Frederick Douglass threw light on the American slave system in many different ways. He used his experience as a slave and used the encounters of other slaves. He showed how the american slave system was cruel to slaves and how it affected the slaves. The American slave system affected slaves by the masters treating them cruelly and how they weren't treated equally. The aspects Douglass brings to light are the condition of being educated, the condition of family, the condition of slaves. He also provides how slaves were not having equal rights such as other people, some slaves wanted to get education but they could not only rich white people could. It shows how Frederick Douglass threw light on people who were against slavery such as the slave
According to the materiel Of The People, Frederick Douglass was born as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in Talbo Country, Maryland, in 1818. He was born into slavery and at the age of seven he was sent to Baltimore and became a ship caulker. He hired out his labor, paying his master three dollars a week and keeping the rest for himself per their agreement. Frederick planned his escape when his master told him to pay him all his earnings rather that just the three dollars a week. After he escaped to the north he started attending and speaking at antislavery meetings.
In ‘The Convict Lease System,’ Frederick Douglass discusses the reasons why black people made up about ninety percent of convicts, which most of the blame for that is put on the whites in the essay. Why does Douglass say that the exclusion of black people from White religious institutions serves as a catalyst for their convictions and why does he also hold White people responsible for the conditions of this system? African-Americans were convicted in immense amounts during the 1880’s. Not only were they convicted, but they were also treated in a way that seemed to be a by-product of slavery. Black people were excluded from public locations and were “left up to grow up in ignorance and vice.”
One of Frederick Douglass’ main reason for writing his narrative was to debunk the mythology of slavery. American society during this time was obsessed with the idea that slavery was essential in order for the economy to grow. Douglass wanted to explain in his narrative that southern americans were blinded by the facts that slavery was necessary, when in reality, it was not. In the narrative Douglass actually refutes this notion by saying that he saw more examples of wealth and people enjoying their work while he was in the north. In addition to Douglass wanting to inform abolitionists about the harsh reality of slavery, he also wanted to spread the image of what is was like to grow up a slave.
Frederick Douglass was an African-American social reformer, orator, abolitionist, writer, and statesman. He was born in February of 1818 and died on February 20, 1895. He worked as a human rights activists and was the first African-American citizen to hold a high United States government rank. He worked to abolish slavery in the United states although the odds were against him. He was beaten for speaking about his views on slavery He was born into slavery in Maryland and escaped around the year 1838.
Great post! I really enjoyed reading it. Frederick Douglass was one of the leaders of the abolitionist movement, which fought to end slavery within the United States . He escaped from the south and became a free man in the north. He pretty much exposed his life trying to abolish slavery.
Frederick Douglass was born as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey around the year 1818 in Tuckahoe, Maryland; he states in his autobiography “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday… A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages.”
Douglass used his slave narrative as a propaganda tool to show the injustices of slavery. Douglass showed the readers that the slave holding system separated families such as the slave
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass contained major themes which formed the story of a former slave describing his life from being a slave to an intellectual person. The text tackled an important issue which was the ignorance where it was used as a mean to eternize slavery. Ignorance was a way to keep the slaves under the domination of the masters together with the physical cruelty. Slaves were not permitted to read and write.
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass is a very great perspective for people of today to understand what it was like to be a slave in the 1800’s. It tells the story of the slave Frederick Douglass and how he began as an uneducated slave and was moved around from many different types of owners, cruel or nice, and how his and other slaves presences changed the owners, and also how he educated himself and realized that he shouldn’t be treated so poorly It was at the point later in the book that I realized how some slaves might have felt during slavery in the 1800’s. When Douglass is sent away to Mr.Covey he is treated pretty badly but eventually he stands up to Mr.Covey and demands that he stopped being treated like an animal.
Douglass tells about his own childhood and how his father might have been a slaveholder. He explains
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.
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.
When Frederick Douglass published his self-written narrative, people finally got a fully comprehensive view of the life of a slave. To debunk the mythology of slavery, Douglass presents the cold, hard truth, displays slaves true intelligence,
Because of this, he successfully creates a contrast between what the slave owners think of and treat the slaves and how they are. Douglass says that slave’s minds were “starved by their cruel masters”(Douglass, 48) and that “they had been shut up in mental darkness” (Douglass, 48) and through education, something that they were deprived of, Frederick Douglass is able to open their minds and allow them to flourish into the complex people that they are. By showing a willingness to learn to read and write, the slaves prove that they were much more than what was forced upon them by their masters.
In the book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass reveals his life as a slave and the valuable lessons he learned from his experience. Douglass wants the truth about slavery to be revealed and wants to eliminate the lies that portray slavery as beneficial. Douglass exposes the reality of slavery by criticizing the “romantic image” of slavery, showing the intellectual capabilities slaves had, and revealing the reasons why slaves were disloyal to each other. Douglass criticizes the southern, romantic image of slavery by exposing the harsh treatment and sadness that slaves endured. It was southerners who thought slavery as beneficial, because it benefited themselves and white society.