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Frederick Douglass Argument Against Slavery

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¨Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.¨ This is similar to Frederick Douglass because he lived his most of his life in slavery and then after slavery ended he chose to live his life the way he wanted. Frederick Douglass was an African American slave who wanted to abolish slavery after hearing the word abolish so many times. Douglass´s audience were many other African Americans who also said slavery was a bad thing. How slavery was bad for slaves and how it corrupts slave owners.

People who defended slavery believed that slavery was a good thing and that it wasn't that bad for slaves. Northerners thought that slavery was a good thing and that is wasn't harmful. Douglass´s position is that slavery was a horrible thing and that it was harmful. One piece of evidence is in excerpt 3 paragraph 4 it says ¨Mr.Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit.¨ One more piece of evidence is when in excerpt 3 paragraph 5 it says ¨I was sometimes prompted to take my life.¨ This evidence shows that slavery is a horrible thing because some slaves could commit suicide due to slavery. This evidence disproves that slavery is a …show more content…

Douglass argues that slavery has a horrible effect and it is a bad thing. One piece of evidence is when in excerpt 3 paragraph 3 the text states that ¨Mr.Covey gave us enough to eat, but scarce time to eat it.¨ Another piece of evidence is in excerpt 4 paragraph 12 ¨Causing blood to run where I touched him with the ends of my fingers.¨ This shows that slavery is a thing that can cause pain and has a horrible effect on slaves. This disproves people who believed that was a good thing because this shows that someone can get hurt when they are enslaved. This concludes that people should change what they think about slavery since many have been in pain during

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245 Words | 1 Pages

Frederick Douglass’s Position On Slavery Douglass supports his position that slavery is terrible for slaves because they get mistreated getting whipped, left with scars. ¨Mr.plummer was a miserable….and a savage monster. He always went armed with cowskin and a heavy cudgel . I have known him to cut and slash a woman's head so horribly that even master would be enraged at his cruelty.¨As douglass was saying his first master was ¨captain anthony¨was a very cruel man.

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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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486 Words | 2 Pages

Douglass also emphasizes how owning slaves does not only hurt the slave but the slave owner. He says that owning

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286 Words | 2 Pages

Some viewpoints of Frederick Douglass, regarding slavery, are that slaves must have weak relationships with others, according to their slaveholder, the road out of slavery is education and knowledge and among slaves, love and unity creates a strong bond with others. When Frederick Douglass’s mother died he compared her death to that of a stranger’s. He says, “I received the tiding of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger.” This quote shows how much slaveholders believed in the idea of keeping relationships with family members and others weak. Also, when Frederick Douglass’s infers that education and knowledge are the road out of slavery, he means the road out of slavery is awareness.

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443 Words | 2 Pages

Slavery. The institution which defined the very fabric of American society from its introduction in 1621 to its eventual abolition in 1863; a whole 242 years. During the United States’ not-so-brief tenure as a slave nation, many men and women condemned to chains suffered journeys wrought with peril in search of the liberty that Northern states offered to African-American individuals. This passage from Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, uses copious metaphor paired with antithesis and apostrophe in order to concretize his longing for and resolution to experience freedom, equality and agency. Douglass cleverly employs metaphor, using it to attach a tangible object to the concept of freedom.

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526 Words | 3 Pages

The Narrative of Frederick Douglass is a very great perspective for people of today to understand what it was like to be a slave in the 1800’s. It tells the story of the slave Frederick Douglass and how he began as an uneducated slave and was moved around from many different types of owners, cruel or nice, and how his and other slaves presences changed the owners, and also how he educated himself and realized that he shouldn’t be treated so poorly It was at the point later in the book that I realized how some slaves might have felt during slavery in the 1800’s. When Douglass is sent away to Mr.Covey he is treated pretty badly but eventually he stands up to Mr.Covey and demands that he stopped being treated like an animal.

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Frederick Douglass believed if everyone is equal, everyone should know how to read and write. During this time people believed slavery was a way of life. They believed blacks were animals and were not capable of being a part of society. Douglass explores the difference between the fact

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1080 Words | 5 Pages

In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.

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280 Words | 2 Pages

Well, I think she means that yes we are free still we struggle to get our rights and respect. This was the era of Reconstruction. African Americans define freedom by their experiences as slaves and their observation of the free society around them. However, United States had an assignment to rebuild the literal and political landscape of the South. Provided federal troops who had once attacked the rebel states were now ruling over them until local governments could be established.

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Douglass writes, “I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery;

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At last, Douglass brings the point of freedom and justice the one person has every right to him than any other, and no man has the authority to rule over

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460 Words | 2 Pages

Douglass disproves this argument in many ways. For example, one way is when Douglass is staying with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, and they teach Douglass how to read, “Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C” (40). Douglass at this point uses diction to show him being rebellious, and has disobeyed one of the “rules” of slaves, the inability to read and write. Douglass writes using strong syntax, “What he most dreaded, that I most desired.

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636 Words | 3 Pages

He proclaims that "…While we are…living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!" By showing the mundanity of the slave, Douglass shows the audience that the slaves are human and therefore unable to be considered property. He forces his audience to examine their own lives and realize their similarities to the slaves and the hypocrisy of slavery. He doesn't give his audience a chance to disagree with his stance on slavery because he makes such a blunt argument. Douglass asks again, "Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man?

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753 Words | 4 Pages

Through deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion, Frederick Douglass shows the readers what negative effects slavery has on the slaveholders themselves. Douglass successfully shows that slavery makes the slaveholder bitter and brings ultimate sadness into their lives. In addressing the harmful effects of slavery on the slaveholders, he makes one reconsider their moral righteousness and better comprehend the difference between humanity and atrocity. Though there are many other ways that slavery could have been harmful to the slaveholder, Frederick Douglass has shown that these ways given were true and has proven that they were indeed negative effects on the

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1838 Words | 8 Pages

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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