Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Captain Canot

The writings of Frederick Douglass and Captain Canot both discuss the institution of slavery. However, each piece of writing was written for a different purpose. Frederick Douglass’s writing was written to show how inhumane slavery was, and how wrong it was. Whereas Captain Canot’s writing basically bragged about how “humane” he treated the slaves on his ship. However, both men made some of the same points with similar evidence.
One view point that Douglass and Canot differed on was how slaves interacted with each other. Douglass believed that mothers, children, and other family members should not be separated. He believed the slaveholders did not want the mothers and their children to bond. He compares the death of his mother to that of a stranger’s. “I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger.” In contrast, Captain Canot believes it is necessary to keep the men, women, and children separated. On his ship, the men are put in the hold, the women in the cabin, and the children on the deck. However, he states in his article that he lets men, women, and children join together to sing African songs in the afternoons when the weather is calm.

Douglass believed the slaves suffered immensely when it came to everyday living conditions. He writes on page 13 the slaves did not have beds, or the time to sleep. He talked about most slaves only having one coarse blanket and one common bed which was the cold, damp, floor. In contrast, Canot justified the sleeping conditions on the ship by saying “that native Africans are not familiar with the use of feather – beds.” The slaves on the ship were forced to sleep naked, side by side, and on the bare floor. He also did not even give them a