John Brown Simulation; Theodore Dwight Weld

Context and Reflection

As a final exam option, I chose to display my second, and last, Social Studies speech: The John Brown Simulation. I chose this piece to show how my writing from last year has improved significantly and how it is compared to my writing from this year. This assignment was about John Brown, an abolitionist during slavery in the 19th century right before the Civil War, who wanted to terminate slavery through violence. Everyone in the class was assigned an  abolitionist from that time. The expectations of the assignment were to write, and then present a speech about their character, how THEY wanted to end slavery and if they concurred with John Brown’s theory, which was to capture the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and distribute those weapons to the local slaves so they could kill, more specifically SHANK, their slaveholders (overseer). For my revision, well, first of all, this piece was already dedicated to revision since I had to present it, and revision was required for a successful presentation, making my revision fairly challenging to complete. As far as revision, my strategy was to remove unnecessary and/or irrelevant words, and condensing the piece to focus on the essential details, not the unneeded nitsy-pitsy details. Now my writing is more fun to read because I added some signature flare to my writing, which is word choice, and also building up sentences that are relevant and are elaborate. Also, the reason I chose this piece was because it exemplifies me as a writer in my most recent work and what I’m capable of as a writer.

The Piece (Revised)

Good day Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is Theodore Dwight Weld and I am an immediatist. I am strongly in favor of immediately terminating slavery because I know, just as each and every one of you do, that the misery of a slave is truly intolerable. Essentially, I am a speechwriter but I am also an author of anti-slavery. Both are used as persuasion to abolish slavery. I decisively joined the Anti-Slavery Society and became a public speaker attracting large crowds of interest. It is an honor to be a public speaker, although my speeches weren’t always positively accepted as pro-slavery attendees who were present disruptively interfered with my public speaking. One time I encountered a group of disruptive pro-slavery attendees who threw solid rocks at me as protest. My goal is to persuade people that slavery is unacceptable and that it should end. I am a nonviolent man and I have a calm, non obstreperous behavior accompanied by an intricate mind.

As an author, I work with my wife, Angelina Grimke, and sometimes her sister, Sarah Grimke. I have authored a book with them titled American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses. This book had a great effect causing there to be numerous people to understand an abolitionist perspective and their thoughts of slavery. An abundance of my writings has influenced others, positively. I have also composed a pamphlet titled “The Bible Against Slavery” to let people understand the religious arguments against slavery and that it is just wrong in the eyes of God. It is said that I am one of the greatest minds of the abolition movement.

I strongly believe that slavery should come to an end immediately. For sure I am conscious of the pro-slavery people’s raging reactions. My current assumption is that slavery is gradually ending and I’m confident that many people’s minds are turning against slavery. I could contribute to ending slavery since I am very competent at influencing people and I am sure that my expertise would be a great source to end slavery. Besides opposing slavery, I also oppose violence. Of course that leaves me with the choice to disagree with John Brown but before I begin with that:

I, honestly, disagree with Gerrit Smith, one of the richest gentlemen in the country who is planning on donating thousands of dollars as condonation for John Brown’s plan. Regardless of him being a well-behaved, polite abolitionist, I do not come to consensus with that as a strategy for abolishing slavery. The reason that I disagree with him is that there are better and more creative ways of attempting to end slavery than to spend money as contribution to what could lead to secession and war. It is also an insufficient strategy. In addition, many people could get harmed or injured by the weapons.

However, I strongly concur with Frederick Douglas, who has experienced the tragic life of slavery though he luckily managed to escape and is currently the leader of the abolition movement as he travels around the free states informing those that are not conscious of slavery as persuasion through speeches.   

John Brown, an astonishing abolitionist, though his manner of terminating slavery isn’t too efficient. I disagree with the plan of using an arsenal and distributing the weapons to local slaves, because I am a peaceful man. I think that persuasion is more efficient and a more handy strategy when it comes to abolishing slavery. Even though I have great personal courage and have a full potential, I promote change through nonviolent manners.

My name is Theodore Dwight Weld, a remarkable abolitionist, and I want to terminate slavery immediately through nonviolent means. Thank you for listening.

About the Author

    My name is Casper Vanderpoorten and I am a 7th grade student at Dewitt Middle School. I am originally from Belgium, and Dutch is my native, foremost language. My hobbies are running and playing soccer. I love my family( including my four cats), and I love Science and reading. I like English because it is essential and has supported me through the entire seventh grade. This year my writing has significantly showed off and I am proud of it. Overall, I suppose that I’m a fair English student according to my improvement and enhancement over this year compared to last year. Yes, I could admit that I was kind of a procrastinator back in sixth grade and wasn’t as successful as this year but now I don’t contribute to procrastination, because as Ms. Cernera says “Procrastination is evil!”. Now I work as hard as I can to keep improving my writing. I am an efficient working English student. My current writing technique is to start my writing off big, and then condense it, focusing on essential details and the main point. I also enriched my writing word choice. Compared to last year, when my writing was colorless and dull, it now has way more flare to it by making it more sophisticated and adding occasional person humor and essential details. BUT, without the amazing assistance of the amazing, remarkable, phenomenal teachers, Ms. Cernera and Ms. Sherman, my current writing would have never made it this far in nine months so I thank the both of you for teaching us the best of the best and enhancing our English literature, writing skills, and many more. Without your help, I wouldn’t have been such a great artist of writing and probably wouldn’t be as successful as now so thank you very much.