In the autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass discusses the hardships he encounters that transformed him from an unknowledgable slave to a powerful man who took a stand for the abolishment of slavery. He utilizes an assertive tone in order to grasp the attention of a primarily white audience because he believes they are the only ones who can penetrate moral judgement into the heads of slaveholders of the South. Douglass characterizes Christianity as the most influential source that encourages the continuation of slavery. The growing fear and brutality among slaveholders towards many slaves persists as long as slaveholders manipulate religion as a validation for their actions. Douglass uncovers …show more content…
Douglass scolds the religious slaveholders for preaching such moral values in the Bible yet lashing their savage punishments towards slaves. The slaveholders become ignorant to the “pure, peaceable, impartial Christianity of Christ” and instead of obeying the Bible, they resort to the “corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land”(81). Unlike “Mr. Wilson, who proposed to keep a Sabbath school for...slaves… to learn to read the New Testament”, “class leaders [of the church] with many others, came upon [slaves] with sticks and other missiles, drove [them] off, and forbade [them] to meet again”(46) in fear of them learning too much and possibly rebelling. Douglass exaggerates the class leader’s armory, the missiles, in order to prove that a smaller weapon, such as a gun or a stick in this case, can only kill so many slave’s desire to learn. The hyperbole on the word, missiles, shocks readers because a missile destructs so swiftly, it could entirely wipe out a slave’s desire to learn and will scar them for life if they think about trying to act up again. Douglass jolts the white audience with a hyperbole to display the punishments of slaves if they consume holy knowledge from church. In addition to Christianity, slaveholders apply one of the most sacred and religious holidays to win over the hearts and minds of slaves. The original …show more content…
Choosing to go down a religious pathway does not appeal for everyone. It’s not just a hoop to jump through or to have automatic access to graduate from church; Christianity is a lifelong commitment that should change a person for the better. For slaves just like Douglass, they live their life with nothing but faith. Even in the field, “they would sometimes sing the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous tone, and the most rapturous sentiment in the most pathetic tone”(20). Douglass points out that singing is a refuge for slaves. “Every tone [is] a testimony against slavery”(21) because singing is their only way of communicating their struggles. He mentions their singing to portray that they are calling out to God, or at least some assistance from a heavenly spirit. While religion gives hope to many, it does the opposite as well. Although religion plays no part in Mrs. Auld’s “cheerful eye...soon [becoming] red with rage… and [her] angelic face [giving] place to that of a demon”(32), Douglass illustrates her transformation being compared to a well-known villain of the Bible, Satan. The literary device of foiling Mrs. Auld who was an influential character (but not the protagonist) with Satan, an opponent against God, highlights the importance of Mrs. Auld. Douglass represents this contrast to depict that even kind-hearted souls can turn sour. Due to a change in heart, Mrs. Auld and Douglass
Both Frederick Douglass and Socrates prioritize the True over their reputations. Willing to admit his weaknesses, Douglass’s main goal is to seek the True even if it means leaving his reputation undefended. He begins his speech by having a “distrust of [his] ability” and claims that when it comes to public speaking, he has “little experience” (Douglass). Douglass admits that topics concerning American history should be discussed with people who were educated through the school system instead of with a slave who has no educational background. He ultimately establishes trust with his audience by pursuing the True over maintaining his reputation.
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.
Douglass is relentless when attacking the church, he states, “The American Church is Guilty” (Douglass 1039). This has a slightly taste of irony, because here Douglass, a colored man, is calling out the most “sacred” body of people. It almost as if he was the master and they were the slave now. Next, the main theme expressed by
Also, in the same chapter, Douglass’ expresses his feelings for Mr.Freeland stating, “I will give Mr.Freeland the credit for being the best master I ever had” (Douglass 49). Douglass’ states that Mr.Freeland was not religious but he was the best master he ever had. It is ironic that non-religious slaveholders treat their slaves better than religious slaveholders. Therefore, Douglass notes the irony of religious and non-religious slaveholders: religious slaveholders being more cruel than non-religious slaveholders. Douglass perceives how slaves are treated worse than animals.
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
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.
In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.
In “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” there are many ironic actions related to religion. Douglass does his best to give us personal accounts of events he witnessed. Douglass also gives the reader a better understanding of how slaves were treated and how many people backed up their actions with
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.
Christianity was, to the slaves of America, (something with a double meaning). In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Frederick Douglass, the author, argues about how Christianity can mean one thing to a free white man and something completely different to a black slave. The slave owners follow the ‘Christianity of the Land’ while the slaves follow the ‘Christianity of Christ.’ Frederick begins to build his credibility to a, white, northern, audience by including documents from trustworthy writers and by getting into personal experiences through his writing. Throughout the narrative, he is articulate in how he writes, and it shows the reader that he is well educated.
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.
One of the strategies Douglass uses to convince his audience slavery should be abolished is by “calling out American hypocrisy in his Fourth of July oration” (Mercieca 1). He shames them with no remorse. He speaks on the opposite treatments that enable whites to live in a state of freedom and liberty, while the blacks are living in a state of bondage. As the audience listens, he reminds them, there are men, women and children still held hostages to the chains of
Douglass stated, “What am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow-men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters?” He successfully expresses his pain and anger in this quote by providing images of his and his people’s suffering. He tapped into the emotions of his audience, such as mothers, workers, and those who have felt physically pain by exposing them to the amplified struggles he and others had to face. Nonetheless, he continually reminded the audience, both explicitly and subliminally, that his group of people are too human, and that the only difference they share is the color of their skin. He is pleading his cases and hoping that it gets across to his audience in hope they will do the right
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is Frederick Douglass’s autobiography in which Douglass goes into detail about growing up as a slave and then escaping for a better life. During the early-to-mid 1800s, the period that this book was written, African-American slaves were no more than workers for their masters. Frederick Douglass recounts not only his personal life experiences but also the experiences of his fellow slaves during the period. This book was aimed at abolitionists, so he makes a point to portray the slaves as actual living people, not the inhuman beings that they are treated as. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, slaves are inhumanly represented by their owners and Frederick Douglass shines a positive light
These songs were far from joyful, they would sing “…the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous tone…” and these songs would “… [breathe] the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish.” (29). Douglass argues against the positive image of slavery that portrayed slaves to be