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Examples Of Slavery In Frederick Douglass

1554 Words7 Pages

Anhad Gupta
Mrs. Chumbayeva
Block D
16 March 2023

The immorality of American Slavery is evident throughout every aspect of the act. From its origins in the Atlantic Slave Trade, to when it became one of the primary causes of the Civil War, the dark history of American Slavery is preceded by centuries of prior enslavement and racism. When enslavers shamelessly defended the act by saying that Africans were inferior to white people and destined to be slaves in order to make it align with their own Christain beliefs, it shows that they did think it was wrong, however, sacrificed humanity for personal gain and profit. Their indifference would end up making the act seem appropriate to white people and would also cause serious desensitization to …show more content…

The trauma that can come from witnessing or enduring such treatment for years can deeply affect and damage one’s mental health. In Fredrick Douglass’ autobiography, his overseer, Mr. Plummer, displays a bestial and perverted thirst for violence. He whips Douglass’ aunt with neither mercy nor sympathy and only stops when his exhaustion overcomes him. Douglass talks about the trauma that came from witnessing the subhuman act, saying “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. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it.” (Douglass) Other recorded instances of violence include an episode of violence against a mother in Charles Ball’s Fifty Years in Chains. After an enslaver bought Ball as a young child, his mom begs the enslaver to buy her as well, for she cannot bear to be separated from her child. “She then, still holding me in her arms, walked along the road beside the horse as he moved slowly, and earnestly and imploringly besought my master to buy her and the rest of her children”. (Ball) After several attempts of convincing the enslaver to buy her, he loses his patience and proceeds to whip her with a cow-hide. “My mother then turned to him and cried, "Oh, master, do not take me from my child!" Without making any reply, he gave her two or three heavy blows on the shoulders with his raw-hide, snatched me from her arms, handed me to my master, and seizing her by one arm, dragged her back towards the place of sale.” (Ball) Ball also writes later about the shock which he would continue to suffer years after the ordeal. “Young as I was, the horrors of that day sank deeply

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¨He was a cruel man . I have seen him whip a woman causing the blood to run half an hour at the time... He seemed to take the pleasure to manifesting his fiendish burballs.¨The author stated that Mr.severe was enjoying whipping his slaves ,capable to cut and slash a woman's

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She showed it through the eyes of Mr. March. Slaves were often whipped for not following orders. “Strip by strip the lash carved into Grace’s shuddering flesh. Tears were falling by then, heavy drops, joining the leaf dust with blood that ha begun to trickle from the table” (p.39).

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Throughout the narrative, the author includes his personal stories about experiencing the violence of slavery first-hand. For example, on page 20, he writes about the first time he witnessed a slave, his own aunt, getting the whip. “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest…I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition… It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery…” The author including his experience of his aunts whipping, in detail, appeals to the emotions of the reader.

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Frederick Douglass took many risks, both physical and emotional. This essay will explore how in the book, Frederick fearlessly navigated through his time as a slave, risking his own safety and well being to fight for justice and equality. In chapter 1, Frederick Douglass takes the emotional risk of retelling his traumatic experience of seeing the beating of his Aunt Hester. Later in the chapter he then talks about how his traumitization of his Aunt started, “he would whip her to make her scream and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome.” This is an emotional risk because seeing your own aunt get brutally whipped and then having the confidence to include this part for other people to know about him and his traumitizing story is brave.

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This statement is markedly different in tone than Douglass’ autobiography. While he does not hesitate to say anything about his experiences in both texts, his autobiography is much more measured in tone. He relies on vivid descriptions of his experiences to convey emotions in his book, while he shows his anger outright and unabashedly in his speech. In his narrative, Douglass describes gruesome scenes with a level tone, “...and after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor,” (Pgs. 4-5). Despite how horrific some events in his life were, he never uses overly emotional language to describe them in his book.

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He was selling off her children, though, one by one. ”(192) This shows how slaves were not treated like humans at all and rather as animals. Not only that but the slave owner plays it off nonchalantly, because to them it's just an everyday occurrence.

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It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle.” Overseers submitted slaves to beatings and atrocities and were often inconsistent in their enforcement (Douglass 47-50,

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Frederick Douglass, a slave of the deep south makes his escape into the free north, but even after his escape he can “trust no man”. No matter the color of one’s skin either black or white, Douglass has a deep sense of mistrust in any man, engraved into his person by the years of “the wretchedness of slavery”. Douglass’ diction in his narrative shows how slavery can shape a man into a self conscious and paranoid person. Throughout his life as a slave, Douglass was constantly exposed to conditions in which the only way to survive was to fight for his life. Like the sisters who were raised by wolves -Amala and Kamala- Douglass is not adapted to society and does not trust anyone but himself.

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However, Douglass, who knows the true culprit, refutes this idea saying instead that slaves would join together in song to tell of their hatred and sorrow. Another way that Douglass rebukes this friendly image is with the gory horrific reality. For instance, when a savage overseer kills a slave named Demby, Douglass recalls “his mangled body sank out of sight, and blood and brains marked the water where he had stood”(22). Douglass isn’t painting this life in a positive way because he wants others to grasp the alarming reality that was life as a slave. Although those involved in the enslavement of African Americans might’ve liked to believe it, there was nothing reasonable or justifiable about

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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

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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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She talks about how she was treated by Dr. Flint " But Dr. Flint swore he would kill me, if I was not as silent as the grave." Although in Jacobs narrative she was treated, in Douglass' his grandmother was whipped "The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped, and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped the longest." He also talks about how bad women had it "He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome, would he cease to swing the blood-clooted cowskin." Then he talks about how slavery was like hell "It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass."

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Just Versus Unjust Violence: A Rhetorical Analysis of Violence in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Uncle Tom’s Cabin Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe present slavery in vastly distinct ways. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, author Frederick Douglass dives into a grisly world filled with bloodshed and in the middle of it a man willing to do what it takes to be educated and in control of his own person, narrated with the voice of reason. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, author Harriet Beecher Stowe depicts a variety of characters, their struggle with slavery and religion, their personal relationships, and their deep inner feelings, with no small degree of emotion and sentimentality. Douglass and Stowe’s use of

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PAGE 2 In the Narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he uses this text to explain his purpose in “throwing light on the American slave system”, or show it for what it really is, as well as show his position on how he strongly believes slavery is an issue that needs to be addressed and how it differs from those who defended slavery, with experiences from his own life to support his argument. Douglass uses experience from his early days as a young slave to throw light on the aspect of physical abuse. According to his narrative, Douglass states, “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder.

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Even more brutally described is the physical state of the suffering slave; “I could literally smell his sweat, hear every ragged breath, every cry, every cut of the whip. I could see his body jerking, convulsing, straining against the rope as his screaming went on and on…” (Butler 33-36). Readers’ will have an imagine of agony and torture produced simply by the words used to accurately describe the whipping of a African American runaway slave, and eventually the sexual assault of Dana, the main

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