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True By David Brown Analysis

487 Words2 Pages

. It continues to underpin today’s capitalist world. Additionally, the internalization of these individualistic values led people to justify their own bad actions, even when they knew that their actions were clearly wrong.

David Brown, a Northern traveler who ventured down into the South in the 1850s, transcribed an encounter between some Northerners traveling to the South to explore investment opportunities through slavery, and a Southern poet. After exploring one single plantation where the master happened to be generous, the Northern travelers came to the conclusion that slavery was not as horrible of an institution as it truly was. However, knowing that this was atypical of the regular slave owner, the Southern poet argues that this …show more content…

‘But,’ said the poet, "you must not expect to find all masters like Mr. R. He has always felt his great responsibility deeply, as a Christian master of slaves; and with his best powers and faculties, he fulfils (sic) its obligations, faithfully and affectionately. Among all the apostles, there was but one St. John." ‘And but one Judas,’ interposed a bystander.
‘True,’ continued the poet; ‘and if there be not found among slaveholders, - as I think there are not, - a greater proportion who shamefully and cruelly betray their trust, there would seem no good reason for the wholesale condemnation of the institution; which we are so often pained to hear, knowing as we do, that the laboring negroes of the South are so far more comfortable than the laboring poor, both white and black, at the North.’ ‘And yet,’ said one, ‘Slavery is still slavery.’
‘Yes; and poverty is still poverty; and misery is still misery; and evil, of every kind, is still evil; and it is likely, for a long time to come, to remain so. Every condition of life has its own peculiar evils; and that would seem the most desirable which has the least and the

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Auld’s misinterpretation of the passage emphasizes slave owners use of religion to reinforce their power over their slaves. Christianity rationalized the concept of buying and selling human beings, and that God approved this too. In addition, Douglass used religion as a way to fuel his abolition movement. Under Master Hugh’s, Douglass began to learn how to read and write. Once

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In document eight, Frederick Douglass proclaims “I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than any other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim.” This statement revealed the extreme unfairness that a slave endured, that the Constitution promised freedom for the future generations, yet slaves were treated like property. In document one, George Fitzhugh explains how slaves were some of the “freest people in the world”. The southerners believed that slavery was a way of life, and there was nothing wrong with it. Being raised that way, slavery was all they knew.

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Christianity was, to the slaves of America, (something with a double meaning). In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Frederick Douglass, the author, argues about how Christianity can mean one thing to a free white man and something completely different to a black slave. The slave owners follow the ‘Christianity of the Land’ while the slaves follow the ‘Christianity of Christ.’ Frederick begins to build his credibility to a, white, northern, audience by including documents from trustworthy writers and by getting into personal experiences through his writing. Throughout the narrative, he is articulate in how he writes, and it shows the reader that he is well educated.

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Douglass states, “I had very strangely supposed, while in slavery, that few of the comforts, and scarcely any of the luxuries, of life were enjoyed at the north, compared with what were enjoyed by the slaveholders of the south. I probably came to this conclusion from the fact that northern people owned no slaves.” Douglass was brainwashed with this idea since he grew up in a society where you labor for free, with all the reward returning to the slaveholders. His idea of, “in the absence of slaves, there could be no wealth,” was soon debunked by the cleanliness, beauty, and strongest proofs of wealth that he found in the north. The work proved better and more humane too, “There were no loud [sad] songs heard from those engaged in loading and unloading ships.

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Even in making their laws, Douglass shows that the states “punish disobedience on the part of the slave” (113). Slaves having the ability to be punished for their actions is nothing but an “acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being” (113). With a clear understanding of a slave’s manhood, Lincoln bolsters

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Douglass is relentless when attacking the church, he states, “The American Church is Guilty” (Douglass 1039). This has a slightly taste of irony, because here Douglass, a colored man, is calling out the most “sacred” body of people. It almost as if he was the master and they were the slave now. Next, the main theme expressed by

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The author also made it known that many plantation owners were accepting positions to claim that "to the Negroes, slavery seemed natural; knowing no other life, they accepted it without giving the matter much thought” (429). Which seems odd because blacks were transported to America and sold to the highest bidder. Their lifestyle prior did not resemble what they had endured in America. When arriving to America they had the impression they were here to help the white man not be inferior to

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It is said that, “…even when Douglass explicitly acknowledges the Bible’s unity in Christian justifications of slavery, he does not seem to criticize the Bible itself, only its interpreters” (Hutchins, 297). One of the core arguments throughout his work is the necessity for Christians to throw off preconceived notions, and truly respond to Scripture as it

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He later goes on to say he could hear the cries of chained slaves passing through the docks in the dead of night and it having a profound affect on his psyche. He also points out that the church is not doing its job because it has the power to condemn slavery and their choosing to remain silent on the issue. He brings to light the Fugitive Slave Law, which gives blacks no due process and civil rights. Under this act freed blacks could very well be accused of being a fugitive slave and have to be transported back to the south.

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It is a common argument for Christian slaveholders to make “…that God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right…” (5). this argument exposes their hypocrisy as it conveys how they attempt to stretch small pieces of scripture to justify the violence of the American slavery. Douglass thus asks if it is humane to use a small piece of writing to damn an entire race to hardship and subhuman treatment. This case of blasphemy is amplified by the observation that Douglass makes of one of his slave masters, Mr. Covey, in that “he seemed to think himself equal to deceiving the almighty” (61).

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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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From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race of people. To create a group of individuals known for their extreme oppression derived from slavery, required plantation owner’s of the South to constantly embedded certain values into the lives of their slaves. To talk back means to be whipped.

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Douglass has shown how religious slaveholders are the worst especially when entertainment comes into play. The first being from one of his slaveholders Master Thomas, he whipped a young woman while reading a quote from the scripture to explain his reason for whipping her. The next example was with his other Master Mr.Covey, he would go to church and preach the word but come back beating slaves and going against the almighty God. The last example that is shown is again shown with Mr.Covey, he was guilty of compelling his woman slave to commit the sin of adultery. All of the examples illustrate that religious slaveholders are worst than non-religious slaveholders.

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Religion and its relationship to slavery is a contradictive subject, whether it was forced upon slaves or was a form of hope and freedom is still commonly debated about to this day. However, these individuals were devoted Christians in the abolitionist movement who all

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