Frederick Douglass: Portraying Slaveholders
Learning and knowledge make all the difference in the world, as Frederick Douglass proves by changing himself from another man's slave to a widely respected writer. A person is not necessarily what others label him; the self is completely independent, and through learning can move proverbial mountains. The main focus of this essay is on the lives of the American Slaves, and their treatment by their masters. The brutality brought upon the slaves by their holders was cruel, and almost sadistic. These examples will cite how the nature of Douglass's thoughts and the level of his understanding changed, and his method of proving the evilness of slavery went from visual descriptions of brutality to more philosophical arguments about its wrongness.
Since Douglass was very much an educated man by the time he wrote the Narrative, it is as hard for him to describe his emotions and thoughts when he was completely devoid of knowledge as it is for a blind and deaf man to describe what he thought and felt before he learned to communicate with the outside world. Culture, society, and common beliefs are our bridge to communication with one another. Douglass, then, could never really explain all of what and how he felt about himself in his earlier slave days in such a way that those who read his autobiography would ever understand completely.
Our first glimpse of Douglass is as a small boy, without a birthday, father, or any sort of identity. "I have no accurate knowledge of my age ... A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood." (p. 39) Forced to eat his meals of mush out of a trough, wearing nothing but a long, coarsely-woven shirt, and being kept in complete mental darkness, Douglass was completely dehumanized even before he experienced the horrible violence of the slaveholders towards their slaves. His proof of the evil of slavery, a main theme in the Narrative, is mostly through visual descriptions of the violence of the overseers towards the slaves.
"The louder she screamed, the harder he [the overseer] whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest ... and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease ... I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was ... a child, but I well remember it ... I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it.
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.
Douglass' narrative was groundbreaking because he had never been able to speak about his own horrific experiences. Douglass begins building his ethos in the opening of chapter one when he claims to not know his birthday, unlike white citizens, who know every basic fact about themselves. Beginning with this fact makes Douglass credible because the reader now knows his experiences to be true. His complex word choices and advanced sentence structures could have lead one to believe that his writing was intended to be read from the upper-middle class. It was necessary for Douglass to establish himself on a level playing field as his audience in order for his intelligence to be taken seriously.
The issue of slavery in antebellum America was not black and white. Generally people in the North opposed slavery, while inhabitants of the South promoted it. However, many people were indifferent. Citizens in the North may have seen slavery as neither good nor bad, but just a fact of Southern life. Frederick Douglass, knowing the North was home to many abolitionists, wrote his narrative in order to persuade these indifferent Northern residents to see slavery as a degrading practice. Douglass focuses on dehumanization and freedom in order to get his point across.
Douglass appeals to pathos in his narrative through many quotes and traumatic events that he experienced. He states, “I was afraid to speak to anyone for fear of speaking to the wrong one, and thereby falling into the hands of money-loving kidnappers, whose business it was to lie in wait for their prey” (Douglass 113). By creating such an analogy, Douglass provokes guilty and sympathetic emotion from his readers. He’s saying that he doesn’t even know who he can and cannot trust, because slavery changes everyone’s personas and
Another inspirational architect in this time was William Kent. His designs using ogee pointed arches with a classical cornice inspired Batty Langley to produce a study in which he analyzed Gothic in terms of classical orders. A comparison with true mediaeval and Gothic architecture at this time shows that at this time all Gothic architecture was a decorative style to be applied as ornament to regular structures and s...
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass is written to have people place their feet in the shoes of Frederick Douglass and try to understand the experience he went through as a slave. Douglass writes this piece of literature with strong wording to get his point across. He is not trying to point out the unpleasant parts of history, but to make people face the truth. He wants readers to realize that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that some slaves, like himself, have intellectual ability. These points are commonly presented through the words of Douglass because of his diction.
Sharpie’s media purchases over the last decade have been very interaction oriented. Since 2009 Sharpie has shifted a large amount of their advertising attention to social media outlets, as well as many other non-media connectors. Sharpie has been getting up close and in touch with its consumers for most of the last decade, using professional athletes from various sports to promote their brand. While working with Paragon Marketing Group Sharpie sponsored the Sharpie 500 from 2001 to 2009. The Sharpie 500 was one of the most popular races on the NASCAR circuit. Sharpie was also the main sponsor of Kurt Busch and his No. 97 Ford from 2001 to 2006. Busch had a highly successful career whilst driving for Sharpie, even winning the first ever NASCAR Nextel Cup Championship in 2004. The exposure paid off according to Paragon, as Sharpie’s sales increased a minimum of 15% per annum.
