Frederick Douglass An American Slave Analysis

The nineteenth century was an interesting time; everything was going on at once, yet the focus is America. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the westward expansion was in the mindset of the American people, moving to the west for land and for the prosperity. The American people, some were rich, brought their slaves. Slavery started in 1619 when the first Africans arrived in Virginia and continued for two centuries until the thirteen amendment . There are many people who lost their lives to slavery and some risked their lives to end slavery. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass exposes how the economy, religion, and power justified slavery during the nineteenth century. The economy is the main driven force for everything. The Market Revolution started in the early nineteenth century, a rapid transformation of the US economy through transportation, commercialization, and industrialization . The Northern states were dependent on the Southern cotton . The Southern cotton depended on slaves for the unfree labor to work at the plantations. Thus, this created a cycle of dependency on

Those have power are usually who believed in the supremacy. They believed that “… blacks innately inferior to white and unsuited for life in any condition other than slavery. ” These people believed that the African Americans were inferior due to their skin colors and cannot live as a free person, only to condemn as slavery for the rest of their lives. They would also use paternalism, a belief that they are fathers to the slaves, and would “restrict personal rights of another person against their will, with the justification that it is for their protection and betterment. ” Having power is having control to everything, including people. To control the slaves is to control the economy, using religion as a