4 uses
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1 —2 uses as in:
What is her motive?
Definition
a reason for doing something
- To natural viciousness and vagrancy are being daily added motives of revolt and revenge which stir up all the latent savagery of both races and make peaceful attention to economic development often impossible.Chapter 9 (65% in)
- Association with the masters, missionary effort and motives of expediency gave these rites an early veneer of Christianity, and after the lapse of many generations the Negro church became Christian.Chapter 10 (41% in)
There are no more uses of "motive" flagged with this meaning in The Souls of Black Folk.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
? —2 uses
exact meaning not specified
- Before 1750, while the fire of African freedom still burned in the veins of the slaves, there was in all leadership or attempted leadership but the one motive of revolt and revenge,—typified in the terrible Maroons, the Danish blacks, and Cato of Stono, and veiling all the Americas in fear of insurrection.Chapter 3 (32% in)
- The laws are made by men who have little interest in him; they are executed by men who have absolutely no motive for treating the black people with courtesy or consideration; and, finally, the accused law-breaker is tried, not by his peers, but too often by men who would rather punish ten innocent Negroes than let one guilty one escape.Chapter 9 (52% in)
There are no more uses of "motive" in The Souls of Black Folk.
Typical Usage
(best examples)