When first introduced to Douglass and his story, we find him to be a young slave boy filled with information about those around him. Not only does he speak from the view point of an observer, but he speaks of many typical stereotypes in the slave life. At this point in his life, Frederick is inexperienced and knows nothing of the pleasures of things such as reading, writing, or even the rights everyone should be entitled to. Douglass knowing hardly anything of his family, their whereabouts, or his background, seems to be equivalent to the many other slaves at the time. As a child Frederick Douglass sees the injustices around him and observes them, yet as the story continues we begin to see a change.
The media in the United Sates is accustomed to portraying Haiti as a failed state without referring to the external influences of other countries on Haiti’s problems including the 1915 to 1934 occupation of Haiti by the United States. Haiti has suffered at the hands of numerous dictators who have robbed the country of its resources, but little is said of the U.S support of some of the dictatorial regimes that have ruled over Haiti and plundered its resources (Maus, 2015). The natural disasters that have wrought havoc in Haiti in the form of hurricanes and floods are solely blamed on Haitians who have decided to destroy their land using destructive agricultural methods. Little is said of the destruction of Haiti’s natural landscape
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.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave details the progression of a slave to a man, and thus, the formation of his identity. The narrative functions as a persuasive essay, written in the hopes that it would successfully lead to “hastening the glad day of deliverance to the millions of [his] brethren in bonds” (Douglass 331). As an institution, slavery endeavored to reduce the men, women, and children “in bonds” to a state less than human. The slave identity, according to the institution of slavery, was not to be that of a rational, self forming, equal human being, but rather, a human animal whose purpose is to work and obey the whims of their “master.” For these reasons, Douglass articulates a distinction between the terms ‘man’ and ‘slaves’ under the institution of slavery. In his narrative, Douglass describes the situations and conditions that portray the differences between the two terms. Douglass also depicts the progression he makes from internalizing the slaveholder viewpoints about what his identity should be to creating an identity of his own making. Thus, Douglass’ narrative depicts not simply a search for freedom, but also a search for himself through the abandonment of the slave/animal identity forced upon him by the institution of slavery.
Haiti was once the first black independent republic in the world and the richest island in the Caribbean. Today Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest countries in the world. What could have happened to Haiti in almost two hundred years of history? The country experienced repeated civil war and foreign intervention. Haiti is not isolated from the international world. Thus, it was not out of concern for ordinary Haitians that the United States intervened in Haiti. It was out of concern for profit and stability within the United States' own backyard. The purpose of this paper is to show the negative aspect that the United States had played in the government of Haiti.
Is religion a major cause of war or/and a major cause of the conflict between people? A holy war is justified in the name of “God”. In Europe, during the 16th and 17th centuries, there were numerous wars caused by religious beliefs. For example, the Spanish Reconquista or the Christian Crusades are instances of religious warfare. The Crusades were wars that began with Christianity against the conquest impelled by the Muslims and their religious expansion. Religion has caused suffering and much immense pain. Friedrich Nietzsche believed Christianity is evil for the world. Bitterness, or ressentiment, is when one has repressed feelings and emotions. Our values play a big role. It reflects the way of life of each individual. Nietzsche, in reference to the slave morality, developed the concept of ressentiment. In the past, “nobles” determined “morality”. Then there was a revolt against these “morals”, where now the “common” determine morality. Nietzsche, states that we each live within our own perspective and that the goal of life is self-overcoming.
Sainte Chapelle, built in April of 1248, in Paris, France was an architectural innovation within the Gothic style of architecture. Within the gothic style there are distinct attributes that define it, these being; a light and airy interior space, flying buttresses, pointed arches, vaulted ceilings, and a grand tall design (fig 2)¬¬¬¬. Evolving from the Romanesque style the Gothic pushes towards the sky in a more freeing and uplifting space. Romanesque is known for features such as; large towers, forms in decoration, sturdy piers, thick walls, and overall massive qualities (Fig 1). This feeling of airiness is achieved through many innovations that lead to a more open design within Gothic cathedrals (Fig 2). Sacred space within the cathedrals had a lot of angles, planes, and a strong contrast between light and shadows. The sanctuary of Sainte Chapelle is a sacred place because it demonstrates requirements for the design of sacred space through its manipulation of light, spatial arrangement, and structure.
Architecture, one of the most fascinating art forms, is often perceived as cultural symbols as well as work of art. For hundreds of thousands of years, people were constantly seeking ways to build bigger and higher architecture. It was until the 12th century, with the innovative engineering breakthroughs, the size and the scale of architecture have reached an unprecedented level that even modern architecture could not compete with. Taller than the ancient pyramids in Egypt, large enough to hold the Statue of Liberty; with a hundred million pounds of stone, seemingly weightless, yet as heavy as the Empire State Building. This is a revolution in architecture: Gothic cathedrals.1 This essay will focus on showing the beauty of Gothic cathedrals