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Frederick douglass literary analysis
Essay about frederick douglass biography
Essay about frederick douglass biography
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Douglass demonstrates how religious hypocrisy morally bankrupts the white slave holders turning them into brutes in their supposedly superior social class. While at Coveys plantation, Douglass sees the religious hypocrisy of the slave holders. The slave holders set Covey above them as if his words and ideas are divine. They have a corrupt sense of morality, using religion as a base for their rules of slave holding
Frederick Douglass published two similar versions of his fight with the ‘slave-breaker’ Edward Covey in the tenth chapter of his The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, and in the seventeenth chapter of My Bondage and My Freedom. By comparing the two accounts it is possible to see an evolution of his thoughts on abolishing slavery and person hood which occurred in the years which transpired between the two works, 1845 and 1855. In the first account which Douglass wrote at around the age of 27 he narrates a physical confrontation where he refuses to allow himself to be whipped. Douglass struggles for two hours with Covey and also fights off Covey’s cousin at the same time.
Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood… My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact. I did not hesitate to let it be known of me, that the white man who expected to succeed in whipping, must also succeed in killing me.” Analysis: There are several turning points on Douglass's journey from slavery to freedom, but the fight with Covey marks his largest turning point.
Most of history is seen through the eyes of those of privilege, education, and wealth: royalty, nobility, and merchants. There were those of less fortune or lower class that were educated enough to be able to record their experiences and points-of-view, but they were far and few between. Especially in early America, from immigrants, slaves, free blacks, natives, and indentured servants. “In Defense of the Indians” by Bartolome de La Casa, “An Indentured Servant’s Letter Home” by Richard Frethorne, “Ads for Runaway Servants and Slaves”, “The Irish in America” by John Francis Maguire, and “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass are by or about the natives, slaves, indentured servants, and immigrants in the early
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass is a very great perspective for people of today to understand what it was like to be a slave in the 1800’s. It tells the story of the slave Frederick Douglass and how he began as an uneducated slave and was moved around from many different types of owners, cruel or nice, and how his and other slaves presences changed the owners, and also how he educated himself and realized that he shouldn’t be treated so poorly It was at the point later in the book that I realized how some slaves might have felt during slavery in the 1800’s. When Douglass is sent away to Mr.Covey he is treated pretty badly but eventually he stands up to Mr.Covey and demands that he stopped being treated like an animal.
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.
Such as, the fact that Douglass was a slave, meant he was treated solely as owned property and his basic human rights were deprived from him. Additionally, that delayed him from receiving education for the time he was held captive. Therefore, it goes to show that knowledge is power and he was at a disadvantage because of that, which meant that he got out of slavery later on to advance. Additionally, Covey rented him for a year, he made him perform rigorous labor while whipping him to the point that he was soulless basically. As a result, he altered and fought back which would make Covey never to dare make contact him ever again.
In Frederick Douglass’s book, he writes accounts of his time in slavery and beyond. Throughout the book, Douglass writes about not only the physical hardships slaves endured, but the mental and emotional hardships as well. In Chapter X, Douglass describes a battle he had with a temporary slave owner named Mr. Covey. After the fight concludes, Douglass writes, “This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.
He had a slaveholder who was always “cursing, raving, cutting, and slashing among the slaves of the field, in the most frightful manner” (29). Although he was rarely beat, he constantly have to go without food and be in the cold. There was also Mr. Covey, who was a notorious “slave breaker” who gave Douglass “ a very severe whipping,
One way Douglass made his point was by telling a story about how Caroline, a slave of Mr. Covey, was forced into adultery by Mr. Covey. The women in slavery were sometimes bred like animals and “Mr. Covey may be said to have been guilty of compelling his women slave to commit the sin of adultery” (37). Caroline
Resolving to fight back against Covey thrusts Douglass into manhood and is the first instance of justified violence seen in the novel: “It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood...and inspired me again with a determination to be free” (68). Although up to this point the violence described was portrayed as completely unjust and terrible, here the reader is to understand that, for the slave, this type of violence may not only be necessary, but completely justified when attempting to gain
In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass's battle with his master Covey is a turning point in his career as a slave in that he resolves to no longer be docile and subservient as a slave. In fighting back against Covey, Douglass frees his mind from the psychological effects of slavery. Douglass's battle with Covey marks the end of Douglass being obedient and not questioning the word of authority like he was brought up to do. Douglass vows that "the white man who expected to succeed in whipping, must also succeed in killing me." (Douglass, 83) By refusing the role of an obedient slave, Douglass also refuses the slave mindset and liberates himself.
In addition, Douglass shows himself to be Covey’s opposite as brave man while Covey shows as a coward. Douglass could gain a new sense of empowerment, an attitude of independence, and self-determination to fight for his
Obviously, a slave is bound to his master , so when Douglass hits Mr. Covey it speaks a powerful message to the general public. He feels at ease, and almost free when he disobeys his master, a path which many slaves wouldn't dare to take. Douglass also was taught to read and write, a forbidden task among slaves as it could make them have status and plot ways to escape their masters, by Mrs. Auld, a former mistress of his. So when Douglass was “sent of errands” he always “took his book” with himself and “by going one part of “ his “errand quickly” he would find “time to get a lesson” before he returned to the Aulds household (Douglass). When Mrs. Auld taught Douglass how to read, it brought his perspective of life as a slave to a whole new level.
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
