When slavery was abolished in 1865, it was a critical turning point in the journey towards equality for African Americans. Prior to the eradication of slavery writers like Frederick Douglass sought to free millions of slaves in America. While slavery was a well-known and growing problem in the south, it wasn’t as widely recognized in the north. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Douglass recounts his experiences and tribulations as a slave. In the narrative Douglass effectively uses rhetorical imagery, antithesis, and irony in order to expose the harsh reality of slavery during the 19th century.
I would think using the word “racist” when discussing the events from the 1860s and the Civil War would be appropriate. Quite frankly, there is almost no way not to use it, It was a major contradicting issue back then. How could someone state, “God himself has made them usefulness as slaves, and requires us to employ them as such,” and “Our Heavenly Father has made us to rule, and the Negroes to serve,” (Pictures of Slavery and Anti-Slavery: Advantages of Negro Slavery and the Benefits of Negro Freedom Morally, Socially, and Politically by John Bell Robinson) and it not be considered racist. This is a prime example of someone judging and stereotyping a human being just because their skin is a different color.
First Douglass writes about his relatives who were still being held by his old master. He begs Thomas Auld to tell him how they are doing and set them free. However, this is not enough so he asks his master how he would "look upon me, were I, some dark night, in company with a band of hardened villains, to enter the precincts of your elegant dwelling, and seize the person of your own lovely daughter, Amanda, and carry her … make her … compel her … place her … disregard her … feed her … and so on" (105). This is an important rebuttal which asks not only his master, but oppressors in general to imagine the reverse, where they are the ones being treated like that. It allows them to think about what it would be like were they in the same position as Frederick Douglass and his fellows.
A very strong point that Frederick Douglas brings up is this horrible dehumanizing sense slavery gives the slaves. He calls a time where his master had passed away and the land and all property had to be divide among the children. Frederick Douglas states, “there were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being,” (Narrative…Frederick Douglas 35.) Slaves were property, just as he states the animals were, and how a lamp and land is. It makes the struggle slaves went through feel so heavy on our shoulders as Americans because we are always pro-freedom, yet during this dark time we refused to give it to another group of humans due to the difference of skin color.
Tensions rose across the country from those in support support of slavery and those opposed. Many states wanted to outlaw slavery while others adamantly defended it because it was the main institution with a high and consistent revenue. Ultimately, the disagreements over slavery are what lead to the Civil War. The country divided into an “Us versus Them” situation which lead to both sides having growing support for their views and making the groups less susceptible to an agreement. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which freed slaves from confederate states.
Douglass points to the vast unwillingness from the group of whites that refuses to fully perceive and accept African-Americans as deserving and equal citizens of the nation. Based on his personal experiences as a slave, Douglass is abundantly aware that the battle to abolish slavery is not an easy task. For the first twenty years of his life, he witnessed firsthand the abject cruelty of that institution in our country. Tactfully, Douglass seizes this opportunity to publicly highlight the unmerited and coarse differences in the treatment between the whites as opposed to the blacks living in the United States during this time period. He makes a “powerful testaments to the hypocrisy, bigotry and inhumanity of slavery” (Bunch 1).
In this biography ,”narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass” shows how slavery doesn't only negatively affects not only the slaves but also the slaveholders too. Way back when slaves were almost necessary for a farmer in the south, the slaves acted up and the cruel harsh punishments the slaveholders did to keep the slaves in line. Slaves had a cruel terrible life but the slaveholders were almost as bad, from getting threatened when crop wasn't done to becoming a slave himself. According to Douglass in his article, biography of the life of “Frederick Douglass” slavery was one of the most popular and most expensive things on the market yet everybody had one.
The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass shows the imbalance of power between slaves and their masters. In his book, Douglass proves that slavery is a destructive force not only to the slaves, but also for the slaveholders. “Poison of the irresponsible power” that masters have upon their slaves that are dehumanizing and shameless, have changed the masters themselves and their morality(Douglass 39). This amount of power and control in contact with one man breaks the kindest heart and the purest thoughts turning the person evil and corrupt. Douglass uses flashbacks that illustrate the emotions that declare the negative effects of slavery.
