INTRODUCTION In the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas”, he give the reader insight on the relationship with his master family and different point of views of the his master that abused and mistreat the them with details on their living conditions and work. For the purpose of brining to attention to the readers of the narrative that slavery needs to end. In Chapter II of the narrative Douglas explain his purpose of removing slavery through his life experiences and the other slaves around him from both relationships of Mr. Severe and Colonel Lloyd through his tone, word choices and emotions to make the reader be placed in Douglas shoes on the plantation he grew up on. POINTS OF REVIEW This chapter is filled with details about the plantation Douglass grew up on. It's a large plantation, with three to four hundred slaves. Douglass gives a lot of details about the kinds of food and clothing the slaves were given, which range from very little to none at all. Children were often naked, a rough wool blanket was all they had to sleep on, and the food was fit for hogs. …show more content…
When they finished working in the fields they returned home to more work, not getting to sleep until the early hours of the morning. At dawn they had to be up and ready to be back in the fields or face the wrath of the overseer, the aptly named "Mr. Severe." No one ever laughed at Mr. Severe's name, because he worked hard to live up to it. Douglass, who is eager to show us that he is a good Christian, is almost as offended by Mr. Severe's foul language as he is by his cruelty in punishing slaves at the slightest
The novel Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas was structured around the hardships of Douglass’ horrific and dreadful life as a slave and towards the later part of the novel addresses his life as a freeman. With no dates to follow in chronological order Douglass classifies his life in a sequence of the masters Douglass experiences. The novel had a total of eleven chapters each depicting a different stage of Douglass’ experience of being a slave.
Frederick Douglass, an African American social reformer who escaped from slavery, in his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself,” denotes the perilous life of a slave in the South. Through syntax, Douglass is able to persuade his readers to support the abolitionist movement as his writing transitions from shifting sentence lengths to parallel structure and finally to varying uses of punctuation. Douglass begins his memoir with a combination of long and short sentences that serve to effectively depict life his life as a slave. This depiction is significant because it illustrates the treatment of slaves in the south allows his audience to despise the horrors of slavery. In addition, this
“The law on the side of freedom is of great advantage only when there is power to make that law respected”. This quote comes from Fredrick Douglas’ book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written in 1845. Fredrick Douglas who was born into slavery in 1818 had no understanding of freedom. However, his words shed light on the state of our country from the time he made this statement, but can be traced back fifty-eight years earlier to when the Constitution was drafted and debated over by fifty-five delegates in an attempt to create a document to found the laws of a new country upon. However, to eradicate the antiquated and barbaric system of slaver would be a bold step to set the nation apart, but it would take a strong argument and a courageous move by someone or a group to abolish what had enslaved thousands of innocent people within the borders of America for centuries. There was an opportunity for the law to be written within the Constitution, which would support this freedom Fredrick Douglas alluded to. However, the power, which controlled this law, would as Douglas stated, “make that law respected”.
When first introduced to Douglass and his story, we find him to be a young slave boy filled with information about those around him. Not only does he speak from the view point of an observer, but he speaks of many typical stereotypes in the slave life. At this point in his life, Frederick is inexperienced and knows nothing of the pleasures of things such as reading, writing, or even the rights everyone should be entitled to. Douglass knowing hardly anything of his family, their whereabouts, or his background, seems to be equivalent to the many other slaves at the time. As a child Frederick Douglass sees the injustices around him and observes them, yet as the story continues we begin to see a change.
