In 1805, seal hunter Amasa Delano came across a ship call the Tryal that he mistook for a slave ship. Unknown to Delano, The slaves aboard the ship had already risen up and taken over the ship, killing the captain and most of the crew, and simply feigned slavery so as not to get caught. In author and historian Greg Grandin’s The Empire of Necessity, the slaves aboard the Tryal took part in a new era where for the first time, the tables turned, and the oppressed became the oppressors. Throughout his novel, Grandin argues that among men, there will always exist oppressors and oppressed. According to the author, every human has potential to become a slave in some way, as slavery is a necessary evil of mankind.
To write a book about history
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In The Empire of Necessity, the author takes a complicated tone that becomes all at once academic, candid, and direct. He appears to remain distant from his readers as if he simply wishes to state his business, yet occasionally he diverges into little stories or descriptions that do not follow the plot. Throughout the majority of the novel, Grandin remains factual, simply stating the background information that makes up most of the book. The main plot takes about two chapters to occur, while the rest of the book slowly builds up to the plot. In the only obvious bias of the entire book, found in the epilogue, Grandin states, “Instead, [Melville] ended his novella with Amasa consoling a dying Benito, a conclusion that I don’t think was meant to cast the American captain in a better light. I think it was Melville’s way of saying that he no longer believed that his country would, or should even try to, escape history: ‘But the past is passed; why moralize upon it?’” (272). The bias does not affect the theme of the novel, as the theme easily appears in the early chapters before reaching the author’s opinion. This bias in particular strikes me as odd considering most historical novelists do not come out and explicitly say what they think due to the interpretive nature of history. As for the readability of this book, the complexity of ideas and formal sentence structure makes it a challenging read for most students. It takes a lot of effort to keep reading because of the author’s factual tone and the slow plot
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.
middle of paper ... ... Although Nat’s expectations were not met, the rebellion injected some sense of slavery and more need for freeing the slaves. In conclusion, this book shows us that slavery is against mankind and all people are equal concerned with the race. Racism has become wide-ranging in many of the countries, mostly in northern Europe and Russia.
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...
The transatlantic slave trade paved the way for mass distribution of the human civilizations strongest labor force. The thought of using other humans as a means of production was first internal only within Africa but as other nations began to witness the degradation of one race, they saw an opportunity to tap into the weakened morals of one race which in turn allowed the Africans to fall into a lower class. Thus began the dispersion of slaves to other nations needing to fill the labor gap. An event that represents the beginning moment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade within the readings arise when Equiano was on watch with one of his sisters and was kidnapped by a group of people. Ever since Equiano was kidnapped, he was sold numerous times through different masters and traveled coast to coast. Equiano also witnessed the first time in his life a slave ship that was filled with black people of every description chained together with dejection and sorrowful expressions, and it was then that he realized the future that awaits him. Through the descriptions and Equiano’s wish for his former slavery in preference to the present condition he was in, we can imagine how awful and dehumanizing the slaves were being treated on shore. According to Equiano, many of the African slaves had the unpleasant personalities and traits that were similar with the white slave owners on the ship because of the close interaction that they had with each other. According to Gomez’s Reversing Sail, the beginning moment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade occurred because “Muslim forces in al-Andalus were never in control of the entire Iberian Peninsula and were continually threatened by Christian enemies during their nearly 800-year rule” (Gomez 59). As a result, “in both Iberia and the
The Man in the High Castle: Criticisms of Reality and Dictatorship by Philip K. Dick
In his “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” Douglass recounts the struggles he personally experienced as a black male born into slavery. While the narrative clearly critiques the American institution of race-based slavery, it at moments goes even further to critique other American institutions that ‘enslave’ its participants. In one specific moment of his narrative, during the second chapter, Douglass engages in a particularly fascinating rhetorical move which simultaneously denies that race is the only basis for slavery, and implicates white society as slaves themselves merely operating under a different institutional ideology. Douglass acutely observes how the oppression of slaves within the institution of American slavery mirrors the oppression of free thought within the institution of American politics. In this moment, instead of permitting slavery to be understood as a ‘black’ problem that white culture is not negatively impacted by, Douglass points out how ideological oppression is a problem in society at large, in a variety of institutions, and thus everyone is negatively impacted so long as these institutions are sustained. The institution of slavery is linked to the institution of politics, and both are acknowledged as social constructs that are in need of revision.
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...
Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship A Human History. New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2007. Print.
What if metamorphosis could cause a revolution? In her radical short story Reeling for the Empire, Karen Russell describes a world where women’s rights, independence, and identity are stripped from them and are converted into monsters. The women of nowhere mill are transformed into silkworms, locked away in the mill to spin for the rest of their lives. However an uprising begins as the women begin to reestablish themselves and overtake their oppressors. In Reeling for the Empire, Russell uses the motif of metamorphosis to reveal the dawn of feminism in society.
In Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, one of the major themes is how the institution of slavery has an effect on the moral health of the slaveholder. The power slaveholders have over their slaves is great, as well as corrupting. Douglass uses this theme to point out that the institution of slavery is bad for everyone involved, not just the slaves. Throughout the narrative, Douglass uses several of his former slaveholders as examples. Sophia Auld, once such a kind and caring woman, is transformed into a cruel and oppressive slave owner over the course of the narrative. Thomas Auld, also. Douglass ties this theme back to the main concern of authorial control. Although this is a personal account, it is also a tool of propaganda, and is used as such. Douglass’s intent is to convince readers that the system of slavery is horrible and damaging to all included, and thus should be abolished completely. Douglass makes it very clear in his examples how exactly the transformation occurs and how kind and moral people can become those who beat their slaves and pervert Christianity in an attempt to justify it.
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.
Professor’s Comments: This is a good example of a book review typically required in history classes. It is unbiased and thoughtful. The Student explains the book and the time in which it was written in great detail, without retelling the entire story… a pitfall that many first time reviewers may experience.
"I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery. O God, save me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God? Why am I a slave?” (Douglass 265). This miserable plea for freedom is from the powerful Narrative entitled, The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. In this descriptive story, he shares with the reader the viewpoint of a mixed-race American born man, raised parentless as a slave worker. Douglass’s mother was separated from him at a young age and his father was rumored to be their master, which is not out of the question, as many masters impregnated their female slaves. Douglass grew up not knowing his real age, with very little clothing and no bed to sleep in. In addition, the food was always rationed
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.