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Some questions and discussion points for you and your students...
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As an exercise, print out the excerpts from Crania Americana. List the adjectives Morton uses to define each of the four groups. Circle every adjective that has a positive connotation. Is there a correlation between the number of positive adjectives that Morton uses in describing a group and his estimate of its moral or intellectual "worth"?
What do you think Morton meant when he wrote that Africans "yield to their destiny and accommodate themselves" to new circumstances? What does the word destiny imply? How might Morton’s writings influence debates over slavery? How might they justify the removal of Native Americans to remote areas?
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What power do teachers have to shape the way their students view the world? What power do parents have? A community? Religious leaders? To what extent did teachers like Morton and Agassiz shape their students?
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