The Dehumanization Process in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave
Throughout American history, minority groups were victims of American governmental policies, and these policies made them vulnerable to barbaric and inhumane treatment at the hands of white Americans. American slavery is a telling example of a government sanctioned institution that victimized and oppressed a race of people by indoctrinating and encouraging enslavement, racism and abuse. This institution is injurious to slaves and slave holders alike because American society, especially in the south, underwent a dehumanization process in order to implement the harsh and inhumane doctrine. In the episodic autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Frederick Douglass illustrates, through personal experience, the brutality and violence of slave life. As a young boy, Douglass is sent to Baltimore, an event that gives him temporary relief from the harsh conditions on the plantation. In Baltimore, he teaches himself to read and write and begins a journey to mental freedom that eventually paves the way to his successful escape to the North. Despite the hardships he endures, “most amazing is the indestructible total humanity of [Douglass] whom society called a thing, a chattel to be bought and sold” (Rexroth 134). Amazingly, Douglass realizes at a young age that the institution of slavery poisons people who might otherwise act in good and decent ways. His autobiography focuses primarily on the ill effects slavery has on slaves; however, he also acknowledges the damage that enforcing the laws of slavery has on slave holders. Through the use of imagery, Douglass masterfully illustrates the dehuman...
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...oppression due to the lack of liberty, education, humanity, or justice.
Works Cited
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Vol 1. 4th ed. Houghton Mifflin Company: New York, 2002. 1817-1880.
Franklin, Bruce. “Animal Farm Unbound.” Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. 29-43.
Houston PBS Online. Resource Book: People and Events Frederick Douglass 1818-1895. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1539.html
Rexroth, Kenneth. “Frederick Douglass.” The Elastic Retort: Essays in Literature and Ideas. The Continuum, 1973: 108-11. Rpt. in Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Eds. Laura Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale, 1984. 133-34.
Armstrong, Gary, and Philip Kotler. Marketing: an introduction. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2013. Print.
middle of paper ... ... Douglass, Frederick. A. A. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Atlanta: Kessinger Publishing, 2008. 8.
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. An American Slave Written by Himself. (New Haven, Ct: Yale University Press, 2001)
The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: 1844-1860. Vol. 5. New York: International Publishers, 1975.
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.
Boston: G.K. Hall, 1999. Foner, Philip S. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Volume II Pre-Civil War Decade. 1850 - 1860 -. NY: International Publishers Co., Inc., 1950.
Frederick Douglass emphasizes the dehumanization aspect of slavery throughout his narrative. As is the general custom in slavery, Douglass is separated from his mother early in infancy and put under the care of his grandmother. He recalls having met his mother several times, but only during the night. She would make the trip from her farm twelve miles away just to spend a little time with her child. She dies when Douglass is about seven years old. He is withheld from seeing her in her illness, death, and burial. Having limited contact with her, the news of her death, at the time, is like a death of a stranger. Douglass also never really knew the identity of his father and conveys a feeling of emptiness and disgust when he writes, "the whisper that my master was my father, may or may not be true; and, true or false, it is of but little consequence to my purpose" (Douglass, 40). Douglass points out that many slave children have their masters as their father. In these times, frequently the master would take advantage of female slaves and the children born to the slave w...
In, “The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”, readers get a first person perspective on slavery in the South before the Civil War. The author, Frederick Douglass, taught himself how to read and write, and was able to share his story to show the evils of slavery, not only in regard to the slaves, but with regard to masters, as well. Throughout Douglass’ autobiography, he shares his disgust with how slavery would corrupt people and change their whole entire persona. He uses ethos, logos, and pathos to help establish his credibility, and enlighten his readers about what changes needed to be made.
Douglas, Frederick. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (The Harper Single Volume American Literature 3rd edition) 1845:p.1017-1081
...fred D. “Frederick Douglass.” Encyclopedia of African-American Literature. New York: Facts on File, 2007. 144-146. Print.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: New American Library, 1987. 243-331.
Works Cited Douglass, Frederick. A. A. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
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.
In terms of political changes, European imperialism negatively affected Africa. Firstly, European colonization created enormous conflict between colonists and the African people. African resistance to “The Scramble for Africa” lead to the instability of Africa’s political structure. There was ineffective resistance of the African people against the Europeans. In an attempt to regain their independence, Africans took up arms against their colonial masters as soon as they perceived them to be at a disadvantage. In southern Africa, in The Republic of Namibia, the Herero people rose against German rule in 1904, killing over 100 German settlers and traders. German commander, General von Trotha, retaliated with a war aimed simply at extermination. This resulted in the decline of 70% of the Herero population.1 Nowhere else was colonialism quite so brutal, but almost everywhere it tended towards unrestrained brutality as soon as it was challenged.2 Warfare created considerable unrest among African people. Afterwards, the people of Africa came to the realization that the consequences of resistance against European colonists could be devastating. As well, the Europeans demonstrated that they had the technology and resources to gain control. Secondly, colonial expansion changed the face of Africa’s political structure. The Berlin Conference of 1884-85, attended by 13 European nations and the USA, set the ground rules for partition of Africa. When the conferenc...
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2012). Marketing management (14th ed., Global ed.). Boston, [Mass.: Pearson.