What Is The Relationship Between Frederick Douglass And Religion

Throughout the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, Douglass develops an image between true and false Christianity. Douglass demonstrates his point in the opening argument by calling the former “the Christianity of Christ” and the latter “the Christianity of this land.” Douglass describes the ordeal that slaveholders’ Christianity is not a given evidence of natural goodness, but an artificial state of self-righteous brutality. To tackle this variation, Douglass states a common indifference between what is known as the charitable, peaceful beliefs of Christianity and the negative of violence from the immoral actions in which slaveholders bring. The character that is described as a good example for this theme is Thomas Auld.

“From that time until now, I have been engaged in pleading the cause of my brethren-with what success, and with what devotion, I leave those acquainted with my labors to decide. (SB page 72)” This quote shows how Douglass overcame his problems in life which, in this case, was being held against his will to work for his slaveholder. He knew how painful it was to have a master that owns you and can punish whomever with whatever they choose, solely because of the color of their slaves skin. After this, and when he had gained opportunities and resources, Douglass decided to defend all slaves with his whole heart and with anything

Christianity was observed in the narrative of Fredrick Douglass. Christianity was used to emphasize the spiritual beliefs of slavery. Douglass expressed the physical pain, that was caused by the hands of his master. He reflects on a time when his master whipped a young woman, but once the master finished he justified his abuse with a passage from the bible. In the words of Douglass: “I have seen him tie up a young woman whip her and then quote this passage; He that knoweth his master will, doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes” (see item 7 on p. 970).

Auld’s misinterpretation of the passage emphasizes slave owners use of religion to reinforce their power over their slaves. Christianity rationalized the concept of buying and selling human beings, and that God approved this too. In addition, Douglass used religion as a way to fuel his abolition movement. Under Master Hugh’s, Douglass began to learn how to read and write. Once

¨Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.¨ This is similar to Frederick Douglass because he lived his most of his life in slavery and then after slavery ended he chose to live his life the way he wanted. Frederick Douglass was an African American slave who wanted to abolish slavery after hearing the word abolish so many times. Douglass´s audience were many other African Americans who also said slavery was a bad thing. How slavery was bad for slaves and how it corrupts slave owners.

Douglass is relentless when attacking the church, he states, “The American Church is Guilty” (Douglass 1039). This has a slightly taste of irony, because here Douglass, a colored man, is calling out the most “sacred” body of people. It almost as if he was the master and they were the slave now. Next, the main theme expressed by

Lastly, Douglass’ explains his thought on slavery and from what he says it becomes ironic. One of the ironies in the book that Douglass talks about is how religious slaves are more cruel than non-religious slaves. In chapter 9, Douglass’ master, Thomas Auld, became

Here, Douglass exposes the Christian attempt to wash their hands of any guilt or wrong doing. Overall, Douglass exposes the truth behind this hypocrisy; when these slaveholders use God as a

According to the constitution anyone can be whatever religion they choose to be, but according to Douglass, they are hypocrites. There are two types of Christians; false and real. False Christians are white, religious hypocrites who uphold slavery, while real Christians treat other races equally. The slaveholders in the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” such as Thomas Auld and Edward Covey, are all false Christians.

During the time when Douglass wrote this book, there were several myths which were used to justify slavery. The slaveholder during his time justified this inhuman practice using different arguments. The first argument they used was the religion. From the narrative, Douglass says that slaveholders called themselves Christians which was the dominant religion by then.

“ I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, woman-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.” (Douglass 100) Douglass does this to show how hypocritical people in the South were being. Churches were teaching the Christian practice of being kind and compassionate while not actually practicing it themselves. Douglass argues that the actions of some people are against religion.

Douglass has shown how religious slaveholders are the worst especially when entertainment comes into play. The first being from one of his slaveholders Master Thomas, he whipped a young woman while reading a quote from the scripture to explain his reason for whipping her. The next example was with his other Master Mr.Covey, he would go to church and preach the word but come back beating slaves and going against the almighty God. The last example that is shown is again shown with Mr.Covey, he was guilty of compelling his woman slave to commit the sin of adultery. All of the examples illustrate that religious slaveholders are worst than non-religious slaveholders.

This is a firm dismissal of someone who Douglass even calls “a clever soul” (Douglass 89) and is helpful and kind to someone in a bad position, where there is nothing to gain. Douglass is very assured that his way, Christianity, is the right way. That being said, Douglass does not require people to be religious. One of his last owners, Mr Freeland, who Douglass calls his best master until he became his own master, did not claim or pretend to be more religious than he was.

Douglass tells us this by saying that he believes anyone who is a slave owner cannot be a Christian. In his view, he believes being a slave owner violates the very principles of being a Christian. Auld quote he believes that the Christianity practiced by the Slave owners and the Christianity practiced by non-slave owners are two

Due to its large popularity, people including slaves started to practice Christianity. Douglass states that there was Christianity in accordance to Christ and Christianity in accordance to the American community. He depicts Christianity as the pure, peaceable, and balanced Christianity of Christ. “I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, woman whipping, cradle plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land”(Douglass Appendix 1). What Douglass is trying to say is that slaveholders do not intend any goodness.