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Frederick douglass stance on slavery
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Summary of frederick douglass life
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To make matters worse, on top of the workload, they had to withstand many different multitudes of torture and pain given to them if their work was not finished properly or if they lagged behind. Another part that I found most interesting about this chapter were the sections in which they described the slave to slave-masters relationship as anything but hostile. On many occasions it was explained that slaves were treated as children, which though I realize is very demeaning in some instances, still surprised me, especially in Frederick Douglass’s case. His first masters wife, Sophia Auld, truly seemed to look at him and, at least in the beginning, even treated him as one of her own. It’s possible that this friendliness was due to the fact that Frederick was most likely the product of a slave and her own husband, but it still baffled me.
The master had slaves in the field and slaves in the house. Being a house slave was more crucial than being a field slave. Fredrick Douglass got to experience working in both enviroments. Douglass grew up to working as a house slave and as he got older moved to working as a field slave. At a certain time in the morning, a horn would go off in colonel Lloyd’s farm and all the slaves had to be up and ready to work, if not Mr. Severe, the overseer had a stick to whip them.(Douglass, 346-347) Even though being a field slave was hard but it was harder for Fredrick to work outside with no shoes nor pants nor socks, pratically naked.
In this part of Frederick Douglass’ autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he details the lives of the slaves on his master’s twenty plantations. He talks about what provisions they were given each month and the amount of clothes they received. In this chapter he writes, “The children unable to work in the fields had neither shoes, stockings, jackets, nor trousers, given to them…” (Douglass 6). Here, Douglass illustrates the cruelty that each slave endered with basic necessities.
I heard no deep oaths or horrid curses on the laborer. I saw no whipping of men; but all seemed to go smoothly on. Every man appeared to understand his work, and went at it with a sober, yet cheerful earnestness, which betoken… a sense of his own dignity as a man.” Douglass even goes on to profess that what he saw in the south, such as: dilapidated house, poverty stricken inmates, half-naked children, and barefooted women, did not appear in the north, providing the idea that the south was less wealthy because of the condition of the slaves that lived there. Douglass
Here you must work.” In comparison to that “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” page 31 says, “for when there days work in the field is done, the most of them having their washing, mending, and cooking to do, and having few or none of the ordinary facilities for doing either of these, very many of there sleeping hours are consumed in preparing the field the coming day.” All of these cruel comparisons show how similar they
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.
06/24/2017 Mr. Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass was an African-American social reformer, prominent American abolitionist, public speaker, writer, and statesman. After escaping slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader for the abolitionist movement in the northeastern part of the United States. He became well known and respected based upon his impressive oratory and antislavery writings. Many people that read his work were amazed that he had once been a slave. Mr. Douglass has written several autobiographies which serve the purposes of describing experiences as a slave.
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.
Our author becomes restless in 1838, no longer inclined to turn over his full wages to his master. Often master Thomas would allow Douglass to keep a few pennies of his pay, which angered Douglass even more since this affirmed that his master knew that Douglass was entitled to all of It (Douglas, 1855). Douglass believed his chance for freedom would be successful if he could “hire his time” and save some of the wages (Douglass, 1855). In the 1800’s the term hiring my time refers to a slave hiring his own time for compensation outside of the time
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.
A theme that is found in the novel “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” is that being educated is essential for freedom and liberty. In the novel, Douglass shares his experience as a former slave and how he became free. However, if it weren’t for his ambition to learn how to read and write, Douglass may not have accomplished his goal to be a free slave. When Douglass went to live with Mr. Auld, his wife, Mrs. Auld, “kindly commenced to teach [him] the A, B, C” and “how to spell words”. Unfortunately, Mr. Auld discovered what was going on and apprised his wife about how perilous teaching a slave was and said, “if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him” and that he “would become unfit for
Douglass encountered multiple harsh realities of being enslaved. For example, the ex-slave was practically starved to death by his masters on multiple occasions. In fact, “[He was] allowed less than a half of a bushel of corn-meal per week, and very little else... It was not enough for [him] to subsist upon... A great many times [he had] been nearly perishing with hunger” (pg 31).
In the 1800’s slavery was a major issue in the United States which was dealt with on a daily basis in the South. The “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” Fedrick Douglass himself expresses the differences in the lives of black people in the North and in the South. The South was known to have some of the wealthiest white people in the states, that wealth and power they had was due to the many slaves they had working in their plantations. In the other hand, the North had black people getting paid for their labor, their black people were free. They were treated like human beings and even though they might still encounter problems with some of the whites these problems where nothing compared to the retched life blacks had in the South.
His year with Covey was a life changing experience. Under Covey, Douglass worked the land day and night in all weathers. For the first six months he was constantly beaten and severely punished to increase his productivity. He was whipped with sticks or cow skin. Douglass experienced an “epoch in my humble history,” and explains to readers that “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.”
Douglass’ description concerning the effects of slave leisure time furthers the reader’s understanding of slavery’s dehumanizing effects. While working for Mr. Covey, Douglass was designated a field hand. Douglass began working long and hard hours. Sundays were his only leisure time during the week. He spent this time in a “beast-like stupor”.
