The Great Slavery Debate

Should slavery be abolished? Students at Constitution High School debate the advantages and disadvantages of abolishing slavery from an antebellum 19th century perspective. Having students focus on the social, economic, cultural, and to some extent political nature of this debate, helps students understand the context of America's "peculiar institution", roadblocks African Americans needed to overcome in order to abolish slavery, as well as frame the upcoming 10th grade American history course. The purpose of this blog is to create a forum in which students can self-reflect and continue the process of peer-to-peer evaluation as they debate in class.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Janiece v. George

It was the beginning of the day, the class was tired. These two debaters fired the group up and showed us what it would take to win. Janiece was prepared. Her argument made sense. George was a fabulous speaker and made complex arguments look simple. George nailed his first argument but did not support his second argument with evidence. Afterwards, he spoke of being confused of the format. Being first up, this is not unheard of. Perhaps he will have another chance. Janiece hammered away at the necessity to give slaves the right to choose. That is, the right to choose is part of the promise of the Declaration of Independence. George made a brilliant counter to Janiece's inconsistent to the ideals the drove the Revolutionary War when he tried to reframe what she said as the purpose for that war. Was it really about slavery? Did the colonists just use the slaves to help win? Did they really mean to free them? Well done George. With more evidence this might have been a closer debate for George. Congratulations to both debaters!
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  1. Lauren WMay 4, 2009 at 3:45 PM

    Today 4/29/09 my class had a debate. Should Slavery be abolished was the question we as a class were trying to answer. The first pair of students that went up to debate was Janice (Elizabeth Freeman) and George (Charles Pickney). As the two were debating I thought to my self wow they had very strong arguments. One of the arguments that stood out to me from the slavery should be abolished side was how the oppent handled the argument “slaves in America are treated as chattle instead of an occupation.” I myself choose that argument and as I watched Janice present it I took notes on how to in cooperate some of her main points into my argument and critic it. Even though Janice (Elizabeth Freeman) had a good argument I also think that she should could have been more passionate about what she was saying. She gave a lot of needed evidence that really backed her arguments up. George (Charles Pickney) also gave a commendable argument. During the cross examination he really asked Janice questions that made him really stand out as a great debater. No matter what he always seemed like he knew what he was talking about even if he didn’t.

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