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Why Is Frederick Douglass Not A Benevolent Master

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From the beginning, Douglass’ life was a struggle; especially since his first master, Captain Anthony, and overseer, Mr. Plummer, were both merciless beings. The title “Captain” was thought to have come from Anthony’s time sailing the Chesapeake Bay. Described as “a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slaveholding”, Captain Anthony would often take sadistic pleasure in torturing Douglass’s Aunt by tying her up and whipping her until she bled. Mr. Plummer also took part in these heinous acts. He was “a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster.” At times, even Anthony had to stop Mr. Plummer from beating a slave too hard. Frederick Douglass was born on a farm, bound for a harsh life as a slave. In his lifetime, he had two masters, Captain Anthony and Master Hugh. Master Hugh was the second slave owner that Douglass had and he was no better than Captain Anthony. Based on the text, I can infer that Master Hugh was not a benevolent master. He prevented Douglass from learning to read and write, most likely because many white people back then believed that they had power over blacks by depriving them of their education. According to the excerpts, when Frederick first heard of …show more content…

However, he did not start to ponder what it meant to be a slave until he was what he guessed as 12 years old. He said, “the thought of being a slave for life began to bear heavily upon my heart.” It made Frederick “regret his own existence and wish himself dead.” His status as a slave affected him greatly. Douglass was not able to learn traditionally in a schoolhouse so he decided to come up with his own way of learning to read and write. This may have affected him while he was younger but it did not discourage him, as Douglass continued to hope for his freedom one day. It did not stop his efforts in learning, but rather propelled him forward and made him even more determined to

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Douglass uses paradox to demonstrate that slavery degragrates the slaverholder. When Douglass under Mr. Sever’s care he described that: “He was less cruel, less profane… He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. ”(Douglass 24). Most slaveholders are characterized to be cruel and inhuman because of the whipping and the way they treated the slaves.

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381 Words | 2 Pages

A slave once said to himself that he wished he was an animal, “Anything… just to get rid of thinking.” After reading this excerpt, Life of Frederick Douglass, learning more horrid things about slavery, the criminal and unaccepting ways of the enslavers, and the struggles of the slaves, I now know what us “white’s” have done wrong in our history. We treated others of different colors as if they were different, unpleasant to the eyes, or unintelligent — but the one thing we didn 't see in them is that they too, were human. Who is Frederick Douglass? When Douglass was young, he had been sent to Baltimore along with someone named Hugh Auld, a relative of his first master.

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633 Words | 3 Pages

In Frederick Douglass’s book, he writes accounts of his time in slavery and beyond. Throughout the book, Douglass writes about not only the physical hardships slaves endured, but the mental and emotional hardships as well. In Chapter X, Douglass describes a battle he had with a temporary slave owner named Mr. Covey. After the fight concludes, Douglass writes, “This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.

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814 Words | 4 Pages

The fact that the slaves choose to attend Douglass’s school despite the possibility of painful repercussions proves that they had a desire to grow

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582 Words | 3 Pages

Frederick Douglass in his narrative “Why I learned to Read and Write” demonstrates how he surpassed many obstacles along the way towards getting an education. These obstacles not only shaped Frederick’s outlook on life but also influenced him in his learning to read and write. Frederick’s main challenge was that of not being an owner of his person but rather a slave and a property to someone else. Frederick Douglass lived in the time when slavery was still taking place and slaveholders viewed slavery and education as incompatible. The slave system didn’t allow mental or physical freedom for slaves; slaveholders were to keep the apt appearance and slaves were to remain ignorant.

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935 Words | 4 Pages

Slavery is equally a mental and a physical prison. Frederick Douglass realized this follow-ing his time as both a slave and a fugitive slave. Douglass was born into slavery because of his mother’s status as a slave. He had little to go off regarding his age and lineage. In the excerpt of the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

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498 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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387 Words | 2 Pages

As a slave, he determined that his intense desire in his life was getting education and found a way for hisfreedom. When Frederick was eight, he was sent to Baltimore as a houseboy for Hugh Auld, Captain 's son-in-law 's brother. Sophia, Auld 's wife, taught Frederick to read, but Auld, who believed that education would ruin slaves, made them unhappy and run away; so that Sophia turned to cruelty and became an evil with inhuman as the slavery being. From that point on, Frederick was grateful Hugh Auld and his wife who unwittingly gave Douglass the key to escape slavery because he realized that education and knowledge would be enlightenment and the path to freedomfor himself and his colored people later. He continued teaching himself to read and tried to grow up his knowledge by learning from the local boys in exchanging for reading lessons, the ships’ carpenters, and theMethodist hymn books.

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753 Words | 4 Pages

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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793 Words | 4 Pages

Education gives hope for Douglass’s life since he began to truly understand what goes on in slavery. As he figured out more about the topic, his self motivation poured out hope in his life. As Frederick saw an opportunity to become

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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

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1523 Words | 7 Pages

The American person has no true ideals, or beliefs that make him or her up. Americans are free to believe in what they want, think what they want, preach what they want, and most importantly say what they want . Authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass, and Walt Whitman show in their texts such as “Self-Reliance” , The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass , and “I Celebrate Myself” that there is no true definition of the American identity. The American identity can be seen in the many aspects of peoples lives, and a a quality that many Americans portray is the ability to have individual thoughts and emotions as well as the capability to not conform to society because they stand up for their own individual rights. A

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560 Words | 3 Pages

Although Frederick Douglass was not expected to be literate, he taught himself how because he believed that education should be for everyone, not just a few privileged children. Frederick Douglass was a slave for life in the southern United States before the Civil War. He had no regular teacher because, at that time, most slave owners did not believe that their slaves should be taught to read and write. White slave owners thought that if slaves knew how to read, they would go against their owners and fight against slavery.

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836 Words | 4 Pages

Douglass’s master forbade his wife from continuing to teach Douglass the alphabet because his master

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1838 Words | 8 Pages

This shows that the way a Master behaves around a slave can be very influential, and Douglass explains that he was compelled to give all his hard-earned money to Master Hugh because the influence the Master had on him was to give him everything he worked hard for. Next, on page 10 of his Narrative, Douglass proclaims, “They never knew when they were safe from punishment. They were frequently whipped when least deserving, and escaped whipping when most deserving it. Every thing depended upon the looks of the horses,

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