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Theme Of Greed In 12 Years A Slave

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Cycling Greed For centuries, humankind has suffered under the hand of greed. Disguised as merely providing or fulfilling one’s needs, greed slyly plagues and manipulates humankind with its narcissistic ways. In his book 12 Years a Slave, Solomon Northup shares his experience in humankind’s cycle of greed, despairing dependence, and slave owner’s justification of their wickedness. Tricked, kidnapped, and sold into slavery, Solomon Northup witnesses humankind’s greed. Although Northup himself has no validation for the involvement of Brown and Hamilton, it may be assumed that the men, yearning financial profit, traded Solomon Northup for their personal gain. Furthermore, not only had Northup been kidnapped and sold, but his earnings, from his …show more content…

According to Hudson “[S]outherners were convinced that slavery was a positive good and should be defended at all costs” and that “Slave labor was the lifeblood of farms and plantations across the South” (50). This meant that southerners needed to justify their treatment of and right to own slaves. Mr. Epps did so when he likened black men and women to no more than “baboons” (164). A similar mindset is seen all throughout Northup’s 12 Years a Slave. If black men and women are no more than animals a slave owner might find justification in their treating their “property” (46) as desired (164). Therefore, slaves were forced to endure inhumane living conditions, public beatings, and lack of essentials such as food. (103). Slave owners further instilled this by depriving slaves of education (140). Doing so guaranteed more control over their slaves. This, unfortunately, was the fate many slaves endured as their masters were consumed with selfishness. Many manipulated scriptures to support their wickedness (Northup 77). It is widely known that throughout time biblical scriptures have been manipulated to justify evil deeds. Typically slave owners would read to their slaves, scriptures taken out of context. They falsely justified and deemed that to halt their use of slaves was unnecessary. If black men and women were given a sense of humanity it not only deprived slave owners the right to treat their slaves as they pleased but also revoked the right to own slaves

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161 Words | 1 Pages

Douglass uses paradox to demonstrate that slavery degragrates the slaverholder. When Douglass under Mr. Sever’s care he described that: “He was less cruel, less profane… He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. ”(Douglass 24). Most slaveholders are characterized to be cruel and inhuman because of the whipping and the way they treated the slaves.

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332 Words | 2 Pages

They had rough education and faced physical pain every day. These two struggles are only two of thousands of struggles the slaves had to go through when slaves were in slavery in the American

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854 Words | 4 Pages

The idiosyncratic style Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass depicts the discriminatory actions of postcolonial slave owners in the southern United States, which reflects their greed for unpaid labor on their plantations. He employs the metaphor of the book that their masters prohibited them from owning by law throughout the memoir to demonstrate the avarice that drives white slave owners to turn a darker-skinned, intelligent being into a machine for personal benefit for centuries after the colonization of America. Also, the irony further displays the power of greed by expressing the slaveholder’s uncivilized method of forcing another human out of civilization. Furthermore, his use of a paradox of the use of pure religious beliefs to justify a slaveholder’s inhumane treatment reveals their rapacious actions that contradict the teachings of the church.

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1095 Words | 5 Pages

The writer does not hide his contempt for those slaveholders characterized as “blood-seeking wretches.” (Twelve Years a Slave 125) Such slaveholders as Tibeats and Edwin Epps, another ruthless plantation owner, who buys Solomon from Mr. Williams, fall exactly into such a category. Nonetheless, soon Northup admits that his life on Epp’s plantation proves to be even worse than working with Tibeats. The writer notes that Epps never spares his whip to extract obedience from the “niggers.” Moreover, “being fond of the bottle” and various violent amusements, Epps repeatedly makes his slaves dance for him in the middle of the night or lashes them around his yard with his whip “just for the pleasure of hearing them screech and scream.”

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782 Words | 4 Pages

Whether or not a slave narrative is able to persuade its readers of the inhumanities of slavery, the complexities within slave narratives and the discussions they create should not be overlooked. There is power within the act of writing one’s personal journeys and hardships throughout life, and that power gives former enslaved people the opportunity to express their own thoughts while making changes for future generations. Solomon Northup’s 12 Years A Slave gives a heart-wrenching depiction of what slavery was like in America. If the cruel images of the realities of slavery do not affect readers emotionally, then there is at least hope that the logical arguments raised throughout the novel can persuade those who are unwilling to see slavery

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377 Words | 2 Pages

By using his religion as sanction, he could be a cruel and inhumane man while still having support. The alteration of kind to cruel is an important component to prove the dehumanizing effects of slavery on slaveholders. This characterization provides a powerful argument that slavery is not only bad for slaves, but slave owners

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814 Words | 4 Pages

In the 1700-1800’s, the use of African American slaves for backbreaking, unpaid work was at its prime. Despite the terrible conditions that slaves were forced to deal with, slave owners managed to convince themselves and others that it was not the abhorrent work it was thought to be. However, in the mid-1800’s, Northern and southern Americans were becoming more aware of the trauma that slaves were facing in the South. Soon, an abolitionist group began in protest, but still people doubted and questioned it.

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1049 Words | 5 Pages

Group Essay on Frederick Douglass “That this little book may do something toward throwing light on the American slave system”, and that Frederick Douglass does in his eponymous autobiography. Douglass throws light by dispelling the myths of the slave system, which received support from all parts of society. To dispel these myths Douglass begins to construct an argument composed around a series of rhetorical appeals and devices. Douglass illustrates that slavery is dehumanizing, corrupting, and promotes Christian hypocrisy. Using telling details, Douglass describes the dehumanizing effects of the slave system which condones the treatment of human beings as property.

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498 Words | 2 Pages

The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.

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1036 Words | 5 Pages

Slave owners felt that it was their responsibility and duty to dominate the “less fortunate and the less

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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.

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1642 Words | 7 Pages

From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race of people. To create a group of individuals known for their extreme oppression derived from slavery, required plantation owner’s of the South to constantly embedded certain values into the lives of their slaves. To talk back means to be whipped.

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328 Words | 2 Pages

Therefore, when I consider the lives of a slave master, and the mistress, I grasp the realization that slaveholders were also in bondage, and dehumanized individuals. In addition, both the slave and the slave masters depended on each other. Unfortunately, the relationships were not mutual, considering that a population of people were

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729 Words | 3 Pages

In regards to the abolitionist movement, Solomon Northup’s slave narrative was particularly important because it revealed the inhumane treatment, such as the brutal beatings done by masters and overseers, the sexual use of slave women and the merciless separation of families, and in his personal case the abuse of the Fugitive Slave

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1618 Words | 7 Pages

Living conditions for slaves were dreadful, with long work hours and low wages. Slave masters separated families and sold off children from their parents, or vice versa. Slaves were prone to severe punishment for even trivial offenses. Whippings and beatings were prevalent. Running away allowed them to get away from all the hostility, if only for a while.

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