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Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass book analysis
Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass book analysis
The effects of slavery on people
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Slavery has always been known as physical abuse where the whites would constantly beat the blacks. However, there is a psychological aspect of slavery as well. The whites create a fear within the slaves by constantly punishing them and making them seem like they’re unimportant so they don’t start a rebellion. The slaves are restricted from receiving any more information than what the whites tell them because with knowledge, the slaves could almost seem humane. The “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” explores and explains the idea of how mental conditions are the reason behind the whites having control over the blacks and maintaining a powerful position in the social hierarchy. The preconceived idea that whites will always be higher is etched into the slave’s brains from the beginning to the end of their life. …show more content…
The slave owners try to justify their use of slaves by incorporating religion because they believe that if religion is mentioned, then it is right for them to own slaves.
Slavery causes a shift in the way a person thinks. Instead of finding slavery monstrous, whites condone slavery and accept it as a lifestyle. Even the best of people can’t overcome the powers of slavery. When Mr. and Mrs. Auld become the slave owners of Frederick Douglass, Mrs. Auld “kindly [commences] to teach [him] the A, B, C [and assists him] in learning how to spell words of three or four letters” (48). As his skills develop, her husband finds out what she’s doing. She didn’t know that slaves weren’t supposed to be learning proper sentences or know the alphabet. Due to her teaching him, Douglass is eager to know more. A fire is lit inside him and nothing could stop him, especially after Mr. Auld convinces his wife to stop feeding Douglass new information. Douglass knows that it would be tough for him to learn how to read without having a mentor, but he has a heart made up of hope even after seeing the cruelty of slavery. Although he is full of determination, he has yet to experience the changes slavery could make in a person. Soon, he saw “[her] tender heart [became] stone, and
the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness” (52). Because her husband was the man of the house and white men were always on top of the social ladder, everyone below them has to follow their orders which means that his wife had to change her views on slavery. It was clear that she didn’t really know what slavery was since she begins teaching Douglass. She had to become tough and brutal which is exactly what she did. Frederick Douglass states that “she now commenced to practice her husband’s precepts. She finally became even more violent in her opposition than her husband himself” (52). Mrs. Auld is no longer the person he knew before slavery took over her mind. She is even worse than her husband, which means that she learns to be more unsympathetic towards the slaves’ feelings than her husband is. Douglass realizes how having a copious amount of power can make someone turn evil because she was once such a warmhearted person who now uses violence to stop him from learning. The whole reason Mrs. Auld changed the way she was is because she finds that knowledge is powerful and can cause a slave to think that they deserve to be treated better because they aren’t any less of a human than whites are which is what Mr. Auld means when he says that “learning will spoil the best nigger in the world” (48). Slaves aren’t allowed to know much. They don’t even know their own age. The slave owners believe that if the slaves gain knowledge of certain things about themselves, they’ll keep yearning to know more. In the beginning of the narrative, Douglass only repeats what he knows, which is that “[he] was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland…” (19). He’s naming the place he was born in and its surrounding places because this is basically all he knows. It seems almost as if he is trying to keep a grasp on this information because he knows of nothing else. He sees how the white kids can tell their ages and wonders why he can’t tell his own. It causes an inner unhappiness to rise and it is very saddening because he’s a kid and he isn’t the only one that feels that way. Along with this, the slaves used to sing songs that were a cry for help. At that time, “[he] was within the circle” (30). He didn’t understand completely what was going on because he was too far into the circle to realize what the slaves were singing about. But now he is looking back at these moments from a free man’s perspective and can see how you’d need to have one foot in and one foot out of the circle to properly interpret the meaning of the songs. He was able to find this out because he had gotten education but he didn’t have any before which is why he couldn’t do anything about it earlier. Douglass states, “I was fast approaching manhood, and year after year had passed, and I was still a slave. These thoughts roused me-I must do something” (91). Since he learned how to read and went through newspapers, his knowledge allows him to desire being free and taking action. Usually slaves wouldn’t try to escape slave owners but Douglass realized that if he ever wanted to live a real life, he needed to get out of their hold. Moreover, slaves are thrown into this box labelled fear which causes them to back away from ever thinking of escaping. Douglass doesn’t stay in this endless pit of misery because he knows that he could do something to change his life. However, Douglass encounters many beatings and that petrifies him. Douglass states that “the warm, red blood (mid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor” (24). He runs to the closet after looking at his Aunt Hester naked and covered in blood. Of course, what child wouldn’t? He’s seeing his loved one get beat and punished severely, it’s insane just how much. Douglass even knows of two other girls, Henrietta and Mary, that are beaten by the woman in the house, Mrs. Hamilton. Although he’s never seen it happen, he knew of it because she keeps a cowskin covered in blood by her side. Douglass states how “the head, neck, and shoulders of Mary were literally cut to pieces” (50). The whites don’t care about the wellbeing of their slaves as long as they do their work. If they do something wrong, they would be harshly disciplined to the point where dying feels like a better option than being a s lave. Because of the suffering, the slaves were afraid of trying anything against the rules of their masters. If Douglass didn’t have the information he does, he wouldn’t have defied his owners. The box of fears compels the slaves to succumb to their owners and unless they were educated, there would be no escaping.
