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How Did Douglass Set The Stage For Horrendous Behavior

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In the years prior to the Civil War, northerners and southerners experienced violence and madness in their everyday lives. The Civil War resulted from social, political, moral, and religious differences between the north and the south. As the country continued to expand West, Congress consistently revisited the question of slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 proposed by Senator Douglas set the stage for violent territorial disputes over slavery. In 1856, Preston Brooks’, a member of the House of Representative, viciously attacked Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts Senator, for his speech “The Crime Against Kansas,” in which he directly attacked Southern beliefs and actions as savage and inferior to Northern behavior. In this speech, Sumner …show more content…

Moreover, this incident demonstrates the inability for the country to unify as one nation with one mission because government officials had different views for America. Proponents and opponents of slavery consistently battled with each other to claim ownership of the Kansas territory and power within Congress. This incident sparks the question what exactly did Sumner say about Butler to elicit this horrendous behavior? Moreover, why did Brooks attack Sumner, instead of Butler? Also, would Brooks have attacked Sumner if he had denounced someone else? Even though Senator Douglas wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Sumner held Butler personally responsible for this bill because he supported the passage of it; therefore, Sumner attacked Butler. Butler did not defend himself because he was too old and so, Brooks attacked Sumner on behalf of his cousin and his family. Brooks prided himself on his defense of pro-slavery beliefs. He believed that his actions empowered other pro-slavery Congressmen to protect their power and territory. However, even if Sumner had personally attacked someone else, Brooks would have attacked him because he felt that an attack on one southern was an attack on all southerners; the south viewed themselves as a family, held together by strong political, religious, and social values. Brooks witnessed Americans violently attack each other in Kansas and believed that this type of behavior was acceptable. He viewed physical violence as the only effective method to deal with his

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In 1854, the Kansas Nebraska Act was passed to keep both sides content through popular sovereignty. But the failed attempt to create momentary peace only lead to violence between extremists and within the government. Abolitionists and Southerners both migrated to Kansas trying to sway the vote in their direction, but it only ends in violent outbreaks and death. In document E, the image displays how the sectional tensions rose to violent level in the Senate, when Republican Senator Charles Sumner is beaten with a cane on the senate floor by Democratic Rep. Preston Brooks. Even the

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In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass feelings about the songs he heard the slaves sing, provoked anger deep inside his heart. Having grown up in slavery, dealing with the beatings, long hours, hardly any food, and let’s not forget any freedom. It would make him a bit annoyed. It not only provoked anger, but also reveal short-term happiness among the slaves. Frederick stated that, “they would make the dense old woods, for miles around reverberate with their wild songs.”

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When Congress issued tariffs on foreign goods, Southerners believed that Congress favored the North since this tariff would benefit them. John Randolph spoke of this issue, arguing that Congress was being unfair since the South was not benefiting from the actions of Congress at all while the North benefited (Doc A). As for political conflict, there was a clear case of factionalism and political rivalry in 1824 (Doc I). With these conflicts amongst the varying factions and political parties, the political tension and sectionalism within America continued to grow. Accusations and anger from the South further separated them from the North, which did not contribute “good feelings” to the country at

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And the South thought that was a failed compromise. In Document 8: Lithograph by Harry T. Peters, shows two men in the front on the ground while one (Preston Brooks) is beating the man on the ground (Sumner) with his cane. This happened because Senator Charles Sumner delivered a long speech called “The Crime Against Kansas” which included him attacking pro-slavery men and insulting the South Carolina and one of its Senators. Two days after the speech, Brooks broke into the Senate chambers and beat Sumner with a cane. Brooks didn’t like the speech that Sumner gave because Brooks is a pro-slavery man who was offended by Sumner’s speech so he decided to take a stand and defend himself.

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On July 5th 1852 Fredrick Douglass gave a speech to the anti-slavery society to show that all men and woman are equal no matter what. Douglass uses ethos, pathos, and logos in his speech to make look reasonable. Douglass demonstrates ethos by speaking in first person that of which he had experience slavery: "I was born amid such sights and scenes"(Douglass 4). When Douglass spoke these words to the society, they knew of his personal knowledge and was able to depend on him has a reliable source of information. The anti-slavery society listening to his every word, considering that Douglass spoke with integrity, knowledge and emotions.

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In addition to establishing himself as a credible narrator and using anecdotes with repetitive diction and imagery, Douglass also highlights how religion was enforced in slavery. Every slave owner that Douglass belonged to was hypocritical and deceival towards their faith. This is frequently used through all his anecdotes to persuade the reader that slavery is full of non-sense and that the “devoted, peaceful, just, and kind owners” were full of lies. “He seemed to think himself equal to deceiving the Almighty. He would make a short prayer in the morning, and a long prayer at night; and, strange as it may seem, few men would at times appear more devotional than he…

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Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” People will appreciate the nation if there's equality given to everybody no matter their history of good or bad. What Gandhi says about equality, is not shown in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. This narrative about Frederick Douglass informs the audience about the struggles he had with slavery while growing up in the South. The “Developmental Stages of Human Moral Reason” is a theory developed by Lawrence Kohlberg about the moral thought process.

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Group Essay on Frederick Douglass “That this little book may do something toward throwing light on the American slave system”, and that Frederick Douglass does in his eponymous autobiography. Douglass throws light by dispelling the myths of the slave system, which received support from all parts of society. To dispel these myths Douglass begins to construct an argument composed around a series of rhetorical appeals and devices. Douglass illustrates that slavery is dehumanizing, corrupting, and promotes Christian hypocrisy. Using telling details, Douglass describes the dehumanizing effects of the slave system which condones the treatment of human beings as property.

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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.

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The history of slaves was a psychological and physical torture to the mind of a slave and of a master. In his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass writes about his personal experience. He was born into slavery and finally succeeds in running away to the North where slavery is illegal. Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development help explain the behavior of people. Several characters in Douglass’ book show one good example of Kohlberg’s six stages.

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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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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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Just Versus Unjust Violence: A Rhetorical Analysis of Violence in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Uncle Tom’s Cabin Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe present slavery in vastly distinct ways. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, author Frederick Douglass dives into a grisly world filled with bloodshed and in the middle of it a man willing to do what it takes to be educated and in control of his own person, narrated with the voice of reason. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, author Harriet Beecher Stowe depicts a variety of characters, their struggle with slavery and religion, their personal relationships, and their deep inner feelings, with no small degree of emotion and sentimentality. Douglass and Stowe’s use of

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In Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass give you insight on how he struggle while being a slave in the 1800’s, It shows that your current Circumstance can not defined who you are in where you trying to go in life. Douglass had the ability to overcome physical and mental abuse by teaching himself how to read and write. Frederick Douglass real name was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. He was born year 1818 In Tuckahoe County outside of Maryland. He was born into slavery in a time where the color of skin defined who you were.

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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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