ipl-logo

Captain Delano: The African American Slave

801 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Events that lead to civil war essay

You and I were born in two entirely different parts of the world. It is my duty, as a former slave, to inform you to the best of my ability, which I promise is not inferior to the ability of a white man, to teach you the likeness of living complete servitude for a fellow human. I can not expect you to understand the life colored people are expected to live. What you don’t understand, Captain Delano, it that the African American race includes real people who deserve the same natural born rights or the same rights given to any human at birth. I have been torn from my family more than once which weighed heavy on my heart. Under the circumstances I had no choice but to revolt on the great Creole ship. After reading this I hope you have a better …show more content…

Imagine this if you can Captain; being a slave was so awful it made me ponder if life was worth anything at all. I am a man with my own dreams and desires but yet I was subjected to bow down to my master or otherwise expect his physical blows. Thousands of colored men, women, and children were sold and separated. When I was a slave, I chose to run away to Canada where colored people were protected with the same rights as every other man. Unfortunately, in my journey I came to a standstill where due to the piercing cold and darkness, I was compelled to knock on the nearest door. Unknowingly but luckily, the house’s owner had heard me speak of my transgressions in the woods. Before entering the welcoming couple’s home, I recognized myself as a fugitive slave to not put them in harm’s way. They listened and grieved over my personal stories until morning came. Mr. Listwell gave me a winter coat, filled my purse with change, and gathered me a buggy to continue the journey to Cleveland where I would step on the ship to …show more content…

However, despite the color of my skin, I am a man of virtue. Consequently, I risked the restraints of slavery to save my enslaved wife. In the process of running away we were gunned down by men with dogs chasing us through the woods like wild animals. The hunters found me standing guard over my wife’s lifeless body when I was captured and forced back into slavery. You of all people know what is like to lose someone so close to you such as the brother you lost to the sea. That is the just of my fugitive slave history but I would like to address what you personally experienced on the San

Show More
Related
714 Words | 3 Pages

“She cud cut down a big tree an chop off a rail length an use a wedge an maul, an make railes as good as anybody” “When again tired, he would repeat the same question, and receiving the same answer, continue his cruel labour. All this time, the incarnate devil was uttering most fiendish oaths”. These quotes truly show the indignation of the African-Americans towards slavery and all the death and despair that in stood

Read More
1480 Words | 6 Pages

Chpt 1 “I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I remember anything. It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with awful force.

Read More
527 Words | 3 Pages

These actions truly display how during this time period if you were not in control those that held more power than you would exploit you in any way possible. This excerpt truly displays the evil greed of humans. Although this excerpt does a good job at describing the process it does not give the viewpoint or feelings of the slaves. Olaudah Equiano’s account of the Atlantic crossing gives a good insight into the confusion and horrors faced by the slaves. In his excerpt he describes his complete confusion and fear revolving around what is going to happen to him.

Read More
512 Words | 3 Pages

But I refused to speak that name. there was nothing united about a nation that said all men were created equal, but that kept my people in chains” (311). Slavery is a topic that can never get too much media as it is a dark passage in human history, one that should be

Read More
909 Words | 4 Pages

African Americans are forced to stay where they are if not without permission; they are forced to be cowards with fears of being hung and killed, cowards enslaved mentally in the contradictory “land of the free and home of the

Read More
636 Words | 3 Pages

Can you imagine being ripped from your family, without warning? The act of slavery brought about abundant despair, great heartache, and death for millions across the United States. Perhaps that is an inconceivable idea for most; however, that very uncertainty is what slaves

Read More
935 Words | 4 Pages

Douglass quickly remembers that “the ferocious beasts of the forest lie in wait for their prey.” He understands that so long as he is a black man in a white man’s country he will never truly be free. At any given moment a white man can capture him and return him to

Read More
793 Words | 4 Pages

Douglass stated, “What am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow-men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters?” He successfully expresses his pain and anger in this quote by providing images of his and his people’s suffering. He tapped into the emotions of his audience, such as mothers, workers, and those who have felt physically pain by exposing them to the amplified struggles he and others had to face. Nonetheless, he continually reminded the audience, both explicitly and subliminally, that his group of people are too human, and that the only difference they share is the color of their skin. He is pleading his cases and hoping that it gets across to his audience in hope they will do the right

Read More
133 Words | 1 Pages

Overall, Douglass' narrative addresses the serious problems and misconceptions of slavery and it reveals the truths. Douglass urges his readers to not believe in the so-called romanticism of slavery, or that blacks are intellectually inferior, or inferior at all, or that their prospects are better as slaves. He begs that his readers discover the truths, by reading about them through his own life experiences. Within Douglass' experiences, he successfully debunks the mythology of slavery by disproving that there is anything positive about. Because Douglass reached freedom, he knows that it can never be attained unless it is fought for.

Read More
753 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1160 Words | 5 Pages

Men owned men because of the color of their skin. These ex-slaves were uneducated and were scared of any change in their lives. What could be theirs today, may not be theirs tomorrow. It’s a shame that people had to live in fear of the government taking something away from them and all they did was share part of their lives to be documented and the documentation was not even accurate. “Freedom had come to a nation of four million slaves, and it changed their lives in deep and important ways.

Read More
379 Words | 2 Pages

While in Boston, I attend St. Matthew Baptize Church under the leadership of Pastor Perry C. Little. I confessed my shameful tale to the Bishop, and he and several other abolitionists in the church inspired me to compose a novel of my life. My testimony is only a snippet of what life is really like in the gruesome southern slave states. Hopefully, this tale will raise awareness and concern for the plethora of men and women still suffering the grim existence of slavery. May God bless every being that lay their eyes upon this adventurous

Read More
445 Words | 2 Pages

Did you know that the average cost of a slave in America about 1850s was about $400, which as of today it would be about $12,000 ? “Slaves” come from the slavonic population in Eastern Europe, which they were also enslaved in the Middle Ages. A slave is defined when (slave)owners basically just take control of others and force them to obey their commands. When i was reading the Equiano, I noticed that him and his sister had got captured when they were little children and were brought on the ship where they were then labeled as slaves. They had no way to escape, they were trapped, there was no other way to get back to their hometown so they basically had nothing else to do but work for the slave masters.

Read More
1838 Words | 8 Pages

“Yes, sir, he gives me enough, such as it is.” The colonel, after ascertaining where the slave belonged, rode on; the man also went on about his business, not dreaming that he had been conversing with his master. He thought, said, and heard nothing more of the matter, until two or three weeks afterwards. The poor man was then informed by his overseer that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader. He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment’s warning, he was snatched away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than death.”

Read More
970 Words | 4 Pages

Every slave’s journey to freedom is imbued with hopes, struggles and triumph. Each individual narrative complex and intriguing. The world is blessed to have one of those distinct stories written by an educated former slave that went by the name Frederick Douglass. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, Douglass reminisces on his life and the countless trials that he had to surpass throughout the years to become a free African American.

Read More

More about Captain Delano: The African American Slave

Open Document