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Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass And Religion

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Frederick Douglass is a great orator. And he is also known for being a great abolitionist. His work details his life experiences as a former slave and states his theory on slavery whis literature. In the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” he talks about how religion and the Bible had a effect on slavery. In the narrative, Douglass introduces himself by sharing his place of birth and also his age. Douglass states that he cannot verify this information because as a slave, he was kept ignorant of this information. In the text, he explains the deficiency of knowledge slaves had due to their masters and slaveholders. The slaveholders would keep slaves uneducated to keep them from striving for freedom. Douglass tries to show the explanation …show more content…

Due to its large popularity, people including slaves started to practice Christianity. Douglass states that there was Christianity in accordance to Christ and Christianity in accordance to the American community. He depicts Christianity as the pure, peaceable, and balanced Christianity of Christ. “I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, woman whipping, cradle plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land”(Douglass Appendix 1). What Douglass is trying to say is that slaveholders do not intend any goodness. It is hypocritical to practice the Christianity of Christ when the slaveholders put the slaves through excessive amounts of labor without a sufficient amount of food or rest, beating, along with murdering without consequence. He also shows the relevance between the slave masters who did or did not practice religion. The non-religious masters and slaveholders we're not as cruel or bitter than the religious slaveholders. The question that began to surface is why some people would act this way under the Christian belief. The idea of how starving, beating, and killing a person could be

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Religion played a crucial role in Douglass’ life as a slave. Religion began as an excuse that his master would use to justify his cruelty. “I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes,--a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,--a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds,--and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection. Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me.

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486 Words | 2 Pages

Douglass tells us this by saying that he believes anyone who is a slave owner cannot be a Christian. In his view, he believes being a slave owner violates the very principles of being a Christian. Auld quote he believes that the Christianity practiced by the Slave owners and the Christianity practiced by non-slave owners are two

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Throughout the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, Douglass develops an image between true and false Christianity. Douglass demonstrates his point in the opening argument by calling the former “the Christianity of Christ” and the latter “the Christianity of this land.” Douglass describes the ordeal that slaveholders’ Christianity is not a given evidence of natural goodness, but an artificial state of self-righteous brutality. To tackle this variation, Douglass states a common indifference between what is known as the charitable, peaceful beliefs of Christianity and the negative of violence from the immoral actions in which slaveholders bring. The character that is described as a good example for this theme is Thomas Auld.

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1080 Words | 5 Pages

During the time when Douglass wrote this book, there were several myths which were used to justify slavery. The slaveholder during his time justified this inhuman practice using different arguments. The first argument they used was the religion. From the narrative, Douglass says that slaveholders called themselves Christians which was the dominant religion by then.

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685 Words | 3 Pages

He was not the only one who “found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty.” In fact on a spectrum of christian slaveholders, he was quite moderate in his cruelty, as there was a slaveholder, Mr.Freeman, who saw to it that one of his slave’s backs was completely raw from lashings for several

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It is said that, “…even when Douglass explicitly acknowledges the Bible’s unity in Christian justifications of slavery, he does not seem to criticize the Bible itself, only its interpreters” (Hutchins, 297). One of the core arguments throughout his work is the necessity for Christians to throw off preconceived notions, and truly respond to Scripture as it

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Frederick Douglass in his narrative “Why I learned to Read and Write” demonstrates how he surpassed many obstacles along the way towards getting an education. These obstacles not only shaped Frederick’s outlook on life but also influenced him in his learning to read and write. Frederick’s main challenge was that of not being an owner of his person but rather a slave and a property to someone else. Frederick Douglass lived in the time when slavery was still taking place and slaveholders viewed slavery and education as incompatible. The slave system didn’t allow mental or physical freedom for slaves; slaveholders were to keep the apt appearance and slaves were to remain ignorant.

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“ I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, woman-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.” (Douglass 100) Douglass does this to show how hypocritical people in the South were being. Churches were teaching the Christian practice of being kind and compassionate while not actually practicing it themselves. Douglass argues that the actions of some people are against religion.

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Throughout his narrative, Douglass’s descriptions of the white slaveholders expose the Christian hypocrisy found in the American slave system. Douglass first does so by exposing how the lesson taught by Christians to help those in need is contradicted by the experiences Douglass has especially with hunger. Douglass reflects on these experiences when he states that for the “first time during a space of more than seven years” feeling the effects of the “painful gnawing’s of hunger…” (54). This event shows the Christians’ lessons of selflessness and kindness is hypocritical as they treat their fellow humans as subhuman. The Christians at the time rely on scripture to make a case for slavery in America.

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Mathew DeWinters Paper #2 Fredrick Douglass The Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglass shows many occasions were slavery and religion collides between a master and a salve. Douglass demonstrates the way religion and the bible have had negative impacts on slavery as well as development of Christianity. Douglass has betrayed some very harsh criticism for the slave owners that betrayed to be Christian that he came into contact with over the course of his life. Douglass tells his readers that he believes people cant be Christian and be a slaveholder, he tells the readers that by doing this they are acting as hypocrites.

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He proclaims that "…While we are…living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!" By showing the mundanity of the slave, Douglass shows the audience that the slaves are human and therefore unable to be considered property. He forces his audience to examine their own lives and realize their similarities to the slaves and the hypocrisy of slavery. He doesn't give his audience a chance to disagree with his stance on slavery because he makes such a blunt argument. Douglass asks again, "Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man?

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973 Words | 4 Pages

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is Frederick Douglass’s autobiography in which Douglass goes into detail about growing up as a slave and then escaping for a better life. During the early-to-mid 1800s, the period that this book was written, African-American slaves were no more than workers for their masters. Frederick Douglass recounts not only his personal life experiences but also the experiences of his fellow slaves during the period. This book was aimed at abolitionists, so he makes a point to portray the slaves as actual living people, not the inhuman beings that they are treated as. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, slaves are inhumanly represented by their owners and Frederick Douglass shines a positive light

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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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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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812 Words | 4 Pages

Also, in the same chapter, Douglass’ expresses his feelings for Mr.Freeland stating, “I will give Mr.Freeland the credit for being the best master I ever had” (Douglass 49). Douglass’ states that Mr.Freeland was not religious but he was the best master he ever had. It is ironic that non-religious slaveholders treat their slaves better than religious slaveholders. Therefore, Douglass notes the irony of religious and non-religious slaveholders: religious slaveholders being more cruel than non-religious slaveholders. Douglass perceives how slaves are treated worse than animals.

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