Imagine that you were born as a slave and you constantly suffered or saw someone you love suffer. Fredrick Douglass wrote a book called Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, which was about his experience with slavery. In the Narrative of the Life of Fedrick Douglass, Fedrick Douglass wants to change his reader's beliefs about what it means to be dedicated to the American idea that "All men are created equal" by telling about physical abuse and awful living conditions of slavery.
To begin with, Douglass writes about when physical abuse is involved is when he witnesses his aunt gets whipped. In the text, it states, "He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush...", (Douglass, Chapter 1, Paragraph 8) This can change the thought of saying that all men are created equal because Douglass showed that slave owners never showed mercy to their slaves. Another piece of evidence to prove that Douglass tries to change his reader's beliefs about equality is when he writes about when Mr. Covey beats and whips him. Douglass explains," Mr. Covey gave me a severe whipping cutting my back, causing the blood to run, and
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One thing that he wrote was about the lack of food that they received. According to the text it states, "The men and women slaves received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork... and one bushel of corn meal.", (Douglass, Chapter 2, Paragraph 3). So, just imagine eating less than ten pounds of food each month, and if you finished it all before you would have nothing to eat until the next months. Another piece of evidence that he uses to change the reader's beliefs on equality is no bed to sleep. Douglass stated, "There were no beds given to the slaves, unless one coarse blanket be considered such.", (Douglass, Chapter 2, Paragraph 4). This connects to awful living conditions because they couldn't complain that they had no bed or they'd get
The Detriments of Slavery In Narrative, Frederick Douglass describes his personal experience as a slave and how slavery is dehumanizing. As Douglass strives for freedom from slavery, both mentally and physically, he explains each of his masters and how they change throughout their lives of being slave holders. Douglas argues that slavery is not only physically and mentally detrimental to the slave but additionally, the slave owner. Both slave and slave holders suffer physically from slavery. For a slave, physical suffering is due to lack of necessities or being treated harshly.
Douglass argues that slavery has a horrible effect and it is a bad thing. One piece of evidence is when in excerpt 3 paragraph 3 the text states that ¨Mr. Covey gave us enough to eat, but scarce time to eat it.¨ Another piece of evidence is in excerpt 4 paragraph 12 ¨Causing blood to run where I touched him with the ends of my fingers.¨ This shows that slavery is a thing that can cause pain and has a horrible effect on slaves. This disproves people who believed that was a good thing because this shows that someone can get hurt when they are enslaved.
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.
Douglass begins uses paradox to show how slavery was inhuman by acknowledging how slave overseers treated the slaves when did wrong or doing what was not told by them. ‘’ He would whip her to make her scream and whip her to make her hush. ’’(page 5). Douglass appeals
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).
What this piece of evidence is illustrating is that there should not be equality for non-whites because it benefits the slaveholder because they make a huge profit off the slave. Another way that Douglass uses his Narrative to share his position is by sharing stories about how Frederick
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.
For example, they thought the negroes were much less educated and fortunate compared to the whites, which is why the negroes had the jobs of being slaves. Douglass proves that all black and white people should be treated equally, no matter which race you are. Douglass disproves this theory, by fighting back against Mr. Covey. “This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave” (69). Douglass’s actions of fighting back against Mr. Covey set the tone of vindictive, disproved that all negroes should be ruled by their white masters.
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.
All the terrible and inhuman things that Douglass describes are the practical and usual things that happened in his time, they are not extraordinary. His true stories and multiple details from his life give the reader an idea about the effects of slavery on the life of different people in the
In America, opposition to slavery started with acts of defiance such as “slave resistance”, where African American slaves would rebel in several ways to attain greater freedom. While this “revolution” gathered steam, with slaves often running away from their masters and finding shelter in swamps, lakes or in cities that believed in their cause, more organized forms of opposition, led by reformers like William Garrison (Document E), who founded The American Anti-Slave Society, also started gaining traction. The growing opposition to slavery, by both slaves and their white sympathizers, eventually culminated in a determined abolitionist movement that highlighted the plight of so many and galvanized public opinion against an appalling institution. The abolitionist movement (the organized opposition to slavery) gained momentum in the late 1700s as state after state in the north abolished slavery (Document A), starting with Vermont in 1777.
He claimed “Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see me with a newspaper.” Douglass integrates his personal encounter to elaborate on what he had experienced and reveal how his mistress had started acting like a “real” slave-owner. With strict laws to abide by in the South, Douglass’ mistress is turning from ignorant to experience. Douglass continues to emphasize why his mistress did not want him to read and states “She seemed to think that here lay the danger. I have had her rush at me with a face made all up of fury, and snatch from me a newspaper, in a manner that fully revealed her apprehension.”
PAGE 2 In the Narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he uses this text to explain his purpose in “throwing light on the American slave system”, or show it for what it really is, as well as show his position on how he strongly believes slavery is an issue that needs to be addressed and how it differs from those who defended slavery, with experiences from his own life to support his argument. Douglass uses experience from his early days as a young slave to throw light on the aspect of physical abuse. According to his narrative, Douglass states, “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder.
Him comparing other slaves, men, to wild beasts shows how the slaves were horribly treated and demoralized. Douglass also shows how even a slave's mind can be corrupted into believing they are less than human and how he feels that African Americans are not equal to Whites and how they are seen more like animals than humans. Douglass’s use of similes could persuade a reader to join the abolition movement, if they come to understand the conditions that Douglass is comparing. Frederick Douglass’s narrative consists of figurative language. His figurative language is intended to catch the eye and an emotional response of the reader.
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.