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19th century in america about slaves
19th century in america about slaves
Frederick Douglass' struggle for freedom in the narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass
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Being a slave in the United States was not uncommon in the 19th century. There were many brutalities of being a slave including physical and spiritual abuse. Slaves were considered property and not as human beings. They were mistreated and kept illiterate. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave was a bibliography written by Frederick Douglass himself that told of his experiences of being a slave in the United States. He expresses the brutality the slave owners and how he struggled with running away to become a free human being. The themes of his story include: the ignorance of slaves, the treatment of slaves as property, religion used as justification, and the abuse of female slaves. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick explains the slave owners want to keep their slaves as ignorant and illiterate as possible because the more knowledgeable a slave becomes the more “unmanageable” he will become. He will start to develop ideas on his own and question the authority of his masters. For example, Douglass explains that most slaves do not even know the date of their birth, “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant” (Douglass 47). Not knowing their age or birth date is a way for slave owners to show authority over their slaves and to try to keep them as ignorant as possible. They are treated as if their age does not matter, as if they are animals. They were also deprived of the knowledge who their father was. This deprived slaves from their individual identity. In the narrative, Douglass explains that he is going to live with his new slave owner... ... middle of paper ... ...te a passage of the scripture: “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes” (99). This shows that he uses the Bible to justify his pain and suffering onto the slave who does not obey her master. Douglass states, “I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes, --- a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,--- a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds--- and a dark shelter under, which the darkest , foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection” (117). For completing these horrid crimes, slaveholders don’t feel bad for their sinful deeds because they feel like scriptures in the Bible support their abuse. In the narrative, Douglass explains how female slaves were victimized because of they were weaker and easier to abuse.
From before the country’s conception to the war that divided it and the fallout that abolished it, slavery has been heavily engrained in the American society. From poor white yeoman farmers, to Northern abolitionist, to Southern gentry, and apathetic northerners slavery transformed the way people viewed both their life and liberty. To truly understand the impact that slavery has had on American society one has to look no further than those who have experienced them firsthand. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and advocate for the abolitionist, is on such person. Douglass was a living contradiction to American society during his time. He was an African-American man, self-taught, knowledgeable, well-spoken, and a robust writer. Douglass displayed a level of skill that few of his people at the time could acquire. With his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, Douglass captivated the people of his time with his firsthand accounts into the horror and brutality that is the institution of slavery.
In sum, all of these key arguments exist in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” because of the institution of slavery and its resulting lack of freedom that was used to defend it. This text’s arguments could all be gathered together under the common element of inequality and how it affected the practical, social, and even spiritual lives of the slaves.
Slave-owners forced a perverse form of Christianity, one that condoned slavery, upon slaves. According to this false Christianity the enslavement of “black Africans is justified because they are the descendants of Ham, one of Noah's sons; in one Biblical story, Noah cursed Ham's descendants to be slaves” (Tolson 272). Slavery was further validated by the numerous examples of it within the bible. It was reasoned that these examples were confirmation that God condoned slavery. Douglass’s master...
“The law on the side of freedom is of great advantage only when there is power to make that law respected”. This quote comes from Fredrick Douglas’ book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written in 1845. Fredrick Douglas who was born into slavery in 1818 had no understanding of freedom. However, his words shed light on the state of our country from the time he made this statement, but can be traced back fifty-eight years earlier to when the Constitution was drafted and debated over by fifty-five delegates in an attempt to create a document to found the laws of a new country upon. However, to eradicate the antiquated and barbaric system of slaver would be a bold step to set the nation apart, but it would take a strong argument and a courageous move by someone or a group to abolish what had enslaved thousands of innocent people within the borders of America for centuries. There was an opportunity for the law to be written within the Constitution, which would support this freedom Fredrick Douglas alluded to. However, the power, which controlled this law, would as Douglas stated, “make that law respected”.
Frederick Douglass emphasizes the dehumanization aspect of slavery throughout his narrative. As is the general custom in slavery, Douglass is separated from his mother early in infancy and put under the care of his grandmother. He recalls having met his mother several times, but only during the night. She would make the trip from her farm twelve miles away just to spend a little time with her child. She dies when Douglass is about seven years old. He is withheld from seeing her in her illness, death, and burial. Having limited contact with her, the news of her death, at the time, is like a death of a stranger. Douglass also never really knew the identity of his father and conveys a feeling of emptiness and disgust when he writes, "the whisper that my master was my father, may or may not be true; and, true or false, it is of but little consequence to my purpose" (Douglass, 40). Douglass points out that many slave children have their masters as their father. In these times, frequently the master would take advantage of female slaves and the children born to the slave w...
Douglass's descriptions of the severity of slave life are filled with horrific details able to reach even the coldest hearts. The beginning of the narrative tells of how Douglass lacks one of the most celebrated identities of humans - the knowledge of ones own age. "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant." (12) In saying this Douglass is showing how low the life of a slave is compared to other humans. The idea of slaves being seen as merely work animals is placed into the minds of the reader to set an idea for the rest of the book.
