A slave is a tool, a total servant, a possession. Being a possession, a slave is required to total obedience to a master who has the power to do anything to a slave.
Freedom means, to carry out one own choices, actions without coercion or constraint by necessity or circumstances. Fate often take a hand in the distillation of freedom. When this distillation occurs at weaker levels, benevolent slavery begins. A benevolent master usually receives gratitude from those slaves who are aware of their good fortune and will, in turn, work willingly. This form of slave's future is relatively certain, assured and predictable. Their offspring, born into a benevolent slavery, find the thought of freedom disturbing.
Although freedom as an idea sounds preferable, is hostile to the idea of personal experience in an unknown future devoid of assured support. After several generations, slaves under benevolent bondage will set up a form of society among themselves where a form of happiness can be found or earned, and in time the succeeding generations of slaves will construe their way of life as the best way to live, accepting, even worshipping their masters who offer protection from real and imagined dangers of life.
A brutalized people will, in time, find death preferable to their misery, and eventually they will fight, even to the death, against their oppressors. Benevolent slavery however, keeps slaves in control by offering them an opportunity to rise within their own status.
This is the underlying condition of a slave's acceptance of slavery and eventually becomes firmly rooted through upgrading. They are made to feel free, free to roam almost anywhere, to work at jobs within their abilities, to marry whom they choose, have and raise any number of their children, and conscript their own kind into warriors and leaders to protect the ideology of their preference. They are free to compete on working levels.
In this form of slavery, they are allowed to dream the unreal dream; to become masters themselves, and even to reduce their masters into slavery.
The societal successes of AfroAmericans presents a prime example. Large numbers of those young men and women have earned millions of dollars and the adulation of their peers of all nationalities and races. They have risen from their slavery, but they are not in control; of their masters, nor are any masters themselves, no...
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...m really is.
Freedom is an individual phenomena, and nearly everyone is in bondage, a slave. Lastly, to function in freedom is the road to freedom. Freedom is not somewhere else; it is in each of us, and it is a decision, a choice, to be free, no matter where we are, no matter what the circumstances might be.
Oddly, the first step is the hardest. Our society is based on fear and we crave security. A majority of people rely on insurance-the very word implies that we can be assured of protection from the Unknown - medical plans, unemployment insurance, auto insurance social security, funeral and burial plans, enlarged police forces, military might. We are protected from ourselves-seat belts, air bags, fire retardant materials, alarm systems, safe toys for tots, laws to prevent us from doing anything detrimental to ourselves, ad infinitum. It is notable that much of these security programs and systems are mandatory.
To be free is to begin by embracing insecurity in small portions. People are doing this in numbers even now through thrill-seeking devices, though much of it is valueless. The first place to begin being free is to realize what freedom is and how much, if any, is yours.
According to Dictionary.com freedom means “the state of being uncontrolled by another, or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.” Freedom. What does freedom mean to you? Even though freedom means the state of being uncontrolled by another, or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint, I believe that freedom means being able to accomplish what you desire and when you desire it without anyone saying anything, by reason of the comparison and contrast of our society and the society in the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, the negation of the word freedom, and synonyms of the word freedom. I believe that you should accept the consequences of the actions you take when you have your “freedom” as well.
When one hears the word freedom, one associates it with the words independence and liberty. It means that a person is able to exist freely without any limits, as it is their god-given right to do so. While this is true, the definition of freedom changes based on the context of the situation. During the time of slavery, freedom had a unique meaning to each person who was subjected to slavery. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass explores what the unique and complex meaning of freedom based off his experiences and knowledge of slavery.
Parents had to raise their children knowing there children would suffer the same fate as they did when they become of age. “Grandma was soon to lose another object of affection, she had lost many before.” (pg. 39) When the kids were young they were allowed to develop friendships with the slave owner’s children. “Color makes no difference with a child.” (pg.50) Kids are oblivious. However, slave children began to realize what the rest of their life would be like when they did become of age. Sopia the slave o...
According to the Collins Dictionary, “freedom” is defined as “the state of being allowed to do what you want to do”(“freedom”). The definition of freedom is simple, but make yourself free is not easy. Concerning about some common cases which will take away your freedom, such as a time-cost high education attainment. In this essay, I shall persuade that everyone should try his or her best to insist on pursuing freedom. For the individual, it appears that only if you have your personal freedom, can you have a dream; for a country, it seems that only if the country is free, can the country develop; for mankind, it looks like that only if people has their own pursuit of freedom, can their thoughts evolve.
