Primary Source:

William Lloyd Garrison founded the magazine The Liberator in 1830 with the first of these two short essays, and published the second in that magazine in 1832. They represent one of the most active voices in the abolitionist movement.

Some things to keep in mind while reading, in addition to/in keeping with Patrick Rael’s PAPER acronym:

• Who is Garrison trying to persuade in each of these documents?
• What are the rhetorical techniques he uses? How will they affect those he isn’t trying to convince?
• How do Garrison’s views on the constitution match against Madison’s hope for the document?
• How does this kind of political editorializing fit into the frenzies of political activism Tocqueville describes? Is

Secondary Source:

For a secondary source, you’re reading a news article detailing an ongoing dispute between historians and economist about how to describe the effects of slavery. As you read this, think in particular about the ways that different academic disciplines may approach the same questions with different ideas of what constitutes evidence or good work.

• Who do you find the most persuasive on a factual level? What claims made by the opposite party to your favorite horse are the most unsettling to that conviction?
• Who do you find the most personally compelling, along Garrisonian lines? Can this be different than the most persuasive people?
• Do these questions seem like the most important ones to be debated about slavery? If not, what are?