactly, and he adds that he kept the whole name until he reached New York City DDouglass says he had dropped "Augustus Washington" in Maryland and called himself Johnson on the way north

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 4, why was a new name needed in New Bedford?

   AThere were so many Johnsons in New Bedford that it caused confusion BSlave-catchers in New Bedford already knew the name Frederick Bailey CNathan Johnson did not want a guest who had the same name as his own DThe name Bailey was too long to write on the papers needed for work

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source 4 says Johnson "wished me to allow him to select a name for me. I consented." Source 5 says Johnson "persuaded the young man." What does the word "persuaded" add?

   AIt shows that Douglass chose the name first and Johnson only agreed to it later BIt suggests that Douglass had to be talked into the name, which Douglass does not say CIt proves that Washington was in the room when the name was chosen that day DIt shows that Johnson wanted Douglass to keep the name Johnson after all

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Both sources say Johnson "had just been reading" the Lady of the Lake. What does this matching wording suggest?

   AJohnson told the story to both writers in the same words on the same day BDouglass copied the wording from Washington's biography of him CWashington probably used Douglass's own book as a source for this part DBoth writers were quoting a newspaper story printed in New Bedford

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which sentence from Source 5 gives Washington's judgment of Douglass, not a fact that could be checked?

   A"The stage-driver, plying between Newport and New Bedford, held a part of his baggage as security for his unpaid passage." B"His newly discovered friends decided it was best for him not to stay longer in New York." C"Douglass left the South as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey." D"He very soon discovered that Frederick Douglass was a man of superior fibre and became his firm friend."

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which detail about the baggage appears only in Douglass's account?

   AThat the baggage included three music books BThat the stage-driver held on to the baggage CThat Nathan Johnson helped get the baggage back DThat the stage-coach fare had not been paid

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    On which point do the two sources agree about New Bedford?

    ADouglass would earn more there than he had in Baltimore BDouglass could live there without much fear of recapture CNathan Johnson owned the ship-yard where Douglass would work DDouglass planned to stay there only for a fortnight

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Source 4 tells the name story in a paragraph of more than 250 words; Source 5 tells it in fewer than 100. Which is the best explanation?

    AWashington did not know the story, so he made up a shorter version BA biography of a whole life summarizes events that a memoir writer can tell in full CDouglass wanted his readers to think the name was more important than his escape DWashington thought that Nathan Johnson was not worth mentioning in a biography

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which pair of texts is an example of what RI.6.9 names in its official example?

    ATwo newspaper reports by different reporters about the same storm BA novel about a runaway ship and a poem about the sea CA memoir by Frederick Douglass and a biography of Frederick Douglass DTwo biographies of two different presidents by the same author

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A student wants to compare how two authors present the same event. Which question would help most?

    AWhich author wrote more books during his whole life, and which was more famous? BWhich author was born first, and in which state was each one born? CWhich of the two books has more pages, and which one has pictures? DWhat does each author include, leave out and judge?

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    How do both authors present Nathan Johnson?

    ABoth admire him: Douglass for his hospitality and courage, Washington for his home, standing and intelligence BBoth admire him, but only for the money he gave Douglass, which each author says was a great deal CDouglass admires him, but Washington describes him as a stranger who did very little for Douglass DWashington admires him, but Douglass says Johnson made the name choice harder than it needed to be

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Compare and contrast how Sources 4 and 5 present the choice of Douglass's new name. Give one similarity and one difference, each with a quotation from both sources.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Washington says that when Douglass and his wife reached New Bedford "they had nothing to live on except faith" (Source 5, paragraph 1). Is this a fact or the biographer's interpretation? Use Source 4 in your answer.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Washington writes that Johnson "was sure it would be further glorified by its new owner" (Source 5, paragraph 3). Douglass writes that Johnson, "far more than I, illustrated the virtues of the Douglas of Scotland" (Source 4, paragraph 3). Explain what each author's words show about how he wants readers to see Douglass.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Find a sentence in Source 4, paragraph 3, that only Douglass could have written, because it tells his own later thoughts. Explain why a biographer could not write it without a source.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Washington says Douglass "cheerfully started on his journey" (Source 5, paragraph 1) and "started out bravely" (paragraph 3). Find words in Source 4 that show Douglass's own feeling on reaching New Bedford, and explain whether the two authors present his mood in the same way.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    If you wanted to know (a) exactly what happened with the baggage and (b) how Douglass's character looked to people who admired him, which source would you use for each? Explain your choices.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RI.6.9: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.