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Frederick Douglass Born Or Made Essay

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What defines someone as a man? What defines someone as a slave? In his autobiography, world-acclaimed author and orator Frederick Douglass demonstrates this. It will be shown what it looks like to look deeper into what it means to be "made' into a slave or a man, and define what it means to be either of them.

During his time as an enslaved man, Douglass says that he was "made" a slave, and "made" a man. This paragraph is going to try and understand what it means to be made a "man" and how Douglass made himself a man. The claim presented is that you are only made a man when you believe you are one. "This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me …show more content…

Was does it mean to be made a slave? This paragraph is dedicated to what it means to be made a slave, and how Frederick Douglass was made into one. The Quote "I was broken in body, soul, and spirit."(Frederick Douglass, pg. 53). Will primarily be used as evidence. The quote put forward by Frederick Douglass describes himself as being broken by Mr. Covey and tells us that before his fight for Mr. Covey, he was broken, and henceforth a slave. Similar to the quote in the last paragraph, Douglass does not state himself as being a slave, but through context clues, somebody can determine how Douglass was made a slave, and what it means to be made a slave. One can see that Douglass states himself as being "...broken in body, soul, and spirit."(Frederick Douglass, pg. 53). The way that Douglass being "broken" attributes to him being made a slave, is because he was broken as he had given up. Along with that, Douglass had begun to believe that he was a slave. The word broken, as it was used in the quote means that Douglass had given up, that he no longer resisted, and along with giving up and being broken, he stopped believing that he was a man, and started to believe that he was a slave. Similar to how Douglass was only a man when he believed he was, he …show more content…

This paragraph is to be dedicated to what Frederick Douglass means by the word "made" used in his famous quote. "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."(Frederick Douglass, pg. 54). The quote to the left shows how Douglass uses the word "made" and is the primary line that will be analyzed in this paragraph. The way that Frederick Douglass uses the word "made" leaves it rather open to interpretation. There are many theories as to what it means to be something, some of which include self-belief (the main theory presented in this essay), meaning that someone is only something when you believe one is. Classical conditioning is the theory that humans do not have a conscience, and that humans are just made of our experiences and responses to stimuli. There are more theories but these are the ones that have examples in the story, so they will be the ones used. The idea is that by the use of the word "made" meaning that someone is made by believing that they are the identity they believe themselves to be. Douglass was made into a man and made a slave by believing that he was either, (At different times of course). But by the theory of classical conditioning, Douglass was only made a man because he experiences something a slave would not, and only

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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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Frederick Douglass wrote his narrative as a freeman, therefore, he is able to reflect on his life as a slave and decode the cryptic artifice of his former slave owners. Douglass lived a harsh life in the south before he made his valiant escape to the north, in order to evade further physical and mental torture. Therefore, Douglass is able to understand what it is like to be an invisible entity with a lack of identity, on physical earth. Metaphors are like string that Douglass uses to weave together a cohesive argument to support the eradication of slavery. As Douglass reminisces on his life he states that he “was made to drink the bitterest dregs of slavery...”

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