Such stories were regularly utilized as promulgation or propaganda: accordingly, Europeans frequently stereotyped Native Americans as merciless and whites started to see subjugation of African-Americans as detestable. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the two narratives which are A Narrative of the Captivity and The interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equianoa. A Narrative of Captivity by Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano are two generally read imprisonment accounts , which, individually, relate the encounters of a grown-up white lady caught by Indians and an eleven-year-old Black male caught for the American slave market. Looking at these two accounts uncovers fascinating similitudes and contrasts and in addition in the encounters and responses of these two prisoners.
The criticism made by the these eight clergyman epitomize the idea of whiteness and white privilege. Rather than to offer assistance and guidance for King and his efforts to diminish racial injustices prevalent in the South, they, instead, offer criticism in an attempt to depreciate King’s fight for racial equity. This rhetoric has occurred often throughout American history, where we see white individuals devaluing and hindering the progress made by individuals of color. For example, one of the critiques that King received was that The Negro community should be more patient and wait for society to move gradually toward civil rights. What white individuals fail to understand is that there is no such thing
In the speech “Kill the Indian, and Save the Man”, Captain Richard Pratt claims that the savagery of the Indians poses a problem to the advancement of the American society. He argues that their surroundings including language, superstition, and lifestyle cause this problem. TO support his claim, he provides the example of an Indian and White infant. He states that raising them in opposite environments will result in the acquisition of their respective qualities. Pratt proposes the solution of sending Indians to boarding schools, so they can gradually become civilized.
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
Randall draws bridges between the Mutiny and religion (and its effects through philanthropy). He examines where, according to those sermons, the blame lay for the uprising – either on Britain as a whole, on the East India Company or simply on ‘heathen’ sepoys, and hints at how accusing each of these alternative culprits involved social and/or racial ideas of superiority of one group over another. For example, Randall makes light on the strategies used by Christian missions to urge for more effective policies toward the Christianisation of India by blaming the East India Company's ban on military missionaries for the ruthlessness of the mutineers. In that sense, Randall joins Salahuddin Malik in showing that imperialism and religion were intertwined, as British – or indeed Western – standards tended to consider Christianity as a basic requirement for being considered civilised. Similarly, Malik demonstrates how the revolt was seized upon by preachers at home with that result.
Written by Frantz Fanon, “Black Skin, White Masks” documents his observations of the colored race living in a white world, specifically racism and how it is internalized by its victims. The author emphasizes the adoption of the white man’s language as an indication of a split from one’s own culture to adapt into the white culture. He also presents chapters examining the relationships of a woman of color and a white man as well as a man of color and a white woman. Fanon further dedicates a section detailing the inferiority of the colored man and the superiority of the white man. Based on his collection of research, observations, and opinions, I believe he was able to convey his topic of study powerfully.
Then it begins to explain to people that there are racial divisions in society. It describes how the main character in “Ceremony”, Tayo, along with other Native Americans were being mistreated. But “Ceremony” is about healing and learning to forgive. The racial divisions in Tayo’s society are extremely serious, and Silko does not let white people go for the ways they historically mistreated Native Americans. This shows the point of view (or attitude) that Silko has for white people.
She has been caught between two fires: racial dehumanization in the form of “slavery” and “lynching” on the one hand, and the call for “being good” and exerting effort for the betterment of oneself on the other. Self-development and betterment of oneself date back to Booker T. Washington who called for peaceful co-existence with white people instead of protesting against racism. He called colored people to work hard and realize achievements in order to prove to white people that they deserve equal treatment. Finney does not agree on some values and beliefs of the past as she criticizes Washington’s viewpoint by portraying a hard-done-by protagonist who has “heard / 7,844 Sunday sermons on how God made every / woman in his image (Finney, Head off & Split 9: 60-62). Parks has also “hemmed 8,230 skirts “for white women and hemmed out “18,809 pants legs” for white boys.
James Baldwin is very explicit in his novel about the conditions of racism in the United States, and where he believes they stem from. Baldwin seems to think it is an internal, and individualized mindset that causes African Americans to fall into their ‘expected’ roles. He tells his nephew, “You can only be destroyed by believing you really are what the white world calls a nigger” (Baldwin 4). Through this quote, Baldwin is appealing to the readers pathos and making them think more deeply about how one finds their own self identity. Is much of modern racism influenced by others opinions on ourselves and on each other?
Novelist Harper Lee, in her book To Kill a Mockingbird, depicts the racism and inequalities in the town of Maycomb by having a white man, Atticus Finch, defend Tom Robinson who was black. Lee’s purpose is to show the world is unfair between races and we need to have compassion for others. She adopts a serious tone to appeal to people’s morals to do the right the thing by those seeking changes for equality. Throughout his closing argument, Atticus ensures credibility, mentioning God, and by presenting evidence that Tom Robinson is not guilty but someone in the courtroom is, to explain Mayella’s reasoning to lie.
Douglass demonstrates how religious hypocrisy morally bankrupts the white slave holders turning them into brutes in their supposedly superior social class. While at Coveys plantation, Douglass sees the religious hypocrisy of the slave holders. The slave holders set Covey above them as if his words and ideas are divine. They have a corrupt sense of morality, using religion as a base for their rules of slave holding
Another similarity between Smallpox and the black death is that they both advanced important movements. Smallpox is credited with being the cause of the rise of the American abolition movement. White people living in the slave ports feared for their own health, which brought the notion of the movement itself. The Black Death is credited with being the cause of the Reformation. Due to people like William the One-day Priest, the church was thought to be corrupt.
The Lost Cause was a set of attitudes, beliefs, white Southern ideals and arguments that coalesced together to form the white Southern narrative of Reconstruction, and the American Civil War. According to Blight, “for many Southerners it became a natural extension of evangelical piety, a civil religion that helped them link their sense of loss to a Christian conception of history. ”(Blight, 257) Moreover, the basic precepts of the Lost Cause movement was founded upon the idea of Southern victimhood, and Federal aggression that resulted with the decline and ignominious fall
Race supremacy have been one of the central themes in American political thought, throughout the colonial era and even today, Race supremacy is something that needs to be discussed seriously and change has to occur effectively. I believe if the authors appeared at Mohawk Mountain this would be huge debate. Some of the authors were Christian and I believe many of them even own slaves and was racist in certain extent. White supremacy have been known to use people of color for labor and feed of their hard-work, emancipation proclamation is a good example of that, it was just a way for the white supremacy in the north to control color people and used them for the war against the south, it was not really about freedom, white supremacy was willing
Puritan leaders, felt it was their job to convince the world that there was a God, and one of the ways in which they did this was showing how the Natives revealed the presence of the devil, in hopes that others will join their pure community out of fear. Throughout The Narrative Of The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, her prejudice terms describing the Natives clearly reflects how powerful and strong of an impact the Puritan exclusiveness of other belief systems has on a person. Prejudice terms as well as other terms were used such as, “savages”, “bloody heathens”, “merciless”, “infidels”, “ravenous beasts”, “black creatures”, “wolves”, etc. . For example, after Rowlandson was taken from her home in Lancaster, she mentions, “I had often before this said that if the Indians should come, I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive, but when it came to the trial my mind changed; their glittering weapons so daunted my spirit, that I chose rather to go along with those (as I may say) ravenous beasts,”.(par 6, lines 1,2,3,4)