ipl-logo

Sufferings Of Slaves In Speech By Frederick Douglass

147 Words1 Pages
One instance when the nation's mentality towards slaves changed, was when Frederick Douglas expressed the sufferings of the slaves in his speech. Before beginning to explain about the struggles, and everyday abuse that the slaves had to overcome, Douglas states, “The evil that men do, lives after them, the good is oft-interred with their bones” (Douglas 1). This confirms the fact that what the slaveowners did to the slaves was evil, and wrong. Whether one performs deeds of shame or deeds worthy of praise they will always be remembered for what they did. During the 1800’s slaves were treated as objects, they had to work long hours on the plantation whether they were tired or not. These practices were cruel, heartless, and unjust. At one point
Show More
Related
305 Words | 2 Pages

In chapter 6, Douglass says that people slaves and slaveholders are affected by slavery, I believe its true. Douglass had a new Mistress who had never owned a slave before she was married and didn't know what would come of it. She had the heart made of pure gold, she didn't care if a slave would look her in the face. Her mere presence had put the stingiest of slaves at most soothing. All she was to him at the beginning was genuine smiles and the sweet sounds of her voice.

Read More
441 Words | 2 Pages

Frederick Douglass, a former slave and famous abolitionist, wrote My Bondage and My Freedom in order to prove he was a slave before being an amazing orator and also to prove the power knowledge has when it is used precisely. Originally, Mrs. Auld thinks Douglass deserves to be able to read just like her son. Mrs. Auld later becomes “violent in her opposition” to Douglass’ reading because her husband puts her in “check” (Douglass 521). The author uses his words to appeal to the ethos of the audience by creating a seemingly kind and innocent perspective of Mrs. Auld and later completely reversing it.

Read More
638 Words | 3 Pages

Slavery was a cruel thing humans used to do in the past. Many slaves became famous abolitionists. One such slave is Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass wrote an autobiography to explain the horrors of slavery. This book was called The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass.

Read More
522 Words | 3 Pages

The auto-biography “An American Slave” of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass is about the life of a life of a slave who eventually became free due to his advantage of education. Douglass discussed his experience of being born into slavery and escaping and becoming the symbol of strength and hero he is known as today. He, in detail, explains how contradicting the Constitution and the actual society in that time period were to each other. Douglass’ purpose of writing this novel was to not only tell his story but to also express his attitudes towards the “American Promise” and the “American Individual”. In the novel Douglass used similes, metaphors and imagery to convey his personal attitudes about the American Promise and the American Individual

Read More
252 Words | 2 Pages

Beginning in the 17th century, European settlers began using African Americans laborers as a cheaper source of work. In southern American colonies, slavery spread like wildfire. African American slaves worked on tobacco, rice, cotton and indigo plantations. Most slave owners forbid their slaves from learning to read and write, and typically did not treat them humanly.

Read More
309 Words | 2 Pages

Besides, Douglass has utilized the ironic tool in the paragraph of his essay. For instance, although he lived as a slave at the time of his learning process, he explains to the readers that he brought bread when doing one part of chores so he could exchange for a reading lesson from local children before his return. He acknowledges: "I felt much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood" (Douglass 26), which is ironic because Douglass himself would probably be in a worse position. Moreover, this kind of irony also presented at the top of the essay, Douglass called himself a slave which reminded the audiences that slaves did not happen in some faraway land; it happened in America – the land of freedom that can also be the land of slavery. Additionally, it is hard to believe for the white American that in the mid-1880s, a black person could even learn to read and less write a book (Shmoop Editorial Team).

Read More
570 Words | 3 Pages

Douglass' audience for this work is those who want to know the cruelty of slavery. His audience was anyone who was interested in the topic. A majority of white men and women either didn't own slaves and wasn't able to see the cruel inhumane nature of the act or they were numb to it because black people were viewed as less than humans. If you remove the humanity from a person you become numb to any cruelty. Douglass' goal was to prove and show how slavery was inhumane and offered nothing but cons to the slaves and their masters.

Read More
841 Words | 4 Pages

Parades, Speeches, and Chains? Frederick Douglass was an orator who fought for his people’s freedom by speaking in front of large crowds. He thought the celebrations taken place of independence and freedom were foolish and unfair for those who were slaves. He believed American slavery was not recognized enough to take action in granting those slaves their freedom. In Frederick Douglass’ speech “The Hypocrisy of American Slavery”, he used irony and juxtaposition to illustrate his opinion about slavery and freedom to educate his audience about the topic, and the injustice of slavery.

Read More
1984 Words | 8 Pages

Douglass claimed that although slavery was abolished, blacks were living under a different kind of slavery after the Civil war. Discrimination and racism was prominent and there were few laws enforced. “So long as discriminatory laws ensured defacto white control over Southern blacks, then ‘slavery by yet another name’ persisted. ‘Slavery is not abolished,’ he contended, ‘until the black man has the ballot’ with which to defend his interests and freedom.” (Howard-Pitney 485).

Read More
856 Words | 4 Pages

Rushi Varatkar Mrs. Daniel Period 3 Due Date: 4/1/2024. Dehumanization of Slaves in The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass. Back in the 1800’s, there lived a powerful slave who, not only knew how to write and read, not only fought against slavery, but wrote several novels on slavery, dehumanizing slaves and their enslavers. His name was Fredrick Douglass.

Read More
1080 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1117 Words | 5 Pages

Frederick Douglass was a former slave, journalist, author and a human rights activist. In his autobiography, the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, Frederick describes the inhumane and cruel practices of his masters, the conditions of the slaves’ clothing, food and sleep and their relationship with the slaves. Frederick’s first master was Captain Anthony. He draws him as a brutal man who brings pride and pleasure in beating his slaves.

Read More
604 Words | 3 Pages

Slavery in Douglass’s Narrative is portrayed as a destructive force which affects every aspect of life it touches. Despite being a slave, Douglass was able to acquire the enough knowledge that allowed him to consider his position as well as the positions of other slaves and slaveholders. From his point of view both slaves and slaveholders are devastated and utterly changed by slavery. He managed to give several examples on how the white slaveholders were morally and psychologically corrupted under this institution. Ironically, these white slaveholders refused the abolition of slaves despite being corrupted by slavery themselves.

Read More
1344 Words | 6 Pages

“One who is a slaveholder at heart never recognizes a human being in a slave” (Angelina Grimke). This quote was created to show the effect that slavery had on not only the slave, but the slaveholder. The slaveholder would dehumanize the slave to the point where the human was no longer recognizable; instead, the slave was property. Throughout this autobiography, Frederick Douglass uses language to portray the similarities and differences between the two sides. He allows the reader to spend a day in the life of a slave to see the effects from it.

Read More
616 Words | 3 Pages

What common themes bond together the literary works of the 1800’s? Frederick Douglass and Kate Chopin both realized that people were not being treated fairly and thus it influenced their writing. Through personal experiences and observations Frederick Douglass conveyed how African Americans in My Bondage and My Freedom were treated unfairly. Kate Chopin used the plot to show how women were treated unfairly in “The Story of an Hour”. My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass tells of some of the experiences he went through as a slave.

Read More

More about Sufferings Of Slaves In Speech By Frederick Douglass

Related Topics

Open Document