ipl-logo

What Is The Relationship Between Frederick Douglass And Religion

1063 Words5 Pages

Frederick Douglass has wrote many autobiographies in his life time. But, the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, Written by Himself left a lasting impact on his readers. From slavery to freedom, Frederick Douglass tells his story of all his trials and triumphs throughout his life. Throughout his narrative he makes relations to the importance of education and learning how to read and write. Douglass also makes relations to the duality of Christianity and religion with slaveholders. The purpose of the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, is to show the cruelty within being a slave. To show the misconceptions of Christians, and to rise above slavery. Douglass rose above slavery by transforming …show more content…

Frederick Douglass first encounter with Christianity was when he was living with his master in St. Michael’s. Douglass was first introduced to a Sabbath school where he would learn to read the New Testament. This ended very soon due to two class leaders and other “forbidding them to meet up again.” Douglass quotes “I have said my master found religious sanction for his cruelty (Slave narrative, 354).” Douglass wanted to show the duality of Christianity and religion within slave holders. Slave holders would constantly practice one thing, but do another. Douglass has created a certain stereotype of slave holders such as being a hoax. He illustrates the conception of how you can call a slave your family, but whip them severely and mistreat them. Use slaves for their labor and take their wages at the end of the day. How can we have “men-stealers for ministers, women whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunders for church member (slave narrative, 398)?” In Douglass’s Narrative he shows how corrupt the slave holders are and the “hypocritical Christianity of this land (slave narrative, 398).” As you can see religion plays a big role in Douglass’s life and in his search for freedom. While being a slave under Mr. Freeland, Douglass and others had a desire to read. On Sundays Douglass would meet everyone at the Sabbath school where he would teach his fellows how to read. For each slave who attended did not attend because it was popular but because they wanted to learn. For every moment each slave “spent at that school they were given thirty-nine lashes (slave narrative, 372).” Frederick Douglass did not teach them because it was reputable. Douglass taught them because their minds were heavy and ready to learn. Douglass wanted to enlighten his people and help them. With helping them he helped himself. For living through and being able to help teach his people Douglass makes a reference to “giving credit to Mr.

Show More
Related
555 Words | 3 Pages

1. Fredrick Douglass witnessed harsh and violent actions throughout his slave life, as slave owners utilized Christianity as a justification for these actions and for the system of slavery. Douglass experienced this religious abuse throughout his life as a slave. However, in 1832, when he began working for Captain Auld, he witnessed the misuse of religion in the setting of a violent action. After Auld whipped a young woman, he justified his actions by quoting the Bible: “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many strips” (33).

Read More
732 Words | 3 Pages

By appealing to the emotions of the reader, Frederick Douglass can build his argument of how awful slavery was and how the slave owners used Christianity to justify what they did. In the book, Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the author uses his language to bring meaning to what he is writing. He creates an emotional connection to the reader using pathos, and builds his argument using the credibility of others, using ethos. In his book he uses his words to prove his argument to the reader of how the slave owners would use Christianity to justify slavery and violence, and how slavery affected everyone who was

Read More
526 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1080 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1806 Words | 8 Pages

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.

Read More
559 Words | 3 Pages

In “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” there are many ironic actions related to religion. Douglass does his best to give us personal accounts of events he witnessed. Douglass also gives the reader a better understanding of how slaves were treated and how many people backed up their actions with

Read More
1049 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout his narrative, Douglass’s descriptions of the white slaveholders expose the Christian hypocrisy found in the American slave system. Douglass first does so by exposing how the lesson taught by Christians to help those in need is contradicted by the experiences Douglass has especially with hunger. Douglass reflects on these experiences when he states that for the “first time during a space of more than seven years” feeling the effects of the “painful gnawing’s of hunger…” (54). This event shows the Christians’ lessons of selflessness and kindness is hypocritical as they treat their fellow humans as subhuman. The Christians at the time rely on scripture to make a case for slavery in America.

Read More
392 Words | 2 Pages

Douglass managed to overcome the maltreatment of his wretched slave owners through the eventual attainment of freedom. The injustice imposed upon the African-American slaves by their owners was the crux of Douglass’s motivation to escape this inhumane life. Adolescents in today’s society could use Frederick’s determination as an example of moving forward to better oneself or one’s situation regardless of

Read More
560 Words | 3 Pages

Douglass states: “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery” (Douglass 51). Reading and writing opened Frederick Douglass’s eyes to the cause of the abolitionist. He became knowledgeable about a topic that white slave owners tried to keep hidden from their slaves. Literacy would eventually impact his life in more ways than what he could see while he was a young slave under Master Hugh’s

Read More
973 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
1574 Words | 7 Pages

Douglass is a African American that was a slave and did a Narrative about his time being a slave and in his Narrative he “threw light” at the American slave system. African American slave Frederick Douglass lived through a time of racism and how slavery was a natural thing to do but was a very awful thing. And slavery is when families who had colored skin were separated and sold of to a person that can do anything to them, the slave is pretty much like the slaveholder’s property. And in this essay I will talk about how Douglass’s position differs from those who supported slavery and also I will be talking about How Douglass used his Narrative to share his position. How Douglass “throws light” on the American Slave system is by showing

Read More
1727 Words | 7 Pages

He became known as an inspirational person. Not many people are willing to go against what others believe, but Douglass was. His slave owner thought that it was “unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read” (Douglass 29), but that did not stop him from pursuing further knowledge. Education has a powerful effect that makes others fear that one has superiority over them one way or another. Slaves had their basic human rights taken away from them because slave owners wanted them to lack the ability to form an opinion on what was happening to them.

Read More
692 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
812 Words | 4 Pages

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an autobiography told through the eyes of Frederick Douglass himself. Douglass was born as a slave; he was an African-American abolitionist and orator. In the book, Douglass highlights numerous cases of irony associated with slaveholding. Throughout his narrative, Douglass examines the irony of religious slaveholders and one of his non-religious slaveholder. He also speaks of the irony in which slaves are treated below animals.

Read More
257 Words | 2 Pages

With this, Douglass is addressing the topic of slavery and whether to abolish it or not. And goes about telling the hardships he went through.

Read More

More about What Is The Relationship Between Frederick Douglass And Religion

Open Document