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Slavery Argumentative Essay

592 Words3 Pages

Fredrick Douglass's memoir highlighted a very dark time in history. During the time of slavery, it is shown a disconnect between slaves and slavers. The memoir also does a very good job of highlighting the many ways that slave owners could justify their behaviours. Whether through religion, law, or lies, it is shown the many ways that slave owners would justify their actions. During the time of slavery, many slave owners were religious. Religion is important because it is one of the ways that slave owners justified their actions. “He found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty” (Douglass, PG. 47). The quote shows that the slave owners beat slaves less because they feared God. Going to church, slavery was shown to be accepted by God. Saying God allowed for slavery was ironic because in the bible it is stated, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (NIV Bible, Matthew, 22.37–39). The quote boils down to loving everyone equally no matter …show more content…

Slave owners would use the legal system to justify their actions. “We were delivered up to the sheriff, Mr Joseph Graham, and by him placed in jail” (Douglass, Pg. 68). The quote above references when Douglass almost escaped his masters. The sheriff taking in the nearly escaped slaves shows (at least at the time) slavery was legal. The law on the side of the slave owners shows that the slave owners could have thought of what they were doing as right. “He is a desperate slaveholder, who will shock the humanity of his non-slaveholding neighbours with the cries of his lacerated slave“ (Douglass, Pg 35). In the court of public opinion (at least in the south) slavery was seen as a very necessary and good thing. The only line that seemed to rarely be crossed was beating the slaves. Law was another factor that led to slavery being very prominent but there are still other reasons for slave owners to justify their

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1590 Words | 7 Pages

He rather rejected the manipulation of doctrine utilized by the slaveholders to achieve their end. Douglass wrote 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" (965). Religion was therefore not only a means of false justification for slave owners, but also a source of unified protection against any criticism of slave practices that could arise. Douglass seemed to insist that there was a genuine form of Christianity that was based upon love of God and love of "thy neighbor," but that these Southern practitioners certainly had not converted to the belief in such a doctrine.

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