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The beginning of slavery in America
Impacts of slavery
Impacts of slavery
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Throughout the very conception of the New World up until the late 1800s, Africans had been targeted as servants to the white man solely due to the color of their skin. The institution of slavery, an abominable wrongdoing on America’s behalf tore apart the equality of man and morality. Gary Paulsen, in his historical fiction novel, Nightjohn, candidly delineates the atrocities of slavery such as the utter violence and deprivation of love and liberty placed upon slaves. In doing this, he also mirrors the beauty of resistance and the creation of everlasting bonds. Similar to a bird in a cage, slaves were, in many instances, restricted and disallowed many rights. Through the main character, Sarny’s experiences, Paulsen unravels the many angles …show more content…
Often times in Nightjohn, the characters referred to Waller, their master as, “maggot white,” or other insulting names. This was also seen in multiple cases in real life, due to the fact that slaves did not have much respect for their abusive masters. For example, freed slave, Lorenza Ezell brings up how slaves would create insulting chants or songs about their masters in a conference with the government. She sang, “Not dat overseer what to give trouble and trot us round a spell, but we lock him up in de smokehouse cellar with de key done throwed in de well!” Because all of the harsh treatment, slaves would almost despise their masters. In Nightjohn, this aspect of slavery was portrayed clearly as the characters would disrespect Waller. Paulsen further displays the defiance by incorporating the method of prayer slaves used. As stated earlier slaves were not allowed to pray for any reason. Regardless, they persisted to do so. Also from the Federal Writers’ Project, Harriet Cheatam’s contribution illustrates prayer during slavery. “We often had prayer meeting out in the quarters, and to keep the folks in the “big house” from hearing us, we would take pots, turn them down, put something under them, that let the sound go in the pots, put them in a row by the door, then our voices would …show more content…
Within the novel, Sarny, the main character reveals one of the many methods of slave suppression. Early in the text, she mentions how she never knew her birth mother. This unfortunately, was the reality for the majority of slaves. As stated in an excerpt from Narrative of Frederick Douglass, ¨...before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it. And hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor...to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child.¨ Frequently, this practice acted as the destruction of rising family powers in slave communities. Slave owners knew affinity would ultimately result in the inability to suppress African-American families. Sarny describes how her mother was taken away from her at the age of four, therefore she was put under care by a woman named Delie, or as the characters refer to her, ¨Mammy.¨ With the inclusion of this aspect of slavery, Nightjohn proves itself a very true-to-life telling of slavery. Despite the lack of affection, many slaves managed to form bonds with the other slaves in their community. When their mother and father figures were taken away from them, the managed to create new ones. Sarny, on one hand, learned to love Delie as though she was her
At first glance, the book “my bondage and my freedom by Frederick Douglass appeared to be extremely dull and frustrating to read. After rereading the book for a second time and paying closer attention to the little details I have realized this is one of the most impressive autobiographies I have read recently. This book possesses one of the most touching stories that I have ever read, and what astonishes me the most about the whole subject is that it's a true story of Douglass' life. “ Douglass does a masterful job of using his own experience to expose the injustice of slavery to the world. As the protagonist he is able to keep the reader interested in himself, and tell the true story of his life. As a narrator he is able to link those experiences to the wider experiences of the nation and all society, exposing the corrupting nature of slavery to the entire nation.”[1] Although this book contributes a great amount of information on the subject of slavery and it is an extremely valuable book, its strengths are overpowered by its flaws. The book is loaded with unnecessary details, flowery metaphors and intense introductory information but this is what makes “My Bondage and My Freedom” unique.
The fight for racial equality is one of the most prominent issues Americans have faced throughout history and even today; as the idea that enslaving individuals is unethical emerged, many great and innovative authors began writing about the issues that enslaved people had to face. Olaudah Equiano was no exception. In his work The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, he attempts to persuade his readers that the American way of slavery is brutal, inhumane, and unscrupulous. Equiano manages to do this by minimizing the apparent differences between himself and his primarily white audience, mentioning the cruelties that he and many other slaves had to face, and the advantages of treating your slaves correctly.
