African American Autobiographies and Slave Narratives

Christianity is all about doing a good deed and making the heavenly father proud, but slaveholders were doing the exact opposite. Someone once said that one of the worst sins you can commit is knowing what the rules say in the bible and still going against it. Douglass is trying to prove that just because you go to church and praise God does not mean you are a true Christian. Works Cited Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself.

Christianity was used as a tool for keeping the slaves docile and obedient to their master. They were only taught passages that emphasized submissiveness and learned only their master’s words. Throughout their narratives both Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs expose the hypocrisy and moral contradictions between the religion slaveholders preach and true Christianity. We learn that having a religious master is one of the worst things as a slave because masters feel a certain entitlement to commit these horrible crimes and that God is behind them. Separating the Christianity of the South and true or Godly Christianity became essential in realizing that religion could be used as justification for freedom.

Another w... ... middle of paper ... ...oth Frederick Douglass and William Apess share many of the same qualms with the form of Christianity that is being practiced by those "above" them. This can truly be understood if one knows anything about the teachings of the Christian religion. It preaches love, forgiveness, and kindness to your fellow man. The actions of the slave holders in the South and the Indian oppressors in the North are a direct contradiction to the teachings of the religion they "piously" follow. Both authors show that the whites' actions and deeds are mere "face" paying to a God it seems they don't even respect.

Reverent J.C. Postell in chapter four of the manual states that the slaves are brimming with all sin in their natural state, and their enslavement “revolutionizes them from such a state… where they may have the Gospel, and the privileges of Christians.” However, other slavery supporters, including Douglass’ masters the Ault family do not deem the slaves worthy of reading the Bible. Douglass reflects on Christianity positively when he discusses the Sabbath school, meant to teach slaves the Bible. The dismantling of the Sabbath school by religious leaders is an important turning point in Douglass’ faith journey and more importantly his self-concept. After beginning to teach Douglass to read, the Aults realize that an educated slave elevates in agency and is “of no value to his master.” (Douglass 1196). To Douglass, “he who proclaims it a religious duty to read the Bible denies me the right of learning to read the name of the God who made me” (Douglass 1236).

It shows how religion serves two main purposes during this time. It is used to justify slavery and later, to use it against it. Slave owners would take passages from the bible and interpret it as this was God’s design to own slaves and conform them to Christianity. This was the Christian thing to do according to God’s will. The bible was a powerful tool for slaves and it was often prohibited for Africans to access it.

It is clear that both Douglass and Cranmer cared about the well-being for society as a whole. Douglass believed that slave owners were wrongfully putting their love for success before of the welfare of human beings. Similarly, Cranmer believes that one should never set anything above glorifying God. While it is clear that Douglass believed that there was corruption in the Christianity of America, Cranmer hinted at the corruption of the church by using his exhortations as a final attempt to express his feelings about the Christian belief. Like stated before, Cranmer detested the of hatred towards any human and suggested that all should be respected.

While writing the story, “Milton exemplifies two crucial tenets of Christian-Particularly Protestant-theology: man’s free will and Go’s grace and divine justice” (Bloom 14). Milton never tries to make the reader believe more in Satan or God, but he tries to paint the picture of what they look like in his own mind and then the reader can imagine what they look like for themselves in their own interpretation. Milton makes it clear that God ultimately wins because he is more powerful than Satan and always will be. Countless critics try to bash Milton’s God by establishing a reasoning that Milton is not supportive of God and portrays Satan in a better light. In Paradise Lost, Satan says “He deserved no such return From me, whom He created... ... middle of paper ... ...alizes how good and powerful God actually is when God shows Adam and Eve mercy after they disobey Him.

Southern slaveowners claimed that they were upholding their Christian duty by engaging in slavery, rescuing slaves from a life of struggle and faithlessness. Douglass dispels this myth by exposing the many flaws of Mr. Covey’s morality, shocking northern Christians with his Christian hypocrisy and faulty character. Douglass introduces Mr. Covey as a “nigger-breaker,” denouncing his ability for human emotion and sympathy(79). Douglass evokes a sense of ethics and judgement in his Northern audience as he questions the authenticity of Mr. Covey’s faith: “I do verily believe that he sometimes deceived himself into the solemn belief that he was a sincere worshipper of the most high God” (82).

In doing so, they must eliminate their acceptance of one of these traditions; the odds are that Christianity holds a much more loyal following than slavery, in which case slavery will be given up as a practice. Douglass also quotes from Psalms 137:1-6, and the ludicrous concept that slaveholders expect their slaves to be joyous in their state of bondage is the essential meaning of the passage he chooses as it relates to the comparable situation of the Babylonians’ captives (442). His persuasive appeal in this case is the notion that any pious Christian would have sympathy for the lamenting captives and contempt for the captors in the Psalms passage. If this assumption is correct, then the same pious Christians surely should realize the situation of the slaves on this day and every other. Additionally, in asking this question, he asserts immediately that the meaning of the Fourth of July is entirely different from that of the free, white American.

It is a conservative force as it prevents the subject class from overthrowing the ruling class. Therefore, Owen uses his profound disillusionment with organized religion in his poems and letters to give a damning indictment of this class-divided society. Le Christianisme is a direct attack on religion which can be seen by the two lines “So the church Christ was hit and buried/Under its rubbish and rubble”. Three words are very significant here “buried”, “rubbish” and “rubble”, creating a lexical chain of negative imagery about the church and “Christ”. After witnessing the horrors of war Owen believes religion to be “rubbish” with no use to it.