Slavery: Effective on Slaves and Slaveholders In Frederick Douglass’s autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Douglass recounts his life in slavery to reveal to his readers the horrors of the American slave system. To effectively inform his readers of the corrupt system, he publicizes the slaveholders’ hypocritical practice of Christianity. Although he himself is a Christian, Douglass’s narrative is a scathing commentary on the ironic role of Christian religion in the Southern slaveholding culture. Throughout his book, the author expresses and exemplifies his perspective on religion by illustrating the falseness and hypocrisy of the Southern people. To start off, Frederick Douglass suggests that the Southern people’s religion is false and insincere. For instance, he believes that the Southern “version” of Christianity is not identical, and even opposite, to that of true Christianity. Douglass states that he loves the “pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ” and hates the “corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial, and hypocritical Christianity of this land”; in fact, he goes as far as to say that “to be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other” (Douglass 101). By saying this, Douglass is undoubtedly declaring that the people of the land claim to be Christians but their ways are corrupt and unjust which is against all that Christ teaches; therefore, he is calling
Slavery. The institution which defined the very fabric of American society from its introduction in 1621 to its eventual abolition in 1863; a whole 242 years. During the United States’ not-so-brief tenure as a slave nation, many men and women condemned to chains suffered journeys wrought with peril in search of the liberty that Northern states offered to African-American individuals. This passage from Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, uses copious metaphor paired with antithesis and apostrophe in order to concretize his longing for and resolution to experience freedom, equality and agency. Douglass cleverly employs metaphor, using it to attach a tangible object to the concept of freedom.
Slavery had many faces but the underlying concept remained beneath each of these different faces. No matter how kindly a slave was treated by their master, they were still considered property and subhuman. While some owners beat and mutilated their slaves, others were more "kind" and treated their slaves humanely. Nonetheless, they still owned slaves and believed the slaves were property. Famous former slaves, such as Frederick Douglass, enlightened people as to how slaves were treated by their masters.
Slavery: Negative for slaveholders, as well as, slaves. In the mid 1800s Frederick Douglass grew up, suffered, and conquered slavery. He matured into a brave young adult and went forward with writing his personal experience of slavery, and shared with the readers how slavery impacted his life, his family’s lives, and the slave-holder’s lives. This Narrative has truly been a blessing to generations, and has opened the eyes of all ethnicities around the world.
The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass challenges and enhances information from the textbook America a Narrative History. In Chapter 13 of the textbook, the Second Great Awakening is mentioned, and the author talks about how large camp meetings were held, which resulted in many converting to Methodism. Similarly, Douglass, as his master attended one, mentions a camp meeting, where Douglass hoped his master would become kinder or emancipate his slaves, however, instead it made his master crueler. In addition, in Chapter 15 the conflict between a true Christian and a Southern Christian is brought up. In both the narrative and the textbook, the fact that slavery is endorsed by the bible is brought up as part of the pro-slavery movement.
For those religious slaveholders, religion became only a belief and not their reality. Frederick Douglass, who became a great oratorical speaker against slavery, once wrote in the his own narrative, “We have men-stealers for ministers , women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members (71).” This excerpt uses analogies to describe the possible positions in their society to what punishment the slaves experienced. The Christians followed the Bible, but Frederick saw that they contradicted their own words and were treating living human beings abusively. All slaves were whipped and had to obey.
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” How would you like to have to fight for the right to not be owned and worked for nothing at all? Well, this is exactly what Frederick Douglass did. In my opinion, Frederick Douglass made the biggest impact on the freedom of African-Americans. Frederick Douglass was a slave that ended up escaping captivity.
Reading a relatable story may arise as one of the most enjoyable activities to do. Though mystical writings and stories that make readers jump out of their seat fall as entertaining, reading a familiar story that anyone can relate to transpire as gratifying. In the early 1830s, the writing styles of American writers changed with the passage of time and life; the shift presented the current empathetic style of writing. At the end of the Civil War, an escalating number of immigrants flocking to the country allowed it to flourish. People at the time, however, faced a number of challenges: disease, a harsh climate and environment, a lack of food, and the negative consequences of industrialization.
Here, Douglass exposes the Christian attempt to wash their hands of any guilt or wrong doing. Overall, Douglass exposes the truth behind this hypocrisy; when these slaveholders use God as a
In Frederick Douglass’s book, he writes accounts of his time in slavery and beyond. Throughout the book, Douglass writes about not only the physical hardships slaves endured, but the mental and emotional hardships as well. In Chapter X, Douglass describes a battle he had with a temporary slave owner named Mr. Covey. After the fight concludes, Douglass writes, “This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.
During the time when Douglass wrote this book, there were several myths which were used to justify slavery. The slaveholder during his time justified this inhuman practice using different arguments. The first argument they used was the religion. From the narrative, Douglass says that slaveholders called themselves Christians which was the dominant religion by then.
“ I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, woman-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.” (Douglass 100) Douglass does this to show how hypocritical people in the South were being. Churches were teaching the Christian practice of being kind and compassionate while not actually practicing it themselves. Douglass argues that the actions of some people are against religion.
Secondly, Douglass adds on to his speech by describing that the slaves are living a gloomy existence while the young Nation is celebrating its freedom and liberty which they don’t get to experience because they are a lock in chains. He uses ethos to appeal to the moral idealistic views of the fellow Christian man by bringing the question of God by saying “[...] and would make me reproach before God and the world (P. 5).” By expressing his views, Douglass and the audience unite under the set of clear morals that came from God who would disagree with the actions that they comminuted
Douglass has shown how religious slaveholders are the worst especially when entertainment comes into play. The first being from one of his slaveholders Master Thomas, he whipped a young woman while reading a quote from the scripture to explain his reason for whipping her. The next example was with his other Master Mr.Covey, he would go to church and preach the word but come back beating slaves and going against the almighty God. The last example that is shown is again shown with Mr.Covey, he was guilty of compelling his woman slave to commit the sin of adultery. All of the examples illustrate that religious slaveholders are worst than non-religious slaveholders.
Frederick Douglass’s narrative provides a first hand experience into the imbalance of power between a slave and a slaveholder and the negative effects it has on them both. Douglass proves that slavery destroys not only the slave, but the slaveholder as well by saying that this “poison of irresponsible power” has a dehumanizing effect on the slaveholder’s morals and beliefs (Douglass 40). This intense amount of power breaks the kindest heart and changes the slaveholder into a heartless demon (Douglass 40). Yet these are not the only ways that Douglass proves what ill effect slavery has on the slaveholder. Douglass also uses deep characterization, emotional appeal, and religion to present the negative effects of slavery.
Douglass tells us this by saying that he believes anyone who is a slave owner cannot be a Christian. In his view, he believes being a slave owner violates the very principles of being a Christian. Auld quote he believes that the Christianity practiced by the Slave owners and the Christianity practiced by non-slave owners are two