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Henry Fairland Garnet Slavery

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The Holocaust, destruction of the Twin Towers, and Trail of Tears are some of the events that most people think of when referring to some of the most awful world events. Slavery in America irrefutably holds the same amount of weight. The conditions that most slaves faced on a daily basis were inhumane and largely unjust. In “An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America” by Henry Highland Garnet, the speaker challenges the slaves passivity and inspires them to revolt such horrendous treatment from their white masters. Garnet believed an expeditious change could happen in America and he uses his condemning voice as a minister to express his opinion on the matter. Through his focus of white bigotry, his religious platform, and logical …show more content…

Black people were treated like property instead of humans. In response to this issue, Garnet accentuates the hypocrisy of the white people who try to rationalize the injustice blacks faced every single day by recalling the history of America. In 1776, the colonies gained their independence through the Revolutionary War. Garnet finds this reality duplicitous because white people should display compassion for an enslaved group, considering at one point, they, too, were oppressed in a similar way. Nonetheless, quite the opposite has occurred within the last two hundred years. Blacks have been stripped of most of their entitled, basic human rights and have become a mockery to white Americans. When the colonies won back their Government, Garnet rhetorically asks, “did they emancipate the slaves?” (292). He then answers with a bold statement and says, “no; they rather added new links to [their] chairs” (292). This metaphor carries an impactful authenticity to his statement because the conditions that blacks are facing are much worse than what whites endured when they were under the British Government. With this being said, his argument is irrefutable. White slave owners are not ignorant of the standard of freedom (292). They understand what it feels like to be persecuted, so there is no acceptable excuse for their heinous crimes. Even …show more content…

He quickly and strategically reaches his audience in this way. He speaks on behalf of the free men in the United States and at the time claims that they cannot “be free while [some] are enslaved” (291). This essentially means, they cannot enjoy their state of freedom until their fellow people are also free. He addresses this statement as being the fundamental reason for writing this speech, and he believes that it is time for a change. After explaining his motives, Garnet immediately starts to use Christian vernacular to further grasp his audience's’ attention, and proclaims his truth, which was shared by many of the slaves also. However, Garnet introduces a new call to action that probably alarms most of

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A group of Africans from the same province realized that the white colonists are facing a similar problem just tike the slaves. The white colonists were protesting how King George’s III policies enslaved them. African slaves asked the white colonists to grant freedom to all slaves since their fighting for the same freedom from the British. This letter hints at an injustice system by how white colonists were threatened to be slaves by the British and started protesting while they owned slaves themselves. This letter shows how just unequal African slaves were seen compared to the white colonists.

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But I refused to speak that name. there was nothing united about a nation that said all men were created equal, but that kept my people in chains” (311). Slavery is a topic that can never get too much media as it is a dark passage in human history, one that should be

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“The gross injustice and cruelty to which slave is the constant victim.” (Doc.4) From frederick douglass’s personal experiences and judgement, he believes that slavery is the worst thing that any country has ever let happen and that

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Unwilling to concede to slavery’s horrors, southerner’s damned abolitionists for what they considered tampering with their property. Abolitionists, in their eyes, spread subversive doctrines that would cause otherwise faithful slaves to become disloyal, even possibly to revolt. Lincoln’s insistence especially towards the end of the debates that blacks and whites were equal in respect to the guarantees of the Declaration was for many deeply radical propositions. At the point when Lincoln articulated that the whole records of the world might be searched with no bore fruits for one single assertion from one single man, that the Negro was excluded in the presentation of autonomous. Another instance is when he avers that whoever teaches that the Negro has no humble share in the declaration of independence is blowing out the moral lights around us, and “perverting the human soul” he mobilizes rhetoric of hyperbole in the name of a far-reaching democratic vision.

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After the British and French war, Peters’s family, hundred members of the Black Guides and Pioneers evacuated from New York to Nova Scotia. However, “in Nova Scotia the dream of life, liberty, and happiness became a nightmare. Some 3,000 ex-slaves found that they were segregated in impoverished villages, given small scraps of often untillable land, desprived of rights normally extended to British subjects, and reduced to peonage by a white population whose racism was as congealed as the frozen winter soil of Nova Scotia.” (Nash 7). At this new place, African Americans were treated really badly.

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Patrick Henry was a free white man, while Henry Highland Garnet was an escaped slave. Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” was given in 1775. At this time, England was oppressing the Americans with the Stamp Act (“Patrick Henry”). On the other hand, Garnet gave his speech, “The Call to Rebellion,” when the issue of slavery was very prominent in 1843 (“Henry Highland Garnet”). Because Henry and Garnet were both shaped by their times and issues, they chose to write about and for these issues.

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On July 4th, 1952, Frederick Douglass delivered a powerful speech in Rochester, New York. He carefully crafted an argument aimed at persuading his audience that the United States must abolish slavery. Douglass strategically focused on highlighting the faults of American slavery, and in doing so, he uses important features such as vivid imagery, emotional appeals, and historical references to build a powerful case for the urgent need to end slavery. One of the most relevant features of Douglas's argument is the use of the imagery. Throughout the speech, he explains a well-focused picture of the brutality faced by enslaved individuals.

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One of the strategies Douglass uses to convince his audience slavery should be abolished is by “calling out American hypocrisy in his Fourth of July oration” (Mercieca 1). He shames them with no remorse. He speaks on the opposite treatments that enable whites to live in a state of freedom and liberty, while the blacks are living in a state of bondage. As the audience listens, he reminds them, there are men, women and children still held hostages to the chains of

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He later goes on to say he could hear the cries of chained slaves passing through the docks in the dead of night and it having a profound affect on his psyche. He also points out that the church is not doing its job because it has the power to condemn slavery and their choosing to remain silent on the issue. He brings to light the Fugitive Slave Law, which gives blacks no due process and civil rights. Under this act freed blacks could very well be accused of being a fugitive slave and have to be transported back to the south.

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In the revolutionary war slaves and their masters played an important role, which led towards the abolishment of slavery. After years, full of several tensions between the United States and Britain tensions erupted in the war of independence in February 1775, which would last till September 1783 (Conway,1). While the Americans fought for their freedom, the Slaves fought for their freedom as well. “African Americans fought a revolution within a revolution,” as Nash writes about the fight of the slaves. (266).

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Douglass establishes his credibility and authority on the issue of slavery and inequality in the United States by drawing on his own experience and expertise. He begins the speech by introducing himself as a former slave and expressing his sadness and disappointment at the Fourth of July festivities which celebrate the nation’s independence while ignoring the ongoing oppression of African Americans. He says, “I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us.” By acknowledging his own identity as a former slave, Douglass gives himself immediate credibility on the issue of slavery and inequality.

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he uses bold words and biting criticism to call attention to the gross injustices and hypocrisy of slavery in the United States. In the opening remarks of his speech, Douglas provides heart-wrenching descriptions to pull his audience into the lives of their fellow

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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.

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From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race of people. To create a group of individuals known for their extreme oppression derived from slavery, required plantation owner’s of the South to constantly embedded certain values into the lives of their slaves. To talk back means to be whipped.

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whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.” Douglas’s use of vivid imagery and onomatopoeia constructs a vivid display of the terrific treatment that many African-American slaves endured. The Declaration of Independence claimed that all men possess the right to obtain life, liberty, and property. To

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