Frederick Douglass And Freedom Analysis

They resisted slavery through the rebellion of Non-violent schemes such as sabotaging, malingering and poisoning of their Slave masters. “If a man does not stand for something they fall for anything” (Marshall) and that includes believing that anything is accepted even slavery and slave laws. The Enslaved blacks that resisted inhumane treatment were people who had integrity even if that integrity was chartered towards death. They were many Enslaved blacks who were discontented with their condition on the lodging grounds and sought the satisfaction to improve it in whatever way they can. They can be considered as peace or freedom leaders because they fought back regardless of the circumstances.

Benjamin Banneker, the son of former slaves, wrote to Thomas Jefferson in 1791 to argue against slavery and that the freedom and tranquility we enjoy is a blessing from heaven. The author uses quotes, diction and rhetorical questions to develop and support his claims. Banneker’s purpose is to get Thomas Jefferson to consider the morals of slavery. The intended audience is Thomas Jefferson and any other government official who reads this letter. To begin, Banneker uses an intricate choice of words to express how unhappy he is with slavery and those who allow it.

After escaping slavery and seeking freedom in the North, former slaves would often write their testimonies of the cruel life on the southern plantations. One of the best and most recognizable examples of this genre is “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” whose author, Frederick Douglas, became an important figure not only in literature but also in history of fighting for civil rights. He was born into slavery and raised by the grandparents because his mother was assigned to work in a field far away and was not allowed to stay with her son. Life at the plantation was full of abuse and cruelty, which he could witness from a young age by seeing his aunt being whipped. He described slaves’ fear of their masters that often took pleasure in punishing and whipping their property; the hardships of fieldwork where blacks would work all day with only few breaks for meals or how the owners were impregnating black women in order for them to produce more, free laborers.

In the excerpt of the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave,” Douglass discusses the horrors of being enslaved and a fugitive slave. Through Douglass’s use of figurative language, diction and repetition he emphasizes the cruelty he experiences thus allowing readers to under-stand his feelings of happiness, fear and isolation upon escaping slavery. Figurative language allocates emotions such as excitement, dread and seclusion. As a slave you have no rights, identity or home. Escaping slavery is the only hope of establishing a sense of self and humanity.

From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race of people. To create a group of individuals known for their extreme oppression derived from slavery, required plantation owner’s of the South to constantly embedded certain values into the lives of their slaves. To talk back means to be whipped. To fail to do work to a respectable level means to be sold to another plantation and ripped away from one’s family.

He published his autobiography which helped the many people who read it realize that slaves were really people to and how wrong it was to treat them the way they did. He expressed his life story through his writing and shows the unfairness the way of the people. Douglass was a large impact who showed real and true meaning of being a leader. Another historical figure known as Harriett Tubman was a leader of her own she guided hundreds of enslaved characters to freedom, was a union spy during the civil war and was an abolitionist. She started out as a slave and escaped and once she became free she too thought that everyone should know what it is like to be truly free she lead many friends and families and those family’s friends to freedom.

In “We Wear the Masks,” Dunbar displays the oppression and pressure that the black community faced in the late 19th century. With remaining unjust laws and unforgetting former slaves, Dunbar evaluates the saddened and fake expression that his community faced. His title indicates that the newly freed black population in America could not truly be themselves but had to wear a “mask” that made them acceptable to the white population. Dunbar unites his community by projecting them as a whole encountering a new form slavery together. The poem aims to express how the black population was forced to hide their continued suffering in order to not endanger their newly gained freedom.

“Chained and imprisoned; constantly thrashed by a leather whip, fed barely twice a day, meals consisting of bacon and corn meal, laboring countless hours and forced to sleep on the ground”. When you hear those conditions you naturally think of an animal held captive and abused. Back in the 1800s slaves were never seen or considered humans who needed care or respect. They did not get proper clothing, food, or shelter in white American minds but simply known as property. Slavery was a brutal establishment set into the minds of Americans by the devil himself, punishing humans with no difference but the color of their skin.

In addition, Ralph Waldo Ellison once said, "Huckleberry Finn knew, as did Mark Twain, that Jim was not only a slave but a human being and a symbol of humanity... and in freeing Jim. Huck makes a bid to free himself of the conventionalized evil taken for civilization by the town.” Slavery was a religion that was idolized, praised, witnessed, respected, and supported and its lasting affects on our society are still prominent today. We announce racism as an unjust hate towards another individuals of different cultures and backgrounds because we still consider ourselves as separate groups. Jim and Huck represent the only remaining pieces of sanity that the town has diminished with its hypocritical civilized

In Martin Luther King’s speech, the main ideas presented are equality, justice and freedom . King speaks about slavery and how even though slavery has been abolished, many African Americans are still treated unfairly and discriminated because of the colour of their skin. He also speaks about everyone, no matter the race will unite one day because we are all human. He also ‘has a dream’ that one day in the future, people will not judge or make assumptions on the person based on the colour of their skin, but the content of their character, he hopes that one day white children and black children will be able to join hands as brothers and sisters. Another ‘dream’ he has that a state that was filled with injustice and oppression such as Mississippi

After Douglass published his Autobiography ‘Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave’ he had to escape to Great Britain, leaving his family behind in fear of being recaptured until 1847 when he became a free man with help from British supporters (Bodden 16-17). If he wouldn’t have sailed to Britain and gained support from British followers he would have risked being captured by white men and put back into slavery, so he had to leave everything behind. Despite all of this his sacrifice helped us learn more about slavery and what they went through. Frederick Douglass worked hard to free slaves, and even endangered himself a few times in the process. Douglass lived a long life and accomplished many things but the biggest accomplishment was freedom.

In this document I 've used Calderon “Slavery” lecture, telling us how slaves never felt free or to be known as who they we were. In Calderon 's lecture it tell us how these slaves were stereotypes and be known as a good slave, also these slaves were always told that they were free but free for the whites means “to contract terms of our labor.”This lecture is similar to what John brown was talking about in his last speech. Brown said “Now, is it is have done, in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong,but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit:so let it be done”(188) These two readings they compare themselves because of how slaves were never treated free or they were always suffering for what their owners would tell them, John Brown put his life into the lives of the slaves and he was always just thinking to free the slaves from all this torture that they have lived. Calderon, Colleen.

Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to get his point through in his speech about how cruely colored skins were mistreated and didn’t have rights like everyone else did. John Locke made the three most important rights anyone could have, life liberty and pursuit of happiness. None of these colored men had any of those rights. I believe blacks were treated very poorly. I also believe that all those thousands of blacks around the world should have never been treated the way they were.Martin Luther King Jr. fought for millions of colored peoples lives never did he quit on any of them he fought until he got what he wanted, freedom.