Frederick Douglass an activist for anti racism and also an abolitionist’s speech “The Hypocrisy of Slavery” was given on the occasion of celebrating the independence day. Here, in this speech he actually brought out some questions like why we should celebrate Independence Day while almost four million people were kept chained as a slave. He actually mocked the fact of the people of America’s double standards which is that they are singing out the song of liberty, on the other hand holding the chain of slavery. Frederick Douglass, a former American-African slave who managed to escape from his slavery and later on became an abolitionist gave this speech on Fourth of July,
Besides, Douglass has utilized the ironic tool in the paragraph of his essay. For instance, although he lived as a slave at the time of his learning process, he explains to the readers that he brought bread when doing one part of chores so he could exchange for a reading lesson from local children before his return. He acknowledges: "I felt much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood" (Douglass 26), which is ironic because Douglass himself would probably be in a worse position. Moreover, this kind of irony also presented at the top of the essay, Douglass called himself a slave which reminded the audiences that slaves did not happen in some faraway land; it happened in America – the land of freedom that can also be the land of slavery. Additionally, it is hard to believe for the white American that in the mid-1880s, a black person could even learn to read and less write a book (Shmoop Editorial Team).
Bloody, Cruel, and demeaning are words that represent slavery. Many inhuman acts taken on the slaves included: separating families, treated like property, working for nothing, and abusive beatings. Slaves lived horrible, poorly treated lives. Frederick Douglass escaped slavery and told his story. In his writing, he shared all the gruesome sights he encountered through his life as a slave. His writing expressed the idea of how corrupt the system of slavery was. By using the rhetorical devices, antithesis, rhetorical questions, and anaphora, Douglass expresses the corruption of slavery through slaves, Christianity, and slaveholders.
Slavery was a major part of the american way of life, but there were many causes of the resistance to it. Even though many states in the United States opposed and are resisting the act of slavery, many events had a big impact on the ending of slavery. The second great awakening, industrial revolution, and abolishment movement are underlying forces of growing opposition to slavery in the United States from 1776 to 1852. The opposition and abolishment of slavery changed american history.
The primary source, “Olaudah Equiano on Slavery (1789)” reveals to its audience a first point of view of a child who undergoes the process of enslavement. Gustavus Vassa or better known as Olaudah Equiano was a mere child when he was abducted from his village; he describes his journey to the unknown with a flood of different emotions “[A]stonishment, which was soon converted into terror…[E]veryone of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow” indicates how African people were not fully aware of the situation of the outside world. Therefore, it was valid to say that Africans on board of a slave ship visualize the worse possible outcome, which in Equiano’s case was the anxiety of being devour by the white men.
Frederick Douglass wrote his narrative as a freeman, therefore, he is able to reflect on his life as a slave and decode the cryptic artifice of his former slave owners. Douglass lived a harsh life in the south before he made his valiant escape to the north, in order to evade further physical and mental torture. Therefore, Douglass is able to understand what it is like to be an invisible entity with a lack of identity, on physical earth. Metaphors are like string that Douglass uses to weave together a cohesive argument to support the eradication of slavery. As Douglass reminisces on his life he states that he “was made to drink the bitterest dregs of slavery...” (Douglass) Slavery, in this instance, is taken out of its literal context and liquefied
On Tuesday, Izzo was honored with Round Lake Park's Exceptional Duty medal for the way he handled the dangerous situation.
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction (Greene, McAward 2014). This is the statement from the thirteenth amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States. The thirteenth amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, but it was not ratified until December. Prior to the Civil War, in attempt to stop the war, Congress tried to pass a different draft of the thirteenth amendment, which had a different motive. In the first draft of the thirteenth amendment it allowed slave states to keep their slaves. Though the Civil war started before it could sent to the
It is no secret that when the US constitution was ratified, the privileges and immunities and basic human rights were intended for a very specific group of people who were considered citizens of the new colony. According to McClain and Stewart’s Can We All Get Along, the committee that drafted the founding document was appointed to devise a new national seal after the advent of the Articles of confederation; the idea proposed by Benjamin Franklin John Adams and Thomas Jefferson was for the seal to represent the countries of the colonists’ origin. The countries included were England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, and Holland. This leaves thousands upon thousands of people living in America and not being represented or even recognized by
I would like to start this report by writing that I think that the slaves were treated very poorly, they were beaten, that a big thing that I noticed, and everyone wouldn’t take them seriously because of what race they were. The slaves really were brave, especially the way they talked to each other, for example when Jane was talking about going to Ohio, and she says, “Y’all just sorry y’all ain’t got nobody waiting for y’all nowhere,” (chapter 3 pg. 19) if I talked to another like that I think my parents would probably have a fit. Also another thing that I liked about Miss Jane was how observant she was, when her and Ned were going to Ohio, and they asked to see where they were,and the old man told them, she didn’t ask to make sure he was right,
Three parts. Fifteen chapters with an epilogue conclusion. Every page is documented fully with footnotes providing a magnificent reference to all the people and topics that were discussed. David B. Davis published this book in 1966, which at the time was the apex of the civil rights movement and schools did not teach slavery.
Your Main Claim / Thesis Statement (State in three to five sentences what you are going to prove in your paper. Be sure to specify the two readings which you will be examining.)
Having no other purpose other than entitlement to the cruel injustices, slavery proved to be a ruinous institution that tore thousands upon thousands of families apart. Or rather simply, “years have rolled on, and tens of thousands have been borne on streams of blood and tears, to the shores of eternity” (2156). Abolitionist writers such as David Walker and Henry Highland Garnet worked to defeat this corrupt institution, both through their own means of writing. While the writers may have had different methods of persuasion to goad the general slave public, they both aligned with very similar ideas concerning the hypocrisy and injustices of slavery as a whole.
One way for the abolitionists to prove slavery should be officially banned. To begin with, William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison favored full political rights for the slaves (pg 423). Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin also opposed slavery (pg 422). They agreed that slavery trespassed the most basic principle in the Declaration of Independence where it states, “All men are created equal” (pg 422). This shows how these two sides testifying their opinions about slavery could divide the nation. Many people in the North argue for the slavery to be banned (pg 397). However, Southern slave owners defend slavery because by their slaves, their production like cotton is increasing which is helping the South (pg 397). Another important evidence is
In dozens of lawsuits around the country involving local disputes, the federal government has filed a so called statements of interest, throwing its weight behind private lawsuits and, in many cases, pushing the boundaries of civil rights law. This began early in the Obama Administration and has expanded in recent years.