In chapter six of Frederick Douglass, Douglass emphasises the importance in the reputation of a clean city. In this chapter, Douglass mentions that in this new setting, his lifestyle is completely altered; Douglass discusses that as a reward he receives a new pair of trousers, in comparison to Douglass’s life in the plantation where his wardrobe consisted of "coarse tow linen shirt" that reached to his knees. Douglass affirms, “A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation" (Douglass 50). When look at the context of the trouser, they symbolically represents a step toward a more civilized state for Douglass, in comparison to the disheveled environment Douglass previously lived at. And when analyzing the context of
Douglass’s appeals to his audience are specifically directed toward white, Christian males. He is fully aware at all times he must show that he can relate with them. As Christians, how should they have felt had they been denied their right to practice religion and believe in their god? What would they do if the country they so loved chained them to a life of servitude? Finally, what would all the work to support a family and desire for self-improvement have accomplished if it only benefited a master, but not a wife and children? Douglass deliberately addresses those aspects of life that mean the most to his audience because in doing so he is sure to gain the listeners’ full attention and consideration of the immorality of slavery.
Fredrick Douglass describes his life on the plantation as being very difficult and troubling. He discusses situations in which slaves were treated unjustly. For instance, slaves would be punished if they were to say anything except positive remarks about their masters, even if they were obviously mistreating their slaves. Douglass had to learn when it was best for him to just stay silent (Douglass 27). This creates an enraged emotion in the reader because slaves should not have been denied the right to speak their mind just because it does not coincide with how their masters wanted them to feel. Douglass lets the reader understand that his starting life was not easy for him, and by describing it in the initial chapters of the book instead of
Frederick Douglass had moved into a new mistresses home who had never known of slavery. While she had initially taught him to read, fed him well, and looked upon him like an equal human being, she eventually forbade him from reading and whipped him at her husband’s request. The kind woman he had known became inhumane and degrading because that was required to maintain the unwarranted power over slaves.
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.
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.
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass is written to have people place their feet in the shoes of Frederick Douglass and try to understand the experience he went through as a slave. Douglass writes this piece of literature with strong wording to get his point across. He is not trying to point out the unpleasant parts of history, but to make people face the truth. He wants readers to realize that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that some slaves, like himself, have intellectual ability. These points are commonly presented through the words of Douglass because of his diction.
In the Autobiography, “Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglas: An American Slave,” Fredrick Douglas writes to show what the life of a slave is like, because from personal experience, he knows. Fredrick Douglas not only shows how his life has been as a slave but shows what it is like to be on the bottom and be mistreated. Douglas shows that freedom isn’t free, and he took the initiative to become a free man. Not many African-Americans had the opportunity to make themselves free and were forced to live a life of disparity and torture. Through his experience Douglas shows us the psychological effects of slavery. Through Douglas’s memory we are able to relive the moments that continued to haunt his life. Douglas’s book showed the true
Within the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave” Douglass discusses the deplorable conditions in which he and his fellow slaves suffered from. While on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, slaves were given a “monthly allowance of eight pounds of pork and one bushel of corn” (Douglass 224). Their annual clothing rations weren’t any better; considering the type of field work they did, what little clothing they were given quickly deteriorated. The lack of food and clothing matched the terrible living conditions. After working on the field all day, with very little rest the night before, they must sleep on the hard uncomfortably cramped floor with only a single blanket as protection from the cold. Coupled with the overseer’s irresponsible and abusive use of power, it is astonishing how three to four hundred slaves did not rebel. Slave-owners recognized that in able to restrict and control slaves more than physical violence was needed. Therefore in able to mold slaves into the submissive and subservient property they desired, slave-owners manipulated them by twisting religion, instilling fear, breaking familial ties, making them dependent, providing them with an incorrect view of freedom, as well as refusing them education.
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.
...a lot of atrocities at the hands of their owners, who were successful in using ignorance as a tool of slavery, besides treating them as personal property. However, the slaves struggled to gain education on their own, ultimately knowing their rights and questioning some of the heinous acts. Slave owners ensured that slaves worked tirelessly so that they do not get time to idle around and gather in groups that would shake the administration. The narrative, through highlighting the experiences of Douglass himself, painted a true picture of the type of life slaves were undergoing under the surveillance of their slave masters in the United States, a picture that the slaveholders did not want to be brought to the limelight.