Because of this, he successfully creates a contrast between what the slave owners think of and treat the slaves and how they are. Douglass says that slave’s minds were “starved by their cruel masters”(Douglass, 48) and that “they had been shut up in mental darkness” (Douglass, 48) and through education, something that they were deprived of, Frederick Douglass is able to open their minds and allow them to flourish into the complex people that they are. By showing a willingness to learn to read and write, the slaves prove that they were much more than what was forced upon them by their masters.
The mini-series Roots, remade by the History Channel in 2016, accurately depicts the gruesome living conditions of the slaves during their time in captivity. Slaves had many issues in their living conditions, one of them being the treatment they received from their masters. Frederick Douglass, who wrote about his slavery experience, wrote that slave owners often marred their slaves and some even took “great pleasure in whipping a slave” (Douglass 6), as shown by Douglass, who remembers his aunt whom the overseer tied up and whipped “upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood” (Douglass 6). To make it worse, Nicholas Boston from PBS claims slave beatings were regular and there was “almost daily beatings and torturing of
To whom it may concern,/ Dear Sir or Madam, Subsequently reading documented lives of slaves whom have suffered, I have concluded that this was the dark and unethical time of America. In this literary composition I will discuss reasons why slavery is atrocious and America should feel ashamed. Not only taking people from their country and their families, they were sold and appraised for work. There is documented archives to show the cruelty that was being done. Frederick Douglass born in Talbot County, Maryland was born into slavery and wrote about his sufferings.
When discussing slavery, the people that were slaves are seen as heroic for their perseverance and rightfully so. However, when slavery was abolished, what people perceived as the source for the need for perseverance was also abolished. The masters threw down their whips and burned the paper that led them to believe they had the right to own another’s life, and so the former slaves as well. Or should they? A common misconception is that once slavery is made illegal and former slaves are freed, the effects of slavery dwindle out within a generation or two.
In the book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass reveals his life as a slave and the valuable lessons he learned from his experience. Douglass wants the truth about slavery to be revealed and wants to eliminate the lies that portray slavery as beneficial. Douglass exposes the reality of slavery by criticizing the “romantic image” of slavery, showing the intellectual capabilities slaves had, and revealing the reasons why slaves were disloyal to each other. Douglass criticizes the southern, romantic image of slavery by exposing the harsh treatment and sadness that slaves endured. It was southerners who thought slavery as beneficial, because it benefited themselves and white society.
After escaping slavery and seeking freedom in the North, former slaves would often write their testimonies of the cruel life on the southern plantations. One of the best and most recognizable examples of this genre is “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” whose author, Frederick Douglas, became an important figure not only in literature but also in history of fighting for civil rights. He was born into slavery and raised by the grandparents because his mother was assigned to work in a field far away and was not allowed to stay with her son. Life at the plantation was full of abuse and cruelty, which he could witness from a young age by seeing his aunt being whipped. He described slaves’ fear of their masters that often took pleasure in punishing and whipping their property; the hardships of fieldwork where blacks would work all day with only few breaks for meals or how the owners were impregnating black women in order for them to produce more, free laborers.
Many people would think that slavery ended with the abolition in the 19th century but in fact it is double today. Modern day slavery refers to forced marriage, debt bondage, delivery of a child for the exploitation of that child, prostitution and so many others and is taken from the 1956 UN supplementary convention. " Human trafficking” has been used as a term for actions that comprises someone being obtained or a person held in forced service. The main forms of slavery that will be looked at are slavery in labor, where people are forced to work, child slavery, in which people under the age of 18 or even much younger are forced to work in extreme conditions and lastly sex slavery where mostly women and children are forced into prostitution.
