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Frederick Douglass William Brown
Slaverys impact on slaveholders
Effect of slave trade
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Page 502 #1-6
1.Do you think it is possible to be a benevolent slaveholder? Why or why not?
It is possible to be a benevolent slaveholder because times were difficult to disagree to the injustices occurring to African Americans. The slave owners, such as Mrs. Auld "a most kind and tender hearted woman" (Douglass 498). She could do so with Frederick Douglass treating him like another human being or nearly as a son.
2.(a) How does Douglass learn to read?
Mrs. Auld teaches Douglass how to read and write, but later Douglass bargains with neighborhood kids with food in return for school book or any valuable lesson.
(b) What does Mrs. Auld initially think about Douglass's reading?
Mrs. Auld saw Douglass had potential to more that a chattel.
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Mrs. Auld became aggressive and opposing towards Douglass's reading because Mr. Auld told her to stop teaching Douglass. The issue is that because of the time frame of it being the 1800's-1850's women had to follow orders from men. Coming back to Mrs. Auld she was told what to do by Mr. Auld and therefore followed orders. In order for her to do so she had to completely change the person she was, the way her soul was by training, lying and justifying her actions with an extreme denial coping mechanism, cognitive dissonance.
3.(a) What is the attitude toward slavery of the white boys who help Douglass learn to read?
The attitude the white boys have towards slavery is that God made every man free with equal rights and God never made African Americans slaves nor did Douglass ever met a boy who defended the slave
Why? Slave owners did not want the slaves to ever turn against them or to know what was going on. Slaves were supposed to be like robots. Do and say as the “master” wanted. Slave owners wanted to normalize this behavior as if it was acceptable. "Masters" controlled slaves to the point that slaves were prohibited to get married. Rufus did not care that Alice wanted to be with Isaac. Rufus only cared that he wanted to be with her. He was going to win over her love one way or another, but that did not change her perception of him as a white man. White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of all other races, especially the black race. Slave owners did not care about how Africans felt. They had power, meaning they did not care if their slaves were tired after hard work from sun up to sun down, all they cared about was money. They sold runaway slaves because they would make a profit off them instead of loose them for free or having them cause trouble on their plantation. For example, Alice and Isaac tried to run away. The white men beat Isaac, cut off his ears, and sold
One day, Douglass eavesdrops on him and Mrs. Auld’s conversation. Mr. Auld persuades her that reading “could do him (Douglass) no good, but a great deal of harm.” (page 39) This antithesis along with the rest of his statement makes Douglass come to the realization that literacy is equated with not only individual consciousness but also freedom. From that day on, Douglass makes it his goal to learn as much as he can, eventually learning how to write,
He had long fought to learn to read and was so excited and eager to do so, he never expected the circumstances of this to be as dehumanizing as they were. He regretted learning to read because it brought him nothing but desperation, he learned his awful truth and that of his fellow slaves. "It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy." (Douglass, 24) The truth was that the more he learned the more he became aggravated, he knew there was not much he could do. It brought his moral down along with many other feelings, even a slave like Frederick had learned the awful feeling of
Douglass employs the use of anecdotes to clarify why he would deceive others. After Mrs. Auld’s transformation, Douglass resorts to “various stratagems” (22) to learn to read and write. In some sense, Douglass recruits the “poor white children… [or] hungry little urchins” (23), who do not yet know the rift between the two skin pigments, to learn to read. Douglass trades them “bread … enough of which was always in the house” (23) while the boys teach Douglass what they have learned in school, the “more valuable bread of knowledge” (23). Douglass tricks the boys into giving him reading lessons, trading the object they most desire, food, with the object Douglass most desires, knowledge. The basic need for food allows Douglass to use their knowledge to his advantage in furthering his understanding. Douglass, however, could not just stop at reading; he also desires to write. To learn to write, Douglass uses other boys who he knew could write. With this strategy, though, Douglass fibs to the boys. It is a common understanding that humans strive for superiority over each other, which Douglass uses to his benefit. The boys naturally want to have a higher intelligence than Douglass, thus when Douglass states he is e...
In The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, an African American male describes his day as a slave and what he has become from the experience. Douglass writes this story to make readers understand that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that he still has intellectual ability even though he is a slave. In the story, these messages are shown frequently through the diction of Frederick Douglass.
As a relatively young man, Frederick Douglass discovers, in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, that learning to read and write can be his path to freedom. Upon discovering that...
