Labor and slavery are central themes that are similar in both “Slave Girl in California” and “The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass”; However there are opposing themes such as liberty and citizenship. Shyima and Douglass both experienced horrific things as slaves. They experienced punishments in different ways. Fredrick Douglass experienced being whipped and watching people be whipped until their blood poured from their body. Once Shyima wanted to wash her clothes in the house of the Ibrahims and she was slapped because of it. Shyima Hall was sold into slavery at the age of eight because her mother needed money. Fredrick was born into slavery so he didn't know who his parents were,his mother would visit him in the night to help him sleep; they didn't conversate. Shyima and Fredrick lived almost or all of their lives as slaves.
Shyima
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Douglass did it have that option to move to america because if he were flee from his master it would be known as a “chief offence”. His aunt hester was whipped and worse because she committed a “chief offence.” the Fredrick douglass book says “ Aunt Hester had not only disobeyed his orders in going out…;which circumstance, i found, from what he said while whipping her, was the chief offence.” It was a very lucky moment for Shyima to get liberty and freedom just by moving to america.
Shyima and Fredrick both experience horrific interactions as slaves. Both lived very unhappy and in caution because they didn't want to be punished if they were to do something wrong. They stayed strong in life and became known for their strengths and what they accomplished. Shyima became a citizen and got a job. Fredrick became a speaker and published books about the truth of his life. Labor and slavery are central themes that are similar in both “Slave Girl in California” and “The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass. However there are opposing themes such as liberty and
When slavery was abolished in 1865, it was a critical turning point in the journey towards equality for African Americans. Prior to the eradication of slavery writers like Frederick Douglass sought to free millions of slaves in America. While slavery was a well-known and growing problem in the south, it wasn’t as widely recognized in the north. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Douglass recounts his experiences and tribulations as a slave. In the narrative Douglass effectively uses rhetorical imagery, antithesis, and irony in order to expose the harsh reality of slavery during the 19th century.
The history of slavery is known as brutal punishments, beatings, harsh labor, and inhumane treatment. In the film Roots and in the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, it portrays an image of how slaves were treated and handled back then. In book and movie there are two main characters. The fiction film, Roots, introduces the protagonist character named Kunta Kinte, and in the autobiography written by Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass writes about his journey of slavery. A similarity both of them have are the resistances against their slave masters by attempting to run away.
When I finished reading the excerpt about the life of Frederick Douglass, I learned more about the roughness and hardships of his life and story. Had I not read this excerpt, I wouldn 't know the beginning of his life story and many of the reasons he wanted to become and abolitionist. Sometimes Douglass wished to be animals, so that he could escape the world of thinking. This was a very rough life for a young boy to become a slave and grow up as one. When sold into slavery, Frederick was not very old.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an enticing tale of Douglas as he changes from slave to man. Near the beginning of the book, his first witness of a whipping reveals the entrance to the horrors that would come throughout his experience with enslavement. “No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim…” (4) it displays the physical, emotional, and spiritual breaking of an individual; powerful words to create an understanding of the terror of slavery. Beating into absolute submission strikes a sense of sadness, pity, justice in the reader that encourages them to see slavery in a different light. Throughout his narrative he continues to attack these points to encourage similar feelings of pity and acknowledgement “to enlighten white readers about both the realities of slavery as an institution and the humanity of black people as individuals deserving of full human rights.”.
Slavery is wicked and gory and monstrous and that is well known today but during the time it was well known. In Frederick Douglass’s, Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass tries to persuade everyone to stop the madness and recognize how awful slavery is; to do this he uses comparison and realization leading to the reader being blown away by this one slave’s life story. The goal of Douglass’s writing makes the reader see slavery in a different light. This is why Douglass’s writing is such a heavy read. To get his point across he talks about how monstrous his whole life is, starting for the very beginning when “... the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it” (Douglass 1.4) Douglass had to go through
Escaping from slavery was difficult with all the slave hunters and when everyone tries to make it hard from a slave to escape. When Douglass was a little kid, he always tried to create a plan to escape: “After the Easter holidays, Frederick’s friends when released from jail by their owner and taken home” (41). Douglass risk his life and the lives of his friends to escape to a free slave state. When a slave gets caught, they get sent to jail and it depends on their owners on the punishment. Douglass know that creating a plan to escape will be difficult and not getting caught was harder because not many slave are able to escape slavery.
The legendary abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass was one of the most important social reformers of the nineteenth century. Being born into slavery on a Maryland Eastern Shore plantation to his mother, Harriet Bailey, and a white man, most likely Douglass’s first master was the starting point of his rise against the enslavement of African-Americans. Nearly 200 years after Douglass’s birth and 122 years after his death, The social activist’s name and accomplishments continue to inspire the progression of African-American youth in modern society. Through his ability to overcome obstacles, his strive for a better life through education, and his success despite humble beginnings, Frederick Douglass’s aspirations stretched his influence through
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.
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.
Throughout the narrative, the author includes his personal stories about experiencing the violence of slavery first-hand. For example, on page 20, he writes about the first time he witnessed a slave, his own aunt, getting the whip. “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest…I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition… It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery…” The author including his experience of his aunts whipping, in detail, appeals to the emotions of the reader.
Utilizing ethos, logos, pathos, and empathy, Douglass paints the portrait of his life as complete as possible, laying bare the horrors of slavery and calling for action. He creates a narrative flow that encapsulates the reader into himself, and forces them through the hell he crawled through to give them these few but full pieces of paper. All the anger, pain, hope, desire, bravery, and fear. Every emotion, every lashing, every aching step is summarized and imprinted into the reader for the sake of humanity’s collective soul, and for the salvation and deliverance of those in bondage. Had Frederick Douglass not have the strong grasp on literature, we might not ever have had such a complete picture of slavery, and might not have solved the issue as completely as we
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.
Fredrick Douglass is one of the most famous abolitionists the United States has ever seen. The events that led up to his freedom of slavery were very interesting. In his Narrative you not only get to see the worst of slavery, but you can also feel firsthand what Douglass went through to get his freedom. As we all know slavery was something you could not just walk out of. Some slaves that try to escape even end up getting punished or killed.
Education Determines Your Destination Education is the light at the end of the tunnel, when Frederick uses it he discovers hope. In the story the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick goes through many struggles on his path to freedom, showing us the road from slavery to freedom. At the beginning of the book, Douglass is a slave in both body and mind. When the book ends, he gets both his legal freedom and frees his mind. The path to freedom was not easy, but it got clearer when he got an education.
After having read both Frederick Douglass’s Narrative and Harriet Jacobs’s Incident 1. How were Douglass and Jacobs similar and different in their complaints against slavery? What accounts for these differences? In both the inspiring narratives of Narrative in the Life of Fredrick Douglass by Frederick Douglass’s and in Incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs the respective authors demonstrate the horrors and disparity of slavery in there own ways.