He reveals that he is incredibly grateful that Mr. Freeland isn’t religious. Douglass emphasizes his hatred of religious slaveholders by stating that they are not humane masters. He goes on saying that other slaveholders in his neighborhood profess that they are religious, but only use religion to justify their barbarity towards their slaves. He ends his statement about Freeland by describing him as his favorite master, second only to his own independence.
Although the Bible was the same and both prayed to a God, the interpretation they gave of the teachings and the readings of the Bible were different. The curse of Canaan and his descendants was related to the issue of servility and slavery, the whites used this relationship as a justification that God was in accordance with slavery. As Callahan mentioned in The Poison Book, “Jefferson Davis defended chattel slavery and the foreign slave trade as the “importation of the race of Ham,” fulfillment of Africans’ destiny to be “servants of servants.” They used this text to defend slavery and that blacks had been destined to be slaves. The most important teaching of whites to Christianize blacks was the importance of obedience.
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.
Abolitionists everywhere should read and share Equiano's narrative because it reveals the horrible realities of the slave trade and shatters stereotypes by presenting a slave who is intelligent and emotional. The narrative exposes the cruelty and ignorance of the nominal Christians who brutally treated the innocent slaves and managed the slave ship. A cargo filled with African slaves awaited for the young man as he embarked a journey of misery: “ When I looked around the ship...a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow(Equiano 58).” They escorted the young boy to
With his inclusion of himself as an irreplaceable character, his analysis of the hypocrisy of Christian slavers, and his analysis of the economic benefits of well-treated slaves, Equiano crafts his autobiography as a work of rhetoric that rivals any proponent of the slave trade.
and by those too, who profess religion?”(Apess, 6). In this way, Apess argues by pointing out the hypocrisy found in the Christian ideology of the time, insisting that the ideas held on racial superiority and slavery, while not explicitly condemned in the Bible, go against the ideas of the teachings of Jesus. Apess also uses an appeal to authority, to Jesus nonetheless, in order to shame those who would argue for slavery by mentioning that their savior would be discriminated against in American society. Another voice against slavery, Frederick Douglass, not only uses his religion as an argument against slavery, but also condemns the branches of Christianity which supported it over the course of his 1845 “Narrative”. In his appendix, Douglass states “I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt,
Mr. Douglass was trying to express how a slave feels about the Fourth of July. Frederick Douglass thinks that the Fourth of July is a “sham.” He thinks it is an example of the injustice against black people and the hypocrisy of white people. He says “with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy.” Mr. Douglass believes that America’s denunciation of tyrants is hypocritical and
The writer creates a harsh tone in order to emphasize the importance of antislavery. While at the same time, he adopts a scathing tone in order to evoke a sympathetic feel from the free white men in the audience. To begin, Douglass uses ethos to state his opinion about slavery, which is accurate because he was once a slave and knows what it feels like to be treated unfairly. He uses a bundle of ethos, “Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs” (2) shows how he uses ethos in a sarcastic manner. He also establishes diction
Robert Beverly wrote privately that he believed slavery to be “something so contradictory to human nature,” and he confesses he is “ashamed of my Country whenever I consider of it” (Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of the Revolution 169). There was also a governor, named Francis Fauquier, who had expressed his doubts in slavery. In his will, he wrote about his fear of his slaves condemning him on the Day of Judgement: “For with what face can I expect mercy from an offended God, if I have not myself shewn mercy to these dependant on me” (Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of the Revolution 169). A physician and reformer named Benjamin Rush from 1760s conceded that “It would be useless for us to denounce the servitude to which the Parliament of Great Britain wishes to reduce us, while we continue to keep our fellow creatures in slavery just because their color is different from ours” (Davis Inhuman Bondage
Throughout the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Douglass is violently oppressed repeatedly. When being treated so inhumane , he starts to understand it's becoming a way of life for a slave (Douglass 45). It's not until later on in his experience that Douglass begins to stop being violently oppressed by his master. “ To maintain his reputation,he suffered me to go unpunished. ”(Douglass
However, Douglass’s sarcastic tone, is purposeful in that he is mocking the use of Thomas’s religious sanctum to guarantee that the actions he performs is righteous. Any truly faithful Christian would be taken aback by Captain Thomas’s character and would question themselves and maybe even their own
In other words, slavery was justified by the use of the Christian bible to have support from others before the Civil War period. However, it was still seen as an unpleasant enterprise. Non-slave owners that went against slavery even saw it as the most unmoral act humans ever did. It was seen this way “because it obliterates an individual 's self-governance or sovereignty,” (Machan, 1).
Looking inside from the most basic and primitive lense, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, is a tale about human nature and all its subsidiaries. Douglass delves into the most essential foundation of the humanistic persona -empathy- and moreover: the corruption of it through slavery. Throughout the novel, Frederick Douglass uses zoomorphism to demonstrate just how corrupting the system of slavery is, corrupting the slave and the slaveholder.
Douglass also drives vast attention to the false accusation that suggests the loyalty between a slave masters is stronger than the loyalty between slaves. Within the first chapter, Douglass evidently mentions the clear hypocrisy of religion, specifically with “Christian” slave owners who used their religious teachings and the Bible to justify their gruesome treatment to their slaves. Christian slave owners and their religious practice throughout is a reoccurring theme within the text of Douglass’ autobiography. In the midst of the next several chapters, Douglass begins to describe the conditions of his plantation such as brutal beatings, murder, and many others. Within the remaining text, Douglass explains his journey of escaping freedom which fueled the creation of the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”.
To whom it may concern,/ Dear Sir or Madam, Subsequently reading documented lives of slaves whom have suffered, I have concluded that this was the dark and unethical time of America. In this literary composition I will discuss reasons why slavery is atrocious and America should feel ashamed. Not only taking people from their country and their families, they were sold and appraised for work. There is documented archives to show the cruelty that was being done. Frederick Douglass born in Talbot County, Maryland was born into slavery and wrote about his sufferings.