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an autobiography written by Frederick Douglass and published in 1845. Frederick Douglass, a former slave and passionate abolitionist, provides descriptive stories of his life as a slave, all the way from his childhood to his escape. Chapter four specifically focuses on the unjustness of slavery, and Douglass’ central claim that there is no justice system in the slave world. In chapter four, Douglass describes the brutal murder of Demby and recounts multiple killings of slaves by overseers to support his central claim that slaves receive no justice, safety or security.
Douglass managed to escape this and moved to a life in Baltimore. He was still a slave, but he was not treated as such. His mistress, Mrs. Auld, taught him to read and write. She was kind and caring, and Douglass said “that woman is a Christian.” By this the audience gets an insight into how Mrs. Auld was treating Douglass and can compare his current situation to his time on a plantation.
When Douglass moves to Baltimore, he becomes the property of Hugh Auld. There he is cared for by Hugh’s wife, Sophia. The reader’s first impressions of Sophia are favorable; she is a warm, gentle woman who wishes to teach Douglass to read and write. Douglass himself is surprised at how kind she is at first, and he mentions that Sophia Auld has never owned slaves before, and therefore has not been affected by the evils of slavery. Douglass notes that she does not wish to punish him just to keep him subservient like his former masters did, and she does not beat him or even mind at all when Douglass looks her in the eyes. Sophia also teaches Douglass the alphabet and several words. However, her husband Hugh, who has already undergone the transformation that slavery causes, immediately orders her to stop when he hears of this. Here, we see the contrast of two distinctly different people with regards to the institution of slavery. Sophia Auld is pure, innocent, untouched by the evils of slavery. Hugh Auld, on the other hand, has experience with the system of slavery and knows that in order to keep slaves obedient, they must also be kept ignorant and fearful.
During the time of slavery, slaves were put to work on plantation, fields, and farms. They were considered property to their slave-owners and put under unfair living conditions. Growing up in this era, we can see the injustice between white and colored people. And one slave by the name of Fredrick Douglass witnessed this unjust tension. And because of this tension, dehumanizing practices became prominent among the slaves and in slave society. The most prominent of these injustices is the desire of slave owners to keep their slaves ignorant. This practice sought to deprive the slaves of their human characteristics and made them less valued. Fredrick Douglass was able to endure and confront this issue by asserting his own humanity. He achieved
To begin, one of the most influential black African Americans is known as Frederick Douglass. Throughout his whole life he worked hard to fight for life and equality. The purpose for this research paper is to argue information about Frederick Douglass life and impact.
In this final research analysis, I will be doing a comparison between the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” and the “Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” to show how both Douglass and Rowlandson use a great deal of person strength and faith in God to endure their life and ultimately gain their freedom.
The effects that he claims that damage the slaveholders is they became immoral, lazy, and too dependent on slaves. Mrs. Auld is the prime example of this damaging effect. At first, Mrs. Auld was a kind lady who was willing to teach Frederick to read. In addition, she was a weaver (meaning she had a skill), and this work deterred her away from seeing the cruelty to slaves. Mr. Auld saw that his wife was trying to instruct Frederick on how to read but told her it was a bad idea because if Frederick learned to read he would not be a good slave.
Frederick Douglass, a slave who evolved to become an editor, public speaker and a leader in the abolitionist movement, expressed his academic struggles with learning as a slave in the early 1800s in his composition, “Learning to Read and Write”. When Douglass was a slave, the slave owners did not allow him to attend school, instead, he learned to read and write with the help of those around him. He eventually succeeded in achieving his ambitions; however, he still desired to become a free man. As he acquired more knowledge, Douglass was forced to change his learning methods in order to elude punishment from his owners, even enticing the white children to teach him in his free time. Douglass uses complex vocabulary, strong diction and unique metaphors provide his audience with a clear and undisputed perspective of his opinion on slavery. His unyielding determination, evident in his writings, encouraged the
Without being educated, slavers endure dehumanization and the control of their slaveholders. As a result, Douglass is motivated to get literate with ingenious strategies. He constantly bribes the “little white boys” and the “poor white children” who live closely with him to teach him reading with extra bread (Douglass 62). His writing lessons are from the boys who can compete with him in writing letters, Master Thomas’s book, and ship-yard. Along with his reading’s improvement, he comprehends the injustice between slaves and slaveholders from the books. A book “The Columbian Orator”, which provokes him the critical thinking about slavery and freedom. Through reading the Sheridan’s speeches that are from the same book, he claims, “[w]hat I got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights” (Douglass 62). Sometimes he listens the discussion of abolition even though he does not really understands it. Until he gets a city paper that allows him to pray for “the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia” (Douglass 63), he understands the meaning of abolition. Being literate helps him understand the extensive knowledge, which is ready for