Draw Conclusions from the Evidence for Thinking through Sources 21
Instructions
This exercise asks you to assess the relationship between conclusions and evidence. Identify which of the following conclusions are supported by the specific piece of evidence. Click “yes” for those pieces of evidence that support the conclusion and “no” for those that do not.
Conclusion A
Fundamentalist Christians used the Scopes “Monkey Trial” in Tennessee to defend their traditional values from the onslaught of modern secular attitudes and ideas.
Evidence 1: “[The law] does not specify what you cannot teach, but says you cannot teach anything that conflicts with the Bible. Then just imagine making a criminal code that is so uncertain and impossible that every man must be sure he has read everything in the Bible and not only read it but understands it, or he might violate the criminal code.”—Document 21.2: Clarence Darrow, Trial Speech
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Evidence 2: “The question is can a minority in this state come in and compel a teacher to teach that the Bible is not true and make the parents of these children pay the expenses of the teacher to tell their children what these people believe is false and dangerous?”—Document 21.3: William Jennings Bryan, Trial Speech
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Evidence 3: The depiction of a lynching perpetrated by a crowd in Document 21.4: Cartoon from the Chicago Defender
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Evidence 4: “God made this His battleground, for you’veBeen wise and true.Earth’s unborn, its children, mothers and nationsAre calling to you.So Tennessee, light your candle of wisdom!Your altar of prayer!And the God of Truth fire and inspire you,To do and to dare!”—Document 21.5: Poem by Mrs. E. P. Blair, Nashville Tennessean
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Conclusion B
Proponents of modern cosmopolitan culture, including Clarence Darrow and many of the reporters who flocked to Tennessee to report on the trial, regarded fundamentalists and their antievolution stance as backward and ignorant.
Evidence 1: “BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, That it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, normal and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the state, to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.”—Document 21.1: The Butler Act
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Evidence 2: “Who is the chief mogul that can tell us what the Bible means? He or they should write a book and make it plain and distinct, so we would know. Let us look at it. There are in America at least 500 different sects or churches, all of which quarrel with each other over the importance and nonimportance of certain things or the construction of certain passages. All along the line they do not agree among themselves and cannot agree among themselves. They never have and probably never will.”—Document 21.2: Clarence Darrow, Trial Speech
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Evidence 3: Document 21.4: Cartoon from the Chicago Defender
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Evidence 4: “Now Error, the monster, calls forth her cohortsFrom sea to sea,They come from earth’s four corners downTo Tennessee.They challenge your power to rule your ownYour rights deny.They scoff at you, ridicule you,Your laws defy.”—Document 21.5: Poem by Mrs. E. P. Blair, Nashville Tennessean
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Conclusion C
The Scopes “Monkey Trial” became a major battleground in the culture wars of the 1920s as both sides believed the case’s outcome would determine the proper place of religion in American society and shape the nation’s future.
Evidence 1: “There is such a disagreement that my client, who is a schoolteacher, not only must know the subject he is teaching, but he must know everything about the Bible in reference to evolution. And he must be sure that he expresses his right or else some fellow will come along here, more ignorant perhaps than he and say, ‘You made a bad guess and I think you have committed a crime.’ No criminal statute can rest that way.”—Document 21.2: Clarence Darrow, Trial Speech
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Evidence 2: “The question is can a minority in this state come in and compel a teacher to teach that the Bible is not true and make the parents of these children pay the expenses of the teacher to tell their children what these people believe is false and dangerous? Has it come to a time when the minority can take charge of a state like Tennessee and compel the majority to pay their teachers while they take religion out of the heart of the children of the parents who pay the teachers?”—Document 21.3: William Jennings Bryan, Trial Speech
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Evidence 3: The image depicted in Document 21.4: Cartoon from the Chicago Defender
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Evidence 4: “Between Truth and Error, Right and WrongThe fight is on.For country, God and mother’s song,It must be won!Go sound the alarm, go gather your forces,Oh Tennessee!Land of pioneer, home of the volunteer,The daring, the freeThe hearthstone, the college, the temple, and evenOur God’s great throne,The star-crowned heroes, both the quick and the deadAre calling their own.”—Document 21.5: Poem by Mrs. E. P. Blair, Nashville Tennessean
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Thinking through Sources forExploring American Histories, Volume 2Printed Page 166