Slavery in American Literature: A Representational Divide “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” This is one of the lessons that the novel To Kill A Mockingbird has taught us, yet I had never really understood it before comparing the sides told by Frederick Douglass and John Pendleton Kennedy. They are clearly narrating the same story but it is almost impossible to tell since both sides are so incredibly different. On the one side, we have Douglass’ autobiography where he explains all the pain and hardships he has gone throughout his life as a slave. He describes in detail all the things that inspired him to become the figure he turned …show more content…
Nowadays, it would be pretty rare to find someone who wasn’t aware of the kind of life Negroes used to lead. Since a few years back, we have been shown a great amount of films who portray these abuses, such as The Butler, 12 Years A Slave, The Help, etc. We are no strangers to the suffering these people was exposed to, but we are strangers to what the white people would think about these poor conditions their slaves would live in. White people are often portrayed as evil minds who believe Negroes to be objects, or non-thinking animals. However, in the fragment we have been studying, we come face to face with the other side of the coin. This fragment arguments, and in very well organized thoughts, how white people believed that their slaved were dependent on this kind of lifestyle. The protagonist of this story honestly believes that slaves are to be treated kindly, but remain slaves. “We should not be justified in taking the hazard of internal convulsions to get rid of them; nor have we a right, in the desire to free ourselves, to whelm them in greater evils than their present bondage.” (Kennedy 457) The man who wrote these words truly believed, in the most honest way that his ideas were completely right. To the men involved in this discussion, there is no such thing as injustice, or even violence against those who served them. According to these men, the jobs carried out by …show more content…
(Kennedy 456) To the protagonist, Mark Littleton, talking about slavery is comparable to talking about a social contract. It is almost described as if the condition of slavery happens to be a natural order. Nonetheless he does not condone cruelty towards slaves. It can be said that this character is merely as if he were talking about horses. He believes that they are indeed taking care of the animals in exchange of the animals work on the fields. He recognizes their intelligence, their fondness of music and their sportsmanship. But he also describes them as ‘parasitical’. […] they are subsisted, in general, as comfortably—nay, in their estimation of comforts, more comfortably, than the rural population of other countries. And as to the severities that are alleged to be practiced upon them, there is much more malice or invention than truth in the accusation. (Kennedy