Excerpt Of Cannibals, An American Slave, By Frederick Douglass

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Owning a person to work for less or no money has been practiced for years. Like other countries, people in the United States also owned slaves. Since the north was mostly industrial, they didn’t need slaves. On the other hand, southerners owned thelarge plantation and they needed cheap labor in order to make profit. Slavery was a backbone of south’s prosperity. Yet, arguments on whether to emancipate slavery divided the nation in half. To keep the country united, both sides tried to convince each other why slavery is right or wrong. There were many documents written about slavery. One of the document that talks about why slavery is beneficial to our society is the excerpt of Cannibals All by a slave owner, George Fitzhugh. While there are document that support slavery, there are also documents written by fugitive slave that talk about their life as a slave. One of them includes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass. He was born in …show more content…

People in the nineteenth century were religious. Sometimes people were able to convince people to do certain things or convince people what they are doing is right by saying it is in the bible. Fitzhugh thinks that “all anti-slavery men should be atheists”(). It is acceptable for a white man to own a slave. On the other hand, Douglas thinks southerners don’t practice what they preach. He was seen how “the man who robs me of my earnings at the end of each week meets as a class leader on Sunday morning, to show me the way of life, and the path of salvation. He who sells my sister, for purposes of prostitution , stands forth as the pious advocate of purity”(135). By mentioning how women are forced into prostitution helps Douglas attain the white northern women. A woman will not let another woman in hell. In addition, he is also able to get the support of christian that are against people that use religion to do bad

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