I found that, to make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision,and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right, and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.* (315)
Society is formed into a hierarchical format demonstrated by the relationship between slaves and slave owners. Douglass refers to this concept of racial formation in the following statement, “my faculties and powers of body and soul, are not my own. But property of a fellow mortal” (199). This statement refers to the master who has power to compel his slaves in any format that he or she may desire to a point of controlling every single movement the slave makes. Douglass utilizes his knowledge of language to expose the psychology of the slave masters and the complex mechanisms that are created in order to systematically enslave African-Americans. Douglas refers to this idea as being “a slave for life” which underlies the issue that society is being organized hierarchically (157). Take for instance, when Douglass’ master Thomas chose not to protect him as a man or as property from the brutal treatment of Covey (171). This relationship demonstrates how masters willingly objectify their slaves as replaceable commodities. Many slave owners took advantage of the power they had over their property without any regards to the repercussions. Instead, African-Americans were belittled and coerced into being oppressed to a point where they accepted being a puppet in a master’s
This can mean many things to different people depending on how it is interpreted. However, I interpret being free as being able to do whatever one desires with no worries at all. This only comes when a person has a great mind to believe that something greater is waiting for them after the hard battle they are dealing with is over. The determined minds that believe anything is possible if work is put in and there is no giving up. These are the people that will prosper and become “free”. Everyone is capable of doing this, it is just putting your mind to work. In today’s society, people are not as mentally tough as they were before. Their minds are too distracted by phones, computers, the internet, drama, and all they stressful and unnecessary things that are believe to be necessary. They are too caught up with these things that time is wasted and that time could have been used to work and plan something increible. Time is something that cannot be bought, it just goes and does not stop. The average person needs to be able to recognize this and then devise a plan to be able to do more than just be
Looking the word “freedom” up in the dictionary, I encounter with the following definition: the condition or right of being able or allowed to do, say, think, etc. whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited.¹³ Then, we can assume when you are unable to say things you would like to say, or to think in a different way than the one that has been imposed to you, you are not wholly free.
What is freedom? This question is easy enough to answer today. To many, the concept of freedom we have now is a quality of life free from the constraints of a person or a government. In America today, the thought of living a life in which one was “owned” by another person, seems incomprehensible. Until 1865 however, freedom was a concept that many African Americans only dreamed of. Throughout early American Literature freedom and the desire to be free has been written and spoken about by many. Insight into how an African-American slave views freedom and what sparks their desire to receive it can be found in any of the “Slave Narratives” of early American literature, from Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustav Vassa, the African published in 1789, to Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself which was published in 1845. Phillis Wheatley’s poetry and letters and Martin R. Delany’s speech Political Destiny of the Colored Race in the American Continent also contain examples of the African-American slaves’ concepts of freedom; all the similarities and differences among them.
Slavery is one of the worst human tragedies of all time. People were subjected to forced labor and inhumane treatment as a function of their appearance and origin. The subjection was independent of the parentage. Even children fathered by whites were subjected to the same treatment as the rest of the slaves. Slaves were the property of the owners. As such, slavers did with the slaves what they desired. Cruelty was used to create submission and send the message that slaves were only valuable provided they offered valuable service to the masters. The life of a slave was dependent on the willingness to follow the orders. The narration of the life of Frederick Douglas creates the impression that slaves lived in total submission to their masters;
In conclusion, freedom is having power to inflict a positive change on the world. The ability to be yourself and not change for anyone. The right to choose who rules and who doesn’t rule. Having a chance to get out there and show the world what your all about and who you really are. These are all definitions of freedom and what it truly means to be
God has given us as human beings free will. Although if we make choices based on our own free will we must be willing to take the responsibility for the effects that our decisions have on ourselves, on the people around us, and on society itself. Freedom, I believe, is the way in which people live or behave without others annoying or interfering in his or her affairs. People should benefit from freedom, equality and justice. Absolute freedom is sometimes very dangerous and may destroy the basic principles of the society. A lot of people believe that freedom means doing whatever you want, whenever you want.
Nothing in life is guaranteed, but the one thing that humans demand is freedom. Throughout history, there are countless cases where groups of people fought for their freedom. They fought their battles in strongly heated debates, protests, and at its worst, war. Under the assumption that the oppressors live in complete power, the oppressed continuously try to escape from their oppressors in order to claim what is rightfully theirs: the freedom of choice. In Emily Dickinson’s poems #280, #435, and #732 and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, freedom is represented by an individual’s ability to make their own decisions without the guidance, consultation, or outside opinion of others in order to find their true sense of self. Once an individual is physically and spiritually free, they can find their true sense of self.
The dynamic of the relationships between slaves and their master was one which was designed to undermine and demean the slave. The master exercised complete authority and dominion over his slaves and
Freedom is a human value that has inspired many poets, politicians, spiritual leaders, and philosophers for centuries. Poets have rhapsodized about freedom for centuries. Politicians present the utopian view that a perfect society would be one where we all live in freedom, and spiritual leaders teach that life is a spiritual journey leading the soul to unite with God, thus achieving ultimate freedom and happiness. In addition, we have the philosophers who perceive freedom as an inseparable part of our nature, and spend their lives questioning the concept of freedom and attempting to understand it (Transformative Dialogue, n.d.).