To begin, everybody has their own perspective, their own view-point. As Marcus Aurelius once said, “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is perspective, not fact.” Fredrick Douglas was an African-American abolitionist, author, an influential historical figure, and immensely outspoken about the suffering, torment, agony, and hardships that slaves had endured at the hands of their brutal and ruthless slaveholders. Fredrick Douglas was born into slavery and he was fully aware of the pain and horror that slaves went through. He was treated as inferior because of his skin color; he was looked down upon, and underestimated over something he had no power or control of. Douglas knew what it was like to be savagely beaten, …show more content…
They are like polar opposites-like water and fire, or north and south. On page three, Captain Canot claims that slaves are treated-well and that slave-holders look after their health, hygiene, and well-being. “These hints will apprise the reader that the greatest care, compatible with safety, is taken of a Negro’s health and cleanliness on the voyage. In every well-conducted slaver, the captain, officers, and crew, are alert and vigilant to preserve the cargo. It is their personal interest, as well as the interest of humanity to do so. The boatswain is incessant in his patrol of purification, and disinfecting substances are plenteously distributed. The upper deck is washed and swabbed daily; the slave deck is scraped and holy-stoned; and, at nine o’clock each morning, the captain inspects every part of his craft; so that no vessel, except a man-of-war, can compare with a slaver in systematic order, purity, and neatness.” However, Fredrick Douglass would strongly disagree with that statement. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, much of Fredrick Douglass’ evidence and information on the immorality of slavery come from his own life experiences of being born a slave. Douglass goes into immensely deep, gruesome, and gut-wrenching detail on the injustice that slaves endured. For instance, on pages eleven and twelve, Douglass describes how slaveholders often used violence as a tactic keep slaves submissive and to instill fear and terror. This counters Captain Canot’s false, fairy-tale like claim about how slaves weren’t not abused or mistreated by their
Why did Fredrick Douglas despise slavery? Fredrick Douglas, an African American that has an abundance of history with slavery and torment. Without reading this I wouldn’t have learned how cruel slavery actually was, and how enslavers stole people from their homes, and how he wished to be an animal. The Immorality of slavery is gruesome to many eyes. Though, people still want to rule over other people for various arrogant reasons.
Frederick Douglass throws light on the American slave system by writing about his view of slaveholders, the conditions of slavery, and how he escaped. He explained his experience with slaveholders when he states, “He was cruel enough to inflict the severest punishment, artful enough to descend to the lowest trickery, and obdurate enough to be insensible to the voice of a reproving conscience.” (Page 32) This displays the fact that most slaveholders in the south were cruel and inhumane. Frederick Douglass shows the condition slaves had to go through, when he states,”I suffered much from hunger but much more from cold.
Slavery: Effective on Slaves and Slaveholders In Frederick Douglass’s autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Douglass recounts his life in slavery to reveal to his readers the horrors of the American slave system. To effectively inform his readers of the corrupt system, he publicizes the slaveholders’ hypocritical practice of Christianity. Although he himself is a Christian, Douglass’s narrative is a scathing commentary on the ironic role of Christian religion in the Southern slaveholding culture. Throughout his book, the author expresses and exemplifies his perspective on religion by illustrating the falseness and hypocrisy of the Southern people. To start off, Frederick Douglass suggests that the Southern people’s religion is false and insincere.
Fredrick Douglass, a now-known household name, who is known for his many trials and triumphs, writes the story of his life. In his narrative, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he retells the stories of his poor childhood, the transition into being a slave, and how his determination led him to become a free man. Douglass fits years and so much pain into an eleven-chapter book and does it so profoundly that the reader has no choice but to consider what Douglas encountered and the pain he endured. Throughout the book, Douglass emphasizes how knowledge was what he used to set him free, how slavery and slaveholders used slaves’ unawareness to perpetuate them, and the effect of slavery as a system. Being aware of the fact
Fredrick also said that he would feel the same even if he was white. For sixteen years he edited an influential black newspaper and achieved international fame as an orator and writer of great persuasive power. In thousands of speeches that Douglas said irresistibly there wasn’t a speech that he did not bring up against slavery or racism. Fredrick had such a voice of hope for his people, embraced antislavery politics, and preached his own brand of American ideals. Yet Douglas would later come into conflicts with women’s rights, as much as Douglas despise racism he hates sexism just as much.
Frederick Douglass published two similar versions of his fight with the ‘slave-breaker’ Edward Covey in the tenth chapter of his The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, and in the seventeenth chapter of My Bondage and My Freedom. By comparing the two accounts it is possible to see an evolution of his thoughts on abolishing slavery and person hood which occurred in the years which transpired between the two works, 1845 and 1855. In the first account which Douglass wrote at around the age of 27 he narrates a physical confrontation where he refuses to allow himself to be whipped. Douglass struggles for two hours with Covey and also fights off Covey’s cousin at the same time.
Chris McCandless was in his early 20’s, he was the kind of that guy that wanted to learn and experience life without all of the material things. He wanted to be independent from his parents and friends so Chris did something that would be insane for most of us humans but to him, it wasn’t. He went into the wild of Alaska for months, in fact, McCandless even thought he could make it out alive at the end of his journey. As a matter of fact, he was known as being a risk taker and enjoyed being out and about in the nature side of the world. Many would believe that Chris McCandless went into the wild to purposely kill himself; however, I myself believe that McCandless did not do it purposely.
Both King and Douglass were advocating for the same thing: their constitutional sanction of freedom. Both men, in their respective letters touch upon parallel thoughts and beliefs that revolve around the much bigger topic of racial inequality and discrimination. Both men were discriminated against and they talk about their experiences and plight in their very distinctive yet special styles. Born in the year 1817, in an era of open and unashamed slave trade, Frederick Douglass’s story begins as a serf to Mrs. Hugh in the city of Maryland.
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
The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.
In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.
PAGE 2 In the Narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he uses this text to explain his purpose in “throwing light on the American slave system”, or show it for what it really is, as well as show his position on how he strongly believes slavery is an issue that needs to be addressed and how it differs from those who defended slavery, with experiences from his own life to support his argument. Douglass uses experience from his early days as a young slave to throw light on the aspect of physical abuse. According to his narrative, Douglass states, “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder.
Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.
Fredrick Douglass was born enslaved,but he escaped to freedom. He became an outspoken opponent of slavery and a civil rights advocate. He lectured widely and even published his own newspapers. In this excerpt, I have learned the most important event that occurred in his life and why its important, the reason why he compared the enslavers to criminals, and the reason why he wished to be an animal. First of all, Fredrick mentioned in the excerpt the most important event in his life and why it matters.
Fredrick Douglass is one of the most famous abolitionists the United States has ever seen. The events that led up to his freedom of slavery were very interesting. In his Narrative you not only get to see the worst of slavery, but you can also feel firsthand what Douglass went through to get his freedom. As we all know slavery was something you could not just walk out of. Some slaves that try to escape even end up getting punished or killed.