Grade 10 Study Guide
Frederick Douglas
1. Know the following terms:
Impertinent-characterized by rudeness
Parentage-descent from parents or ancestors
Inevitable-incapable of being avoided
Tiding-a piece of news
Intimation-suggestion or make known
Odiousness-hatefulness or repugnance
Ordained-to establish or order by order, decree, or enactment
Gory-bloody
Cudgel-a short heavy club
Barbarity-an act or instance of cruelty
Joist-beams ranged parallel to support the walls or ceiling
Conjecture-a conclusion deduced by surmise or guesswork
Amid-in or into the middle of
Sloop-a fore-and-aft rigged boat with one mast and a sail
Privation-an act or instance of depriving
Coopering-the act of making wooden casks or tubs
Ineffable-incapable of being expressed in words
Obdurate-stubbornly persistent in wrong doing
Stratagem cleverly contrived trick on achieving an end
Defiled-to corrupt the purity or perfection of
Equipage-materials or articles used in equipment
Barouche-a four wheeled carriage with the driver’s seat high in the front
Curried-to clean the coat of an animal with a comb
Sundered-to break apart or in two
Execrate-to declare to be evil
Impudence-lacking modesty
Immutable-not capable of or susceptible to change
Providence-divine guidance or care
Abhorrence-regard with extreme hatred
Servility-befitting a slave or menial position
Depravity-a corrupt act or practice
Chattel-an item of tangible property except real estate
Abolitionist-person supporting an end to slavery
Subsist-to have existence; be
Sagacity-keen in sense perception
Pernicious-highly injurious or destructive
Ague- a fever marked by periods of chills
Insurrection-an act of revolt against civil society
2.
Of slaves whose father was their master, Frederick Douglas comments“
that such slaves invariably suffer greater hardships, and have more to
contend with than others (slaves who both parents were slaves)”. Citing
evidence from the text, give examples of the special hardships these slave
encountered.
3.
Slaves lived by the creed that “ A still tongue makes a wise head”, which
guided the way slaves communicated about their treatment by
slaveholders. In the context of the reading, what does this quote mean?
4.
How does the proverb, “being hanged in England is preferable to dying a
natural death in Ireland” relate to Frederick Douglas leaving his home to
live in Baltimore?
5.
Frederick Douglas stated that “going to Baltimore laid the foundation,
and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity”. Cite evidence
from the text of 2 ways of how gateways were opened for him in
Baltimore.