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.
Saiba Haque Word Count: 1347 HUMANITIES 8 RECONSTRUCTION UNIT ESSAY Slavery was a problem that had been solved by the end of the Civil War. Slavery abused black people and forced them to work. The Northerners didn’t like this and constantly criticized Southerners, causing a fight. On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by Lincoln to free all the slaves in the border states. “
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” This quote is by Booker T. Washington. In the book “Up from Slavery” Mr. Washington was a poor African American man who wanted an education. He was able to peruse an education, through hard work and perseverance. Then he wanted to help others also receive an education, by building a school.
Frederick Douglass’s narrative shows how slaveholders perpetuate slavery by keeping their slaves ignorant. At the time Douglass was writing, many people believed that slavery was a natural state of being. They thought that black people were inherently unable to participate in civil society and thus should be kept as workers for white people. The Narrative explains the strategies and procedures used by whites to gain and keep power over blacks from their birth onward. Slave owners keep slaves ignorant of basic facts about themselves, such as their birth date or their parents. This imposed ignorance, which robs children of their natural sense of individuality. As these grew older, slave owners prevent them from learning how to read and write,
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.
In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the author, Frederick Douglass, uses similes, insults, figurative language, and repetition to portray the dehumanization of slaves and slaveholders. To most slaveholders, African Americans were seen as beasts or wild animals, and they were treated as such. Kind slaveholders were a rarity in this time. Owning another person gave white people a sense of power and dominance. Douglass’ narrative accurately depicts the tragic brutality African Americans faced and the devastating effects of slavery.
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.
While writing about the dehumanizing nature of slavery, Douglass eloquently and efficiently re-humanize African Americans. This is most evident throughout the work as a whole, yet specific parts can be used as examples of his artistic control of the English language. From the beginning of the novel, Douglass’ vocabulary is noteworthy with his use of words such as “intimation […] odiousness […] ordained.” This more advanced vocabulary is scattered throughout the narrative, and is a testament to Douglass’ education level. In conjunction with his vocabulary, Douglass often employed a complex syntax which shows his ability to manipulate the English language. This can be seen in Douglass’ self-description of preferring to be “true to [himself], even at the hazard of incurring ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur [his] own abhorrence.” This is significant because it proves that Douglass can not only simply read and write, but he has actually obtained a mastery of reading and writing. This is a highly humanizing trait because it equates him in education level to that of the stereotypical white man, and how could one deny that the white man is human because of his greater education? It is primarily the difference in education that separates the free from the slaves, and Douglass is able to bridge this gap as a pioneer of the
The Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, An American slave takes a look at how it really feels like to be a slave. There is only so much you can learn about slavery in the textbooks. Oftentimes we know what slavery is, but never really understand how brutal it was for the slaves. Within the autobiography, chapter one lets you learn about who Frederick Douglass is and you learn about his childhood. You learn about his family, and the life he lived as a slave. Douglass shares his experiences to help us learn how exactly slaves were treated. Douglass emphasizes his writing in a unique style to capture the audience, while also reeling in their emotions to embrace the experience of being a slave, and uses an effective tone to illustrate
