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The Effects Of Slavery In The Narrative Of Fredrick Douglass

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Recommended: Examsples of slavery in the narrative of the life of frederick douglass

Cynthia Keo 12/22/2022
Room 303 Slavery; Is it flawed? ELA

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”
― William Wilberforce

I ask you to think of this question, and to use your judgement, from the perspective of both slave and enslaver; is slavery ethical, righteous, and noble? In the Narrative of Fredrick Douglass, Douglass experiences ignorance being used in slavery, being withheld an education due to his race, the effects of slavery changing someone's moral compass, and distortion of a …show more content…

Most noticably, his first account of the effects slavery had, was seeing slave masters selling and beating their own children, because they were darker and are counted as slaves, because their mothers are slaves. Most children conviced from this ordeal, are children, whos mother has been raped, for profit and pleasure, and was the norm in society to sell slaves, even if they were family. In the text, it says "And, cruel as the deed may strike any one to be, for a man to sell his own children to human flesh-mongers, it is often the dictate of humanity for him to do so; for, unless he does this, he must not only whip them himself, but must stand by and see one white son tie up his brother, of but few shades darker complexion than himself", and it also says "In all its glaring odiousness, that slaveholders have ordained, and by law established, that the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts, and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well as pleasurable". We can infer that the text is talking about those who are mixed, and what happens to their mother and them, only because they're African American. This shows how slavery is an unethical, corrupted, and flawed

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Written in 1845, the same year as the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, the text has much to say about the role of slavery in Christianity. Dilbeck describes Douglass as, “a kind of prophet crying in the wilderness of Christian slaveholding America” (Dilbeck, 48). He goes on, saying, “Douglass spent a lifetime pleading with white Christians… to acknowledge how thoroughly slavery had distorted their view of reality and kept them from loving as Christ loves” (Dilbeck 48). Douglass attempted to portray his disgust with modern Christianity around him. He believed that what he saw in the church of America could not truly be how the church ought to look.

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“I find, since reading over the foregoing Narrative, that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent of all religion.” (Narrative in the Life of Fredrick Douglass, 389). The differences between the faith practiced by Douglass, and the faith practiced by his owners, was the interpretation of what the Bible was saying. Based on Fredrick’s narrative, we can interpret that slave owners used the Bible to justify their inhuman, unmoral actions onto other people. While Douglass interprets the Bible as something a Christian will use to maintain moral habits.

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Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the  kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.

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Years A Slave) Douglass explains a different way families were broken apart when he writes “Mulatto children favors which he withholds from his black slaves. The master is frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves … to sell his own children to human flesh-mongers, it is often the dictate of humanity for him to do so; for, unless he does this, he must not only whip them himself, but must stand by and see one white son tie up his brother …” Douglases quote displays how slavery dehumanizes everyone involved in slavery. A mulatto child is the child of the slave and a white man or enslaver but because of slavery this family broke apart as this child now is now fighting against their own family to survive. Family and one's parental responsibility is a part of a family's humanity which is always crushed by the stresses and norms slavery brought to

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Slaves were lied to and manipulated by slave owners, thinking the life that slave owners were offering would change their life. Douglass says that “to make a contented slave ... make a thoughtless one … darken his moral … feel that slavery is right… only when he ceases to be a man” (104). Douglass shows that slaves were tricked into accepting their enslavement. No one in this universe in his right mind would ever accept such a condition, there is only one thing for the masters to do and it was to destroy the slaves' minds. Douglass was a smart man and he didn’t like the feeling of being controlled by others.

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