ipl-logo

Comparing 12 Years A Slave And Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

1422 Words6 Pages

Slavery is something that everyone in our country all familiar with. A crucial event in the history of American that helped shape it into what it is today. It is recognized, but do people fully grasp the life of a slave? Do people truly understand the exhausting brutal life that is unlike anything else in our history. The thing that is most unreal about slavery is that it was legal. Not just that, but it was widely accepted and few people would think morally and see the horror within the life of a typical slave. After watching “12 Years a Slave” and reading “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”,you can clearly see the intense and cruel treatment they received, and how it shaped both of them as people once they escaped/ were freed. …show more content…

Solomon identity is wiped away as they force him to go by a new name, and lose all ties from his previous life as a free man. However, he never forgets his true identity which gives him the strength to push through and reminds him of the hope of survival. He had a family, and a successful career as a violinist, and each time he thought of this, he would lose all sight of the awful things he witnessed and remember his past life. This could be related to Frederick Douglass when he finally is sent to his last master and can start to think about an escape. Similar to the way that Solomon thought of his family when he needed strength for survival, Frederick thinks of a woman that he met during his stay in Baltimore, whom he will eventually reconnect with and marry. Both men lose their identity, but eventually regain it as they work immensely hard in order to reach their goal of escape. This changed my viewpoint on slavery because both stories portrayed it in a way that shows a slave's point of view and the thoughts going through their mind when they think of the hope of

Show More
Related
189 Words | 1 Pages

There are many similarities and differences in Narrative of Fredrick Douglas and the movie 12 years of slaves; both contents were talking about slavery. The main characters just had different ways they were brought up during slavery. The similarities to Narrative of Fredrick Douglass and 12 years of slaves are both many characters worked on some type of plantation during they life as a slave. Both Fredrick Douglass and Solomon Northup had a poor overseer.

Read More
714 Words | 3 Pages

The times of slavery had only brought sadness and despair for all African-Americans in the United States during the times of the Civil War. People were treated as property, denied a proper education, and overall treated as expendable and inconsequential pieces of trash. The one thing that was done so that we could understand the pain that these slaves had gone through was the slaves explaining their experiences through writing to be studied throughout history. However, there are very distinct differences between the writings in how they are made and written.

Read More
350 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
753 Words | 4 Pages

Compare and Contrast paper In the life of Frederick douglass and the slave girl , what i have read so far is that both was taken from their mother and was a slave . Frederick and Shymia was just a toddler . They both couldn't see their family and had to sleep on the cold damp floor , had only 2 pair of clothing per year or seasons .Slavery and family are central themes that are similar in both slave girl california and The narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass .

Read More
629 Words | 3 Pages

The slave narratives by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs show how the institution of slavery dehumanizes an individual both physically and emotionally. Jacobs states that women in slavery were treated far more terribly than men were endured. The horrible treatments that were lashed upon women slaves, she witnessed through her own eyes, so the argument that Jacob presents, "slavery is bad for men, but far more terrible for women is agreeable. African American women who were brought as slaves or who were born slaves were emotionally and mentally dehumanized by their owners. In Jacobs' narrative the young girl was mentally harmed for the account of the the girls "young mind" would be filled with "unclean images" by the master.

Read More
517 Words | 3 Pages

Frederick Douglass and Slave Girl Comparison For over 300 years now, people have been bought, auctioned, and shipped to others that treat them like slaves. In these two different stories, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Slave Girl; you be will shown how their themes compare and contrast one another. In Slave Girl, a woman named Shyima was sold to another family to the U.S, and was forced by the family to do basically anything they wanted her to do. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass is the story of frederick douglass, and how life was for him being a slave in 19th century.

Read More
591 Words | 3 Pages

Because of the statuses of each person who attends Douglass’ school, they have a common ground to discuss with each other. Although Douglass is not technically a slave like most of the others learning from him, he still is in the lowest social tier and African American. Because of their corresponding similarities, the slaves and Douglass bond over their hardships while understanding what the others are going through. It is easy to sympathize with each other because they are in the same situation. During the time period this was written, society purposely made African American slaves feel like they didn’t belong and like they were outcasts.

Read More
1314 Words | 6 Pages

This could occur because marriages between slaves were not legally recognized and any children mothered by a slave woman automatically became the property of her master. Thus, slaves constantly had the fear of being ripped away from their family looming over their heads in addition to all the other cruelties they faced on a daily basis. The poor conditions slaves lived and worked in kept them exhausted and with no means of comfort, further weakening and demoralizing them, making the chances of escaping even slimmer. These injustices, along with the aforementioned abuses of the same nature, trapped slaves into situations they could not escape without escaping slavery itself, which was near in possible through means other than death (Lectures 2/28 and

Read More
633 Words | 3 Pages

However, when he is sent to work for a temporary master, not only is his physical body shattered, but as his determination and his spirit. Nevertheless, one day. when Douglass finds the will to fight back, he finds a new, stronger sense of strength that continues to thrive within him from that moment forward. The altercation between Douglass and the temporary slave master marks a new beginning for Frederick Douglass as a slave and also as a

Read More
1117 Words | 5 Pages

These Indentured servants, who were European, were treated much better, even though it was harsh for them also, but compared to the slaves who can be tossed around without any rights for them. (Servitude In New England) Being a slave was a lifelong, involuntary, and forced job in which one’s master gets to whip and abuse you every single day, rather than working for them for 7 years and getting the benefits at the end of one’s contract and moving on with their life like that of the servants. (Our Plantation is Very Weak) Additionally, there were even practices of slave breeding going on at this time not just at Douglass’s plantation.

Read More
328 Words | 2 Pages

My opinion on better understanding slavery is to look into the lives of slaves. Historical accounts by free slaves helps us understand the condition of these slaves and the wrong doings and shortcomings to the society, by practicing slavery. An account of slavery, an autobiography, written by Frederick Douglass, an ex-slave who lived in Maryland, but ran away to Pennsylvania, a free state to become a free black man. Due to his education, he was able to publish his autobiography and his life as a slave in Maryland and as an escaped slave. He was communicating his comprehension of wretchedness and disdain from the individuals who needed to bear the agony he once felt; as a previous slave.

Read More
565 Words | 3 Pages

When slavery was legal in the United States, many people did not know how cruelly the slaves were treated in the south. This changed when writers like Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, wrote about how they were treated. Frederick wrote about his time as a slave in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. [something about slave owners power] The slave owners’ methods of maintaining power over their slaves were to disgust them with freedom, the violence that they were constantly exposed to, and their lack of education.

Read More
575 Words | 3 Pages

In the days of slavery, a lot of people were impacting different ways, one way it impacted slave owners was morally. A example was Sophia Auld it was not until slavery came that she became immoral. Another thing that was affected was people’s social life or who they talked to, people started associating with people more like them most commonly slave holders. And the last thing affected was economical effects, the only people that had money was the slave owners and slaves had nothing. According to Frederick Douglass in his book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” he tells how slavery changed people to the extreme and it basically changed the south as a whole.

Read More
850 Words | 4 Pages

The books he reads and knowledge he’s gotten has made him angry at other slaves with a lack of knowing what is going on. The life of slavery really just ruins your mind and thoughts, and makes you feel discouraged, but Frederick had the education piece in his life. In the text Frederick says, “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed” (Douglass 54). With his newfound knowledge he starts to contemplate his existence. The hope of being free still pushes him, even if it may lead to death.

Read More
911 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Comparing 12 Years A Slave And Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

Related Topics

Open Document