In 1861 South Carolina plantation owner Thomas Drayton told his brother in a letter that the Confederacy stood for “home & liberty.” Yet Drayton clearly meant the “liberty” to own slaves (Give Me Liberty!, 548). In a speech given in Maryland in 1864, Abraham Lincoln declared that this definition came from “the wolf’s dictionary.”
“The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat,” Lincoln observed, “for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty . . . ” (Give Me Liberty!, 549).
Read Drayton and Lincoln’s comments. Is the wolf’s dictionary still in use today? If you think not, explain why. If so, can you cite an example? Your example can come from anywhere in the world. But if you use an example from the USA, please draw from your Give Me Liberty! textbook as a source.
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a. Post a paragraph (about three to six sentences) in response to one of the discussion section questions, or
b. Respond to the comment of some other student in the class (same length: about three to six sentences). Feel free to agree with the student. If you express a disagreement, please be respectful. Speak to others as you would want to be spoken to. The response should be the same length as option a.
As with the assignment essays, please cite your textbook in your response. We’d like to see at least one citation. Use parenthetical references. For example: (Give Me Liberty!, 278).
The textbook used is called “Give Me Liberty”, Forner
