5.17 Questions for Reading and Discussion

Questions for Reading and Discussion

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How did Ashbridge's relations with her parents and her husbands influence her life? Why did she disobey her parents' "right to have disposed of me to their contents"?

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Why and how did Ashbridge become an indentured servant? How did the "Kidnapper" and ship captain influence her?

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Ashbridge observed that when she arrived in New York she "was a Stranger in a Strange Land." What experiences illustrate what she termed "the Sufferings of my Servitude"?

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Why did Ashbridge not "Comply with the heavenly Vision" revealed to her? What were the consequences?

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To what extent do you think Ashbridge's religion as an adult woman shaped her account of her early life? How do you think her views when she was a young woman "without any" religion might have differed from those expressed in her autobiography?

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According to Father Abraham, what temptations were likely to lead his contemporaries astray, and how could they be resisted?

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In what ways were idleness, pride, and folly taxes? How would industry, frugality, and reason avoid or minimize such taxes?

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According to Father Abraham, what were the goals of disciplined behavior? Did people who did not discipline their behavior appropriately have different goals? What, for example, did they think about time, consumption, and debt?

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After the speech, the people who heard it began "to buy extravagantly." What does their behavior suggest about the old man's wisdom? To what extent did Father Abraham's advice partake of the ethos of individualism, and to what extent did it criticize that ethos?

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Many of Father Abraham's maxims are still repeated today. Why? Do you think they are more or less important today than they were in the eighteenth century? Why?

Question

What "Great Reformation of Morals" did converts to New Light Baptist and Presbyterian churches exhibit, according to Woodmason? Did Woodmason claim that New Light religion made no difference in the lives of converts, or did he believe that New Light religion made converts' lives and society worse?

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How do you think New Light converts might have responded to Woodmason's sermon? What might they have said to his statement that "it is a Maxim with these Vermin of Religion, That a Person must first be a Sinner e're he can be a Saint"? Do you think they would have defended the practices he ridiculed? Would they have interpreted the social and personal consequences of religion differently?

Question

According to Woodmason, how did New Light religion compare to Anglican worship services? From the perspective of members of the congregation, how did New Light services compare with Woodmason's view that in Anglican churches they would have "their Duty explain'd to them in a sober, sensible, and judicious Manner"?

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Why did Woodmason believe so many backcountry people were attracted by New Light religion? Using the evidence in his sermon, why do you believe they were attracted? Is it possible to decipher what Woodmason and the New Lights considered authentic religious experiences?

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How did the advertisers describe Africans? What assumptions did they make about how readers of the ads would recognize the runaways? What do those assumptions suggest about the relationships between whites and blacks, free people and slaves, native-born and African-born people?

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What did the runaways' names suggest about them and their masters? What evidence suggests how masters treated these runaways?

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Why were some slaves more valuable than others? What clues can you find in the ads to explain the differences in rewards?

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Do the advertisements contain hints about why the runaways absconded? What might have accounted for the lag of time between running away and the placement of the advertisement?

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What were the differences between the advertisements in South Carolina and in Virginia? How did those differences suggest contrasts in slavery in the two colonies in the eighteenth century?

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Oldendorp stressed the differences among Africans. In what ways were those differences important to the Africans? To Europeans?

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What might have motivated the "baptized slaves" Oldendorp interviewed "who were known as intelligent and upstanding people"? How might their motives have shaped what they told Oldendorp?

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"Kidnapping is generally frequent among the Negroes," Oldendorp declared. How was kidnapping related to slavery in Africa and to the transatlantic trade in African slaves? According to Oldendorp, how did Africans become enslaved? How did the slaves Oldendorp interviewed probably account for their own enslavement?

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Do you think the observation of the Amina merchant who told Oldendorp that, "in Guinea one did not know much about sins, for every one considered that which he did to be right," sheds any light on slavery? Why or why not? Was the merchant opposed to slavery? Were the other Africans Oldendorp interviewed? Was Oldendorp? Why or why not?

Question

How did Oldendorp account for the differences between Africans and Europeans? Did he believe such differences were innate or permanent? Do you think Oldendorp's narrative was shaped in important ways by his Christian faith? If so, how? If not, why not?