Comparison Of My Bondage And My Freedom By Frederick Douglass

In "My Bondage and My Freedom," Frederick Douglass conveys a powerful and overarching message of the inherent injustice and dehumanization of slavery. He argues against slavery, emphasizing the catastrophic impact it has on both enslaved individuals and society. For example, in his 1852 speech, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Douglass denounces the hypocrisy of celebrating freedom and independence while millions of African Americans remain enslaved. He challenges his audience to reflect on the stark contrast between the ideals of the American nation and the harsh realities faced by enslaved individuals.

It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy” (262). Eventually, Douglass finds that reading provided him with the small seed of confidence which allowed him to maintain hope that freedom would someday be

Immediately upon reading The Columbian Orator, Douglass experienced thoughts he’d never had before. With the skill of reading, “the silver trump of freedom had roused [his] soul to eternal wakefulness” (Douglass 57). This clearly indicates that with his education in literacy, Douglass successfully comprehends The Columbian Orator. He understands, through reading, the demand for freedom. The quench he has on this subject was only given to him by the ability to be literate.

In the speech “What to the American Slave is Your 4th of July” by Frederick Douglass, the idea of “us vs. them” is frequently displayed in Douglass’s choice of diction to disassociate the slaves from the celebrations of the white people on Independence Day . “What have I to do with your national independence?” inquired Douglass of the white bodies in his crowd. By specifying the 4th of July as being [theirs], Douglass emphasizes that the holiday is for white people and not the slaves. A division is therefore drawn between the black slaves and the white community on this day. Douglass asserts that natural rights, “justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence,” are ones “shared by you, not by me.”

Alexander Vega Mr. Shanebeck AP US History 4 November 2016 The Slave Life In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass relates his encounters as a slave. The subtle elements the abhorrences of experiencing childhood with a plantation, being subjected to extraordinary prejudice, and fleeing to freedom.

Frederick Douglass once said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he tells his story on enslavement and the journey to freedom. Part of this journey includes Douglass’s escapades of learning to read and write as well as his fight and victory over his slaveholder Mr. Covey. Learning to read and write and his victory over Mr. Covey were significant in Douglass’s journey to freedom because they bestowed an original determination and clarity to escape upon him, and brought his fiery desire to escape back when it was once burnt out. Learning to read and write was a significant moment because it made Frederick Douglass clear on the realization that he needed to escape, and was determined to do so.

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.

Douglass is always curious and he never gives up even when he finds several obstacles in his way, because he perfectly knows what his goal is: he needs an education to get his freedom. He is determined to get it even though it requires a lot of hard work. Douglass is sure of the potential of education. As a matter of fact he knows well that knowlegde can change his life while leading him to freedom. Douglass has both the motivation and the determination because he is aware that owing to education he can get to great places in his life, and that education makes the world a better place

Douglass began to view reading as a curse more than a blessing; a way in which he felt more imprisoned by the slave state he was in. Thus, the more he read the more he began to detest enslavers; which nonetheless in his mind would be nothing but thieves whom robbed slave’s homes. For it was not only reading but his ceaseless mind getting the best of him; such reading would create endless thoughts which haunted him and made him wish that he would remain an ignorant slave. Nonetheless, during Douglass’s thoughts, Douglass began to learn to

I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read” (Douglass 63). This quoted passage suggests that Douglass’ attitude towards literacy was positive because he realized that learning how to read helped him gain knowledge about the pathway from slavery to freedom. How does Douglass explain the conflict between literacy and slavery in his own experience? What explanation does he offer to why his master does not want him to learn how to read?

The speaker talks about how it is important to keep going up and to not give up. When you learn things you need to keep learning and not give up. In Frederick Douglass’s Autobiography, Frederick

Abolitionism was a well-known movement around the time of the Civil War and its aim was to put an end to slavery. The people of the early nineteenth century viewed the elimination of slavery in numerous ways. Some fought against the end of slavery, some appeared to mildly support the cause and yet others wholeheartedly supported the ending of slavery until their dying day. Charles Finney was a religious leader who promoted social reforms such as the abolition of slavery. He also fought for equality in education for women as well as for African Americans.

Within “My Bondage and My Freedom,” Douglass uses diction throughout the autobiography to display his tone of understanding, and how slavery affects both the slave and the slave holder which causes the mood of frustration for the reader. When communicating a tone of understanding in “My Bondage and My Freedom”, Douglass uses diction to support it. The author uses language to truly present his tone towards the text. Throughout the story he manages to stay quite neutral with his tone. He appears to be understanding of the slaveholder’s point of view.

Douglass states: “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery” (Douglass 51). Reading and writing opened Frederick Douglass’s eyes to the cause of the abolitionist. He became knowledgeable about a topic that white slave owners tried to keep hidden from their slaves. Literacy would eventually impact his life in more ways than what he could see while he was a young slave under Master Hugh’s

What common themes bond together the literary works of the 1800’s? Frederick Douglass and Kate Chopin both realized that people were not being treated fairly and thus it influenced their writing. Through personal experiences and observations Frederick Douglass conveyed how African Americans in My Bondage and My Freedom were treated unfairly. Kate Chopin used the plot to show how women were treated unfairly in “The Story of an Hour”. My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass tells of some of the experiences he went through as a slave.