Slave owners in the South were some of the most cruel and inhumane human beings out there. They used many tactics to maintain a prosperous system of slavery amongst them. Like many, Frederick Douglass was born a slave. Deprived of as much as possible, Douglass knew not much more than his place of birth. Masters were encouraged to dispossess slaves of any knowledge and several of them did not know their birthdays or other personal details of themselves. The purpose of this was to keep slaves as misinformed of anything other than labor as possible. Slave owners knew the dangers that would upraise if slaves became literate and brave enough to fight for freedom.
“A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it” (Douglass, 1).
Frederick Douglass's Narrative, first published in 1845, is an enlightening and incendiary text. Born into slavery, Douglass became the preeminent spokesman for his people during his life; his narrative is an unparalleled account of the inhumane effects of slavery and Douglass's own triumph over it. His use of vivid language depicts violence against slaves, his personal insights into the dynamics between slaves and slaveholders, and his naming of specific persons and places made his book an indictment against a society that continued to accept slavery as a social and economic institution. Like Douglass, Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery, and in 1853 she published Letter from a Fugitive Slave, now recognized as one of the most comprehensive antebellum slave narratives written by an African-American woman. Jacobs's account broke the silence on the exploitation of African American female slaves.
First of all, starting from a very young age, slave children are already subject to slave owners plans to keep them ignorant. “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it,” (page 1). When Frederick Douglass was a child, he noticed that white children were able to know their birthdays, and he wasn’t. Right off the bat, this just shows that there is a difference racially between African Americans. Keeping information from slaves starting at a young age ensures that the slaves will grow up to believe whatever they knew at that age. In this case, they didn’t know their ages at a young age, so that they wouldn’t know what it was when they grew up. Slave owners keeping the knowledge of the slaves birthdays away from them is an example of how slaves were stripped of their individuality. Since Frederick didn’t know his exact age, he is similar to most other slaves since they didn’t know their ages as well. It seems that the slaves
In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the author, Frederick Douglass, uses similes, insults, figurative language, and repetition to portray the dehumanization of slaves and slaveholders. To most slaveholders, African Americans were seen as beasts or wild animals, and they were treated as such. Kind slaveholders were a rarity in this time. Owning another person gave white people a sense of power and dominance. Douglass’ narrative accurately depicts the tragic brutality African Americans faced and the devastating effects of slavery.
It was at this time, that Fredrick did not even know his own age. As mentioned in Fredrick Douglass’s memoir, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, Douglass states “it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slave this ignorant” (Douglass, 15). This is the first scenario in which we noticed the dehumanizing practices of slavery to occur. During the time of Fredrick’s childhood, he noticed that white children could tell their age, and he himself was not able to. He was not able to make any inquiries of it to his master because slaves were not given that right. The act of a slave owner to keep their slave ignorant shows one example of how slaves were dehumanized. They were stripped of knowing themselves as people because they were designed to be property to their owners. The fact that he could not have information and knowledge of simple things made him unhappy and led him to believe that the dehumanization process occurs when the slave owner tries to keep the slave ignorant. It was something shocking for Fredrick to hear about the nature of slavery, but in hearing so, helped him establish a stronger mindset to
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.
Slaves are stripped of information about themselves, as depicted in Douglass’ unknowing of his own birthday. This alone is significant in removing one’s self-identity, for slaves have no knowledge of their own age. Furthermore, slaves were separated from their families, taking away one of the only senses of comfort and belonging in the harsh plantation. Douglass also references a moment where Colonel Lloyd does not even recognize his own slave, because he has so many of them. This is also supported by Douglass describing how quickly slaves were replaced if they committed a misdemeanor. This suggests that Colonel Lloyd sees his slaves as replaceable objects/tools, rather than actual human beings. Perhaps an even more moving moment was when Douglass was sent to be “valued” with other slaves and ranked with “horses, sheep, and swine,” following the death of his former Master. Douglass cleverly uses parallelism by pairing each animal with man, woman, and child, respectively. This shows the slave holder’s thought process when valuing each human/animal: they are equal. In this situation, Douglass describes his indignation by commenting on the brutalizing effects of slavery on the slave and the slave holder alike. So, by equating humans to animals, they are not only stripped of their self-identity as individuals, but also their self-identity as
In his narrative, he states that slaves were compared to animals by the way the slave owner treated them because slaves were considered as property and not as human beings. When slaves came into the new world, they were sold and given new names and over time were supposed to assimilate to the American culture. Since slave masters did not think slaves could assimilate to the American culture, slave masters kept them as workers; therefore, slaves were not given an education, leaving them illiterate, and thereby leaving them without any knowledge on how the American political system works. Slave owners thought that if slaves would become literate, that slaves would start to question the rights they have. Frederick argues that slaves lose their identity by accepting the fact that being a slave is the way life is and that there is nothing else to look forward to in life. “