In this passage on pages 66-67 Frederick Douglass addresses the myth of Paternalism in acute detail, attacking every aspect of the myth and debunking it with logic and first-hand accounts. By connecting the Paternalism myth to the white children in his town, he cleverly appeals to the white mothers of the north and makes it easy for them to agree with his pleas. By exhibiting his teacher-like relationship with the white children of his town, Douglass reveals the inaccuracy of the myth that slaves are forever the student. His depiction of the assumption of a valuable role in the children’s lives through such language as “adopted” and “converted” displays how he himself is an example of the erroneousness of the myth (66).
Douglass’s descriptions of the slave trade were extremely vivid, from the details of how American’s viewed slaves, to the sounds of whips cracking and how a woman was encumbered by the weight of the child she carried and the chains that she wore. These details would bring readers to know what it was like to be in a slaves shoes at that time. His speech is driven by first had accounts of the degradations of slavery and would not be credible if it wasn’t for this fact. I believe that Douglass’s tone throughout the speech was hopeful, he enforced the cause of the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society with the hopes of making the United States more complete when slavery ended.
Slavery has been a problem in the United States for centuries. And for centuries nothing was done about it, until the beginning of the abolitionist movement led by white Northerners. Frederick Douglass, a previously enslaved Black man, was the key to unfolding the lies in Southern propaganda. Douglass was essential to countering the proslavery agenda by writing about his stories in his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. This paper will discuss the moral, economic, and racial issues Douglass discusses in his narrative and how he uses these experiences to counter the proslavery lies pushed by the South.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass delves insightfully within the life of a slave, revealing the natures of power and how it affects those who are incapable of handling it properly. In this record, Douglass demonstrates that the system of slavery not only pulverizes the slave, but also the slaveholders. The power that the slaveholders possess, one which is devoid of responsibility, has a dehumanizing impact on them; annihilating their ethics and sense of self-conviction. It breaks the frailest hearts and finest emotions transforming them into those of a devil.
Frederick Douglass was a famous slave writer and black abolitionist leader of the 19th century. The followers of the abolitionist movement argued for a complete abolition of slavery as it was a dehumanizing practice. This was in opposition to leaders such as Abraham Lincoln who argued that slavery had to be tackled down gradually. In this paper, I will be investigating the impact of Black slavery upon human psychology and society through the lens of Frederick Douglass’ life. The case study in this context will be the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave which was published in 1845.
This excerpt from “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave"—Frederick Douglass’s autobiography published on May 1st, 1845—tells the story of Douglass’s life shortly before and following his escape from slavery and explains Douglass’s belief that slavery has detrimental effects on all parties involved. He utilizes a variety of rhetorical devices, including repetition, imagery, and analogy, to depict the powerful emotions and hardships he encountered on his path to emancipation. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in rural Maryland. He spent many years enduring the torture that comes with enslavement. He was subjected to horrible injustices, witnessing and often experiencing the cruel treatment of the enslaved.
In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass reveals several inhumane practices of slavery. He gives great description of the many horrors and evils of this practice along with the damaging effects slavery had on both slaves and slaveholders. During this period, ignorance was the most beneficial tool used to keep slaves ignorant and out of touch with reality. Along with robbing slaves of their identity and keeping them in the dark about basic facts about themselves, slaveholders also used false religion to justify treatment of the slaves. Lastly, Douglass describes the injustice and inhumane suffering and beatings amongst the slaves by white men without them ever having consequences.
Douglass points to the vast unwillingness from the group of whites that refuses to fully perceive and accept African-Americans as deserving and equal citizens of the nation. Based on his personal experiences as a slave, Douglass is abundantly aware that the battle to abolish slavery is not an easy task. For the first twenty years of his life, he witnessed firsthand the abject cruelty of that institution in our country. Tactfully, Douglass seizes this opportunity to publicly highlight the unmerited and coarse differences in the treatment between the whites as opposed to the blacks living in the United States during this time period. He makes a “powerful testaments to the hypocrisy, bigotry and inhumanity of slavery” (Bunch 1).
In the book of Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass” it narrates the life a young black slave to a mature man who gets his freedom. The story of Frederick Douglass is a story to admire, yet hard to understand and believe that for many decades slave like Douglass was a norm. In the early 1800’s when Douglass was born it was inevitable, if you were born a black African American boy or girl you inherited to be a slave. He was born in a slave plantation, where they work for hours of the day with little to no food to survive, minimal clothes and poor sheltering. Slaves in the 1800’s were beaten for any reason or no reason, the power the white men had was like beating an animal.
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.
Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery, separated from his mother at birth. Douglass from the time of his birth, was subjected to the harsh civil injustices and racism prevalent in the 19th century in the United States. By writing details of his life in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass one is able to receive a firsthand account of the harrowing struggles he faces while being in captivity such as having poor living conditions, and experiencing physical punishment at the smallest rule infraction. Douglass is not seen as a person, but rather property, not even aware of the day he was born, “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it” (Douglass 1). At this time, black Americans
Douglass is a African American that was a slave and did a Narrative about his time being a slave and in his Narrative he “threw light” at the American slave system. African American slave Frederick Douglass lived through a time of racism and how slavery was a natural thing to do but was a very awful thing. And slavery is when families who had colored skin were separated and sold of to a person that can do anything to them, the slave is pretty much like the slaveholder’s property. And in this essay I will talk about how Douglass’s position differs from those who supported slavery and also I will be talking about How Douglass used his Narrative to share his position. How Douglass “throws light” on the American Slave system is by showing
Nonetheless, the real realization of the horrific implications the slavery has brought into the lives of many innocent captive people frequently comes only by getting to know the real experiences and the real emotions one has gone through while being a slave. The narrative of Frederick Douglass’ life does exactly that. It lets every reader become aware of more than just historic facts on slavery in America. It lets one see the effects of a system that allows one human being to have an ultimate power over the other on the emotional, mental and physical states of the person who is in
In the book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass reveals his life as a slave and the valuable lessons he learned from his experience. Douglass wants the truth about slavery to be revealed and wants to eliminate the lies that portray slavery as beneficial. Douglass exposes the reality of slavery by criticizing the “romantic image” of slavery, showing the intellectual capabilities slaves had, and revealing the reasons why slaves were disloyal to each other. Douglass criticizes the southern, romantic image of slavery by exposing the harsh treatment and sadness that slaves endured. It was southerners who thought slavery as beneficial, because it benefited themselves and white society.
