Captain Canot's Argumentative Essay

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,

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