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The Narrative Of The Life Of Fredrick Douglass

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The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass presents an insight into the power differences between a slave and his master. In this account , Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave but also the owner. The “poison of irresponsible power” that masters hold has a damaging effect on their morals and beliefs (Douglas 39). This immense control in the hands of a person will break their kind heart and finest feelings turning them into those of a demon. Douglass uses flashbacks , deep characterization, and appeals to the emotions to address the negative effects of slavery. Douglass recounts his own life events to show the difficulties faced when a master plays the role of a father. He explains that the vile desires of the owner will destroy the lives of his children, “The master is forced to sell his mulatto children or constantly whip them out of deference to the feelings of his white wife“ (Douglass 17). This situation destroys the …show more content…

One character is Sophia Auld, Hugh Auld’s wife. Before slavery took its complete effect, she was a sympathetic and nice woman who understood moral righteousness. However, recognizing “ the white man’s power to enslave the black man,” she transformed into an evil and cruel owner (Douglass 40). “The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work”(Douglass 39). Another example is Thomas Auld, having come into ownership of his slaves through marriage, he was not used to the power and responsibility of owning slaves. By using his religion as sanction, he could be a cruel and inhumane man while still having support. The alteration of kind to cruel is an important component to prove the dehumanizing effects of slavery on slaveholders. This characterization provides a powerful argument that slavery is not only bad for slaves, but slave owners

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The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass challenges and enhances information from the textbook America a Narrative History. In Chapter 13 of the textbook, the Second Great Awakening is mentioned, and the author talks about how large camp meetings were held, which resulted in many converting to Methodism. Similarly, Douglass, as his master attended one, mentions a camp meeting, where Douglass hoped his master would become kinder or emancipate his slaves, however, instead it made his master crueler. In addition, in Chapter 15 the conflict between a true Christian and a Southern Christian is brought up. In both the narrative and the textbook, the fact that slavery is endorsed by the bible is brought up as part of the pro-slavery movement.

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“Letter to My Master, Thomas Auld” explores Frederick Douglass’ view of slavery and Thomas Auld, his former slave master, in a smart and emotionally charged letter originally written in 1848 and published in the abolitionist newspaper North Star. Throughout the letter, Douglass uses his own experience as a slave to drive his views, often using sarcasm and a dark recognition of his trials to drive his own view of slavery; that slavery should be abolished and that it is inhumane and cruel. Douglass’ decision to publish this paper in the North Star allowed him to bring to light his experiences to push other readers of the newspaper towards an abolitionist stand point by bringing his first-hand accounts of slavery forward and explaining, at times

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1049 Words | 5 Pages

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Frederick Douglass Use And Abuse Of Power Essay

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One character, Sophia Auld, Captain Auld 's wife, before becoming a slaveholder’s wife,has a kind and understanding moral character. However, seeing “the white man 's power to enslave the black man,” she became a cruel slave owner”(Douglass 40). (insert commentary)“The fatal poison of the irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work”(Douglass 39). Another example is Thomas Auld. He became corrupt and inhumane after inheriting slaves through marriage.

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In life, humans have many different traits that describes themself. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass shows life a slave in the nineteenth century. In the story, Douglass brings us back in time to show his experiences of the hypocrisy of human nature. Disputes with Douglass and his masters are seen throughout the story showing both the good and bad traits of human nature. American literature of the nineteenth century reveals that human nature embodies contrasting traits such as love and cruelty through the uses of literary devices.

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    Douglass uses deep characterization to show the change in behavior of slaveholders who have uncontrolled power. A good example of this is Sophia Auld. Before slavery took effect, she was a kind and caring woman who comprehended moral righteousness. She had never owned a slave before Douglass. Owning Douglass soon changed her into an evil slave owner when she realized the power, “the white man’s power to enslave the black man” that she had (Douglass 41).

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Education Determines Your Destination Education is the light at the end of the tunnel, when Frederick uses it he discovers hope. In the story the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick goes through many struggles on his path to freedom, showing us the road from slavery to freedom. At the beginning of the book, Douglass is a slave in both body and mind. When the book ends, he gets both his legal freedom and frees his mind. The path to freedom was not easy, but it got clearer when he got an education.

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Frederick Douglass: Overcoming Obstacles

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Douglass managed to overcome the maltreatment of his wretched slave owners through the eventual attainment of freedom. The injustice imposed upon the African-American slaves by their owners was the crux of Douglass’s motivation to escape this inhumane life. Adolescents in today’s society could use Frederick’s determination as an example of moving forward to better oneself or one’s situation regardless of

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Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Analysis

508 Words | 3 Pages

In the slave narrative titled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the author Frederick Douglass suggests that slavery is not only negative for slaves, but it is also negative for slaveholders Douglas support his claim by telling the reader about how when a master gets a slave pregnant he sells the children when they were old enough. The authors purpose is to inform the readers about the hardships that slaves faced when they were children of white men and how it affected the way that their masters/ fathers, or the masters white wife would act and treat the slave. This earnest tone is followed throughout the book. Frederick has first hand knowledge of how having “mulatto” children, children with black women, affected the slaveholders

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Frederick Douglass Position Of Slavery

1574 Words | 7 Pages

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

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Theme Of Abuse In Frederick Douglass

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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Frederick Douglass: Religious Slaveholders

692 Words | 3 Pages

Douglass has shown how religious slaveholders are the worst especially when entertainment comes into play. The first being from one of his slaveholders Master Thomas, he whipped a young woman while reading a quote from the scripture to explain his reason for whipping her. The next example was with his other Master Mr.Covey, he would go to church and preach the word but come back beating slaves and going against the almighty God. The last example that is shown is again shown with Mr.Covey, he was guilty of compelling his woman slave to commit the sin of adultery. All of the examples illustrate that religious slaveholders are worst than non-religious slaveholders.

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Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Irony Analysis

812 Words | 4 Pages

Lastly, Douglass’ explains his thought on slavery and from what he says it becomes ironic. One of the ironies in the book that Douglass talks about is how religious slaves are more cruel than non-religious slaves. In chapter 9, Douglass’ master, Thomas Auld, became

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