How Does Douglass Illustrate The Dehumanization Of African American

In “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” Frederick Douglass recounts his journey from slavery to freedom, providing a powerful firsthand account of the brutalities and injustices faced by African Americans in the 19th century United States. The narrative sheds light on the dehumanization of enslaved individuals, the struggles of not giving up on their rights, and the importance of education during a period in American history. He has provided historical phrases in his narrative that shed light on his experience as a slave and helps the reader have an understanding of how slaves as well as him were treated. These phrases have helped readers be able to picture the cruelty enslaved individuals had to endure. In chapter one, there are

One of the reasons why masters had no consequences for the torture of slaves was because of the approval that the “Barbadian law gave masters the right to kill a slave”(Block 3). Although slaves would face torture on a daily basis, they kept fighting for their rights. Douglass mentions “I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” (Douglass 77). This quote emphasizes the idea that action is necessary to notice change in justice. Changes couldn’t be done if there were no source of action, as mentioned in an article “the exercise of freedom of speech and assembly was essential to the success of abolitionism”(Vile). Apart from keeping slaves from freedom, they were also kept away from education. For instance, in chapter 7 it is mentioned that “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”(Douglass 32). Education for slaves worked as liberation, as they could no longer be fooled. Masters tried their best to keep slaves from learning but failed to, as Kim expressed “slave did, in fact, learn to read and through this learning, they developed new strategies to gain