Frederick Douglass Theme Essay

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave has four fundamental themes running throughout the work: ignorance as a catalyst for slavery, knowledge leading the way to freedom, the damaging effects of slavery, and slavery’s distorted ties to Christianity. The first recurring theme, ignorance as a catalyst of slavery, seems to be the most relevant to the work as a whole. In Douglass’s time, it was extremely common for slaveholders to withhold an education from their slaves as they believed that African Americans were incapable of serving as functioning members of civil society and were only fit to serve as manual laborers for their Caucasian superiors. This forced ignorance ranged from an actual education to fundamental information …show more content…

It becomes clear through Douglass’s account that it is a slave’s responsibility to seek knowledge and education first in order to seek freedom. He emphasizes that his own self-sought out education became the primary tool through which is he able to free himself from bondage and begin his work towards the goal of freedom for all slaves. The third theme in the work, the damaging effects of slavery, extends itself to encompass the detrimental nature towards both slaves and slaveholders. It is widely known that slavery taxed slaves in both a physical, intellectual, and emotional manner but it is very often looked over how slaveholders excess of power corrupted their moral health. Slaveholders, more often than not, exploited their power and used it as a platform to commit adultery, rape, and resentful and cruel punishments that would otherwise seem immoral and inhumane. The fourth and final theme of the work, slavery’s distorted ties to Christianity, develops a clear divide between “true” and “false” Christianity. Douglass focuses specifically on the fact that the Christianity of slaveholders is no longer a true religious endeavor but rather a hypocritical exposition of their own abundant pride and power-hungry nature. Christianity in its founding is meant to emphasize charity, peace, and humanity and the action of slaveholding in

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