White slaveholders kept their slaves in the dark in terms of education, as well as individual identity. Slaveholders would not tell slaves about their family or where they came from, or how to read and write. Slaves were kept illiterate so they were unable to document their experience as a slave, and so they could not read about abolitionist movements, or documents of that nature. To whites, knowledge was the equivalent to freedom, so they forced their slaves to remain illiterate. However, Douglass was accidentally shown the ticket to freedom, through Mr. Auld. Once Mr. Auld explained to Douglass that he was not allowed to become literate, Douglass “understood what had been to [him] a most perplexing difficulty...the white man’s power to enslave the black man” (page 47). Once Douglass understood what it would take to become a free man, he worked hard to become literate. By becoming literate, he was no longer inferior to any white man. He understood what it meant to be an abolitionist, and began planning ways to escape. Other slaves inhibited intellectual capabilities because Douglass “devoted [his] Sundays to teaching [his] loved fellow-slaves how to read” (page 87). Douglass and his fellow slaves worked together and devised a plan to escape slavery, which involved Douglass writing passes for each individual. Later on in the novel, literate slaves help Douglass become a free man. This further proves Douglass’ point that blacks are not intellectually inferior to
In the Autobiography, “Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglas: An American Slave,” Fredrick Douglas writes to show what the life of a slave is like, because from personal experience, he knows. Fredrick Douglas not only shows how his life has been as a slave but shows what it is like to be on the bottom and be mistreated. Douglas shows that freedom isn’t free, and he took the initiative to become a free man. Not many African-Americans had the opportunity to make themselves free and were forced to live a life of disparity and torture. Through his experience Douglas shows us the psychological effects of slavery. Through Douglas’s memory we are able to relive the moments that continued to haunt his life. Douglas’s book showed the true
From experiencing this sense of ownership over the slaves, it ultimately had an impact on her self identity. Although one does not know her genuine emotions towards this situation and if she wants to return to when she was not aware, it is certainly clear that her current state as a human being is not in a favorable condition.Douglass also personally experienced a similar situation in which he expressed, “...I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy” (Douglass 35). This implies that Douglass rather regrets possessing the ability to read though it was initially considered as a blessing. It is predominantly due to the reason that he is now able to comprehend the reality of his life and his current condition as a slave. It signifies that he was not expecting to face the truth of reality, but rather simply desired to grasp how society worked. Still through this identification, he is able to acknowledge how he has transformed as a person. His ability to read had a greater emotional impact that essentially stimulated the emotion of regret which ironically made this trait undesirable when he had previously longed for
“I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more, if only they had known they were slaves.” Harriet Tubman was a woman known for her important role during the time that led up to the Civil War. She was a woman of incredible strength, courage, and determination. And while Harriet Tubman is credited for giving the slaves an option as to what way they shall spend the rest of their life, the sad truth lies within the quote above. While many people like to believe that slavery was a horrendous act that happened only with small minded people from the south many years ago, that isn’t the case in all honesty. In fact, the idea of slavery was highly debated about and troubled more minds than many are led to believe. While there are
The word “slavery” brings back horrific memories of human beings. Bought and sold as property, and dehumanized with the risk and implementation of violence, at times nearly inhumane. The majority of people in the United States assumes and assures that slavery was eliminated during the nineteenth century with the Emancipation Proclamation. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth; rather, slavery and the global slave trade continue to thrive till this day. In fact, it is likely that more individuals are becoming victims of human trafficking across borders against their will compared to the vast number of slaves that we know in earlier times. Slavery is no longer about legal ownership asserted, but instead legal ownership avoided, the thought provoking idea that with old slavery, slaves were maintained, compared to modern day slavery in which slaves are nearly disposable, under the same institutionalized systems in which violence and economic control over the disadvantaged is the common way of life. Modern day slavery is insidious to the public but still detrimental if not more than old American slavery.