Fitzhugh's Speech In The Universal Law Of Slavery

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God bless the United States of America. The independence experienced in America was such a reason to rejoice and be proud to be an American. This pride, however, was only felt by the white man as he enjoyed the actual freedom that was talked about in the constitution. The black man lived full of fear, resentment, and anger. So what does independence really look like? Who is truly free? Do you have to meet a certain criteria or fit into a certain mold to have liberty? Slavery was real in the Southern states of the United States. Men, women, and children were owned by other individuals and were often beaten or even killed. According to Fitzhugh in “The Universal Law of Slavery” slaves were not capable of taking care of themselves and had to have a master that would serve as their guardian. He saw the negro race as not being as good as the white race and needing the white man to take care of him. (Fitzhugh). This stereotype of the black man was consistent among the pro-slavery individuals. This essay will explore the real meaning of freedom and point out that slavery represented everything that Americans should have been against. …show more content…

In this speech, he stressed the reason for the celebration. Americans were celebrating that they had “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. (Douglass). However, the black man did not have this luxury. The white man had traded the black man’s life for bondage; their liberty for chains, and the pursuit of happiness for whips. Everything that they should have been celebrating they were mourning. The black man was living in misery at the hands of the white man. There was no reasonable explanation that could make it acceptable for a person to own another person like a

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