During the era of slavery in America, it was common to see slaves being content with their given social ascription of identity. Many had accepted their fate of forever being bound. Madison Washington, the main character in Frederick Douglass’ novel, The Heroic Slave; however, couldn’t come to terms with being denied the inalienable right of being free. This book focuses on Washington and his journey in pursuit of liberty. He does whatever he can to be free from the bonds of slavery, and is fueled by the knowledge that slavery cannot be right or justified.
In this story it clearly shows us what the courts really mean by freedom, equality, liberty, property and equal protection of the laws. The story traces the legal challenges that affected African Americans freedom. To justify slavery as the “the way things were” still begs to define what lied beneath slave owner’s abilities to look past the wounded eyes and beating hearts of the African Americans that were so brutally possessed.
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
In the novel, Harriet Beecher Stowe introduces a housemaid slave, Eliza, who was promised her son would not be sold, however, when the poor economic conditions had hit her slave owners, they did not keep up with the promise of keeping Eliza’s son. One night she overheard them planning to sell her son, so Eliza escaped to help her son. “Eliza made her desperate retreat across the river just in the dusk of twilight. The gray mist of evening, rising slowly from the river, envelope...
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.
The first element of slavery that Frederick attacks is that slavery puts constraints on a slave’s individuality. In his narrative, he states that slaves were compared to animals by the way the slave owner treated them because slaves were considered as property and not as human beings. When slaves came into the new world, they were sold and given new names and over time were supposed to assimilate to the American culture. Since slave masters did not think slaves could assimilate to the American culture, slave masters kept them as workers; therefore, slaves were not given an education, leaving them illiterate, and thereby leaving them without any knowledge on how the American political system works. Slave owners thought that if slaves would become literate, that slaves would start to question the rights they have. Frederick argues that slaves l...
The institution of slavery was part of a significant portion of American history, along with human history. Additionally, it is also one of the greatest human tragedies of the New World and the United States. The White Man's Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in the United States was written by Winthrop D. Jordan and tells the history of racism in the United States. The author discusses the very origins of racism and the nature of slavery within the United States through the attitudes of the white slave owners. In the book, the author addresses the problem of slavery through the negative stereotypes, racist laws, and the paradox of Thomas Jefferson.
Nightjohn helped the reader to realize all of the brutal punishments slaves had if they did something that was disobedient, or incorrect. Paulsen really helped captive the act of brutal punishment, when he describes Alice's beating, how after she was
The first theme in Nightjohn is getting along with others. In the story, Clel Waller uses fear and intimidation to control his slaves. These methods, although somewhat effective, are not appropriate to use on anyone, no matter what they might have done. Had Waller used another, more tame strategy, such as rewarding good behavior rather than punishing poor behavior, then the slaves would not only obey him, but also view him as a better, nicer person altogether, and their relationship with Waller would be one of friendship and respect rather than one of fear. As a result, the slaves would tend to like him more, and reduce the chance of a violent revolt against mistreatment. Therefore, you should always try your best to be nice and get along with others.
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.
In the novel, the author proposes that the African American female slave’s need to overcome three obstacles was what unavoidably separated her from the rest of society; she was black, female, and a slave, in a white male dominating society. The novel “locates black women at the intersection of racial and sexual ideologies and politics (12).” White begins by illustrating the Europeans’ two major stereotypes o...
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.
Frederick Douglass’ landmark narrative describes the dehumanization of African-American slaves, while simultaneously humanizing them through his moving prose. Douglass shows the dehumanization of slaves through depictions of violence, deindividuation, and the broken justice system. However, Douglass’ pursuit of an education, moving rhetoric, and critique of his own masters demonstrates to the reader that African-Americans are just as intelligent as white people, thus proving their humanity.