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How Did Frederick Douglass View Of The Slaveholders

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Frederick Douglass was one of the brave slaves. Douglass sat back and obeyed his slaveholders until he could not take anymore. Slaveholders kept slaves from running away and loyal by instilling fear in them, making sure they knew little to nothing, and to separate them from their families. If a slave did not know what it was like to live lavishly, they would not want to escape. The slaveholders did everything they could to belittle the slaves, they had to make sure that they did not know their worth. They were treated like they were animals and worthless. Animals were treated and cared for better than the slaves were. Most of the slaveholders were not nice to their slaves on purpose. It was an act that made the slaves believe that …show more content…

The slaveholders did not believe that they should know much. When Douglass was staying with The Auld’s, Mrs. Auld was teaching him how learn and spell. Mr. Auld did not approve, he stated, “A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master – to do as he is told to do” (Douglass 20). It was almost as if he thought that it would make him more than what he thought he was worth. Later, Mrs. Auld developed the same attitude and was even worse. Her husband instilled in her what he thought slaves were supposed to be. He made sure that she did not make them believe that they were anything more than what he thought they were. To Douglass, that made him want to learn even more. It sparked a new flame within him and made him want to prove Mr. Auld wrong. From the outside looking in, it is evident that the slaveholders were trying to keep the slaves away from anything good. If a slave could learn how to read or write, they could create a plan to escape. The slaveholders only traded their slaves when it benefitted them, the slaves did not have a say so. The only way they were disloyal was when they tried to escape. When it came to holidays, the slaveholders did not tell them that they should have the time off, being that it was a holiday. They all gathered around and joked about their ignorance towards it. Douglass seemed to see through all of the slaveholder’s doings. He was determined to get away …show more content…

Douglass was separated from his mother and did not get to communicate with her often. He said, “unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child” (Douglass 2). When a child is taken away from their parents early on, they really do not know what love is there. It is harder for them to miss the relationship or even know that there was one. Their parents are not there to do what parents normally do. They are separated first hand so that they will not think that there is anyone out there who truly cared for them. For Douglass, he knew about his mom but he did not feel the normal mother to son connection. He thought it was normal to not be with his mother on a everyday basis. When he was not allowed to be there when she was dying or go to her burial, it did not have the normal effect on his. It did not throw him for a loop nor did he feel bad for not being there. The slaveholders probably separated families so that they could not team up and run away. They did not want them to connect with anyone or build enough trust. What the slaveholders failed to realize is that they would eventually build relationships with the people around them. If anything, being around each other made the process of being a slave go easier. They had each other to lean on and find strength in each other to withstand.

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Keeping slaves ignorant was a way that slave holders kept slaves submissive. If you have a person who isn’t knowledgable and posses understanding, then it makes them to be dependent on another person. In the text written by Fredrick Douglass, he explanins it felt to once had the opporunity to learn how to read and then have that right taken away from him. He was first taught by the wife of the slave owner, when he was about seven years old.

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Douglass narrates his parentage to demonstrate the hardships confronted when a master adopts the guise of a father. The sinister desires of the slaveholders wreck the lives of their youngsters. It also dehumanizes the master who whips or sells his children, led by nothing more than respect for the feelings of his white wife, breaking the solidarity of the family and dividing the house upon itself.

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He was born to a woman slave and a white man. He was raised primarily by his relatives and only occasionally met his mother, who died when he was a young boy. He never met his father, but knew only that he was a white man. During this time, he witnessed the first-hand horrors and mistreatment of slaves and spent many days hungry and cold. Shortly after the death of his mother, Douglass was sent to live with a man in Baltimore and his life became relatively normal for several years.

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Douglass continued to fight slavery and was a part of some of the greatest events in history. Frederick Douglass' first hand experience in slavery, outstanding oral and rhetorical skills, and faithful friends fighting for the same cause all helped him influence people and become the historical figure he is

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In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.

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Having an education and being able to read and write caused the slaves to be “unmanageable”. Douglass went to Baltimore to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld. Mrs. Auld began to teach him his A, B, C’s; that was until Mr. Auld told her she needed to stop or she was going to make him unmanageable and unfit to be a slave. Mr. Auld told Mrs. Auld “A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master- to do as he is told to do” (Douglass, “Narrative” 960). These slaves were kept from having an education, which would ruin their hopes of living once they had freedom.

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Douglass being a slave for so long made him think why does the color of his skin make him a slave to people of racism. Douglass achieved the freedom for his people by standing for others,who couldn’t

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“My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant- before I knew her as my mother.” In this quotation, Douglass explain how he was separated from his mother as an infant, which resulted in a hindrance of his affection towards her. “For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it is to be to hinder the development of the child’s affection towards its mother... This is the inevitable result.” As a result of his relationship with his mother, when she died it did not affect him as much because he barely knew her; the only time he saw his mother is when she would walk twelve miles after dark to lie next to him.

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During the 1800’s in the United States, African Americans were seen as being animals and not as people by the white population. Because of this mindset, whites treated blacks as animals on their plantations. In American slavery, blacks were not allowed to live together as families, but were often split up at birth or soon afterwards. Frederick Douglass (1895/1995), famous abolitionist, in his work, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, states clearly that he did not know who his father was and saw his mother at night only because she lived at another plantation, twelve miles away. (p.2)

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The legendary abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass was one of the most important social reformers of the nineteenth century. Being born into slavery on a Maryland Eastern Shore plantation to his mother, Harriet Bailey, and a white man, most likely Douglass’s first master was the starting point of his rise against the enslavement of African-Americans. Nearly 200 years after Douglass’s birth and 122 years after his death, The social activist’s name and accomplishments continue to inspire the progression of African-American youth in modern society. Through his ability to overcome obstacles, his strive for a better life through education, and his success despite humble beginnings, Frederick Douglass’s aspirations stretched his influence through

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The American person has no true ideals, or beliefs that make him or her up. Americans are free to believe in what they want, think what they want, preach what they want, and most importantly say what they want . Authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, and Walt Whitman show in their texts such as “Self-Reliance” , The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass , and “I Celebrate Myself” that there is no true definition of the American identity. The American identity can be seen in the many aspects of peoples lives, and a a quality that many Americans portray is the ability to have individual thoughts and emotions as well as the capability to not conform to society because they stand up for their own individual rights. A

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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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Deshanna Glenn ENG 1300 Letter to my old master, Thomas Auld “Yon bright sun beheld me a slave - a poor degraded chattel - trembling at the sound of your voice, lamenting that I was a man”(Frederick Douglass). Mr. Frederick Douglass spoke intelligently and articulately in this well-written letter to his old master, Thomas Auld. Douglass used metaphors, wit, and irony in this sentence to his master, He sounded, “removed” and placid as he spoke very straightforward, bold, yet respectful way about the degradation of being treated as personal property instead of a human being. There is a little melodrama in there

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Have you ever wondered how life was for the slaves in the South? Slaves in the South suffered through many consequences. For example, they suffered through many whippings with cow skin if they didn't obey their master, they also got separated from their family mostly the fathers, so, they can be sold to a very mean slave owner. Even if they were living a miserable life on the farms, they had their own culture and they managed to even get married in the farmland or where they worked. Not only did the slaves live on the farm.

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Douglass states “the practice of separating children from their mother, and hiring the latter out at distances too great to admit of their meeting, except at long intervals, is a marked feature of the cruelty and barbarity of the slave system” (Douglass, 24). In other words, the children that were being separated from their family by the system, was not worth being with their family. Slave owners thought that they are not worth being human themselves. Meaning, they are more like animals and cargo instead of a human being. The slaves were stripped from their identity.

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