Douglass's humiliating anecdotes about slavery create sympathy for people held in bondage. Slaves were punished by whipping, hanging, branding, beating, or burning. Punishment was most often dole out in response to disobedience or perceived error. Since the government allowed it, slaves suffered dramatic physical abuse during and outside of work. One of the most common instruments used against a slave was the whip. Slaves were punished for a number of reasons: breaking a rule, working too casually, or leaving the plantation without permission. Most states did not allow slaves from holding religious activities for fear that these meetings could facilitate communication and later lead to rebellion. Frederick Douglass (1995), states, “Our food was coarse corn meal boiled, which was called mush. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the ground. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none with spoons. He that ate fastest got most; he that was strongest secured the best place; and few left the trough satisfied" (Chapter 5, page 1). This clearly indicates how children were treated like animals and their inability to act in the presence of a normal educated child. Douglass states, "I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, and the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!" (Chapter 10) Douglass makes it clear that slavery weakens a man, and makes him surrender his manhood. Accor... ... middle of paper ... ...ue to his talents as an orator and a writer. All this overwhelming attention put him at high risk. Douglass went to England where he continued to fight for the cause; because he was afraid his old master would reclaim him and return him to enslavement. He was eventually allowed to return to the United States because some fellow abolitionist bought his freedom. He started writing an anti-slavery newspaper known as the North Star. It got this name because whenever slaves would escape they would follow the North Star, which they knew if they followed it would lead them to freedom. Douglass served as an example to all who doubted the ability of African Americans to function as free citizens. Frederick Douglass describes the brutality of slavery through the description he tells to admonish the North of the South’s barbarity and to further the abolitionist operation.
DeLombard, Jeannie. “Eye-Witness to the Cruelty.” Southern Violence and Northern Testimony in Frederick Douglass’s 1845. Scholarly Journal. eLibrary. Web. 27 February 2014.
From before the country’s conception to the war that divided it and the fallout that abolished it, slavery has been heavily engrained in the American society. From poor white yeoman farmers, to Northern abolitionist, to Southern gentry, and apathetic northerners slavery transformed the way people viewed both their life and liberty. To truly understand the impact that slavery has had on American society one has to look no further than those who have experienced them firsthand. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and advocate for the abolitionist, is on such person. Douglass was a living contradiction to American society during his time. He was an African-American man, self-taught, knowledgeable, well-spoken, and a robust writer. Douglass displayed a level of skill that few of his people at the time could acquire. With his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, Douglass captivated the people of his time with his firsthand accounts into the horror and brutality that is the institution of slavery.
In Douglass’ book, he narrates his earliest accounts of being a slave. At a young age, he acknowledges that it was a masters’ prerequisite to “keep their slaves thus ignorant”, reporting he had no true account of his age, and was groomed to believe, “a want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood” (25). This mindset was inbreeded in slaves to use ignorance as control and power. As a child, Douglass is separated from his mother. Thus, he comprehends this is implemented in slavery to disengage any mental, physical, and emotional bond within families and to benefit slave owners concern of uprooting slaves for trade. He illustrates the “norm” action and response of a slave to the master. To describe the typical dialogue, he states, “To all these complaints, no matter how unjust, the slave must answer never a word”, and in response “a slave must stand, listen, and tremble” (38). In the course of his narrative, he describes several excruciating acts of abuse on slaves. His first memory of this exploitation, the lashing of his Aunt Hester, he depicts as, “the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery” (29). Also, he gives accounts of owners’ self-deception tactics, injustices, and in effect, shaping characteristics of prejudice, jealousy, and dishonesty of slaves towards slaves. Likewise, connecting to the reader, slave...
Douglass, Frederick. The Heroic Slave. In Violence In the Black Imagination. Ed, Ronald T. Takaki. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Douglass's Narrative brings an ugly era of American history to life as it weaves through his personal experiences with slavery, brutality, and escape. Most importantly Douglass reveals the real problem in slavery, which is the destructive nature of intolerance and the need for change. Douglass refers many times to the dehumanizing effects sla...
He escaped at twenty and escaped to New York. He too published a personal narrative about his experiences with slavery and his expedition towards founding himself in modern society, post slavery called Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Anyone, under any means that wished or were trying to corrupt slavery or stop it were subject to danger. Douglass used actual names of people he had encountered and he listed verbatim the actual locations of places he had been during his time enslaved and his time on the run. He was an open book, this was very effective in his efforts to lull the nonbelievers and those who still inquire about the realism of slavery. He went so far to resist the reach of slavery, he fled the states being he could be recaptured with him being so open about his whereabouts. He returned after some of his colleagues bought him his freedom. Douglass had a hand in many abolitionist affairs. He worked as an editor for a black newspaper and was a world orator. He was even an advisor for President Abraham Lincoln. He had several methods of resistance whether it was public speaking, writing, advocacy or just being unmoved through all
According to Douglass, the treatment of a slave was worse than that of an animal. Not only were they valued as an animal, fed like an animal, and beaten like an animal, but also a slave was reduced to an animal when he was just as much of a man as his master. The open mentality a slave had was ...
Frederick Douglass is one of the most well-known, powerful, and talked about anti-slavery advocators of his time. In his book, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he describes his journey as a slave in America in an attempt to show the people how unjust and unnatural the practice of slavery really is. Throughout his book he clearly points out the negative effects of slavery. When most people think about the negative aspects of slavery it is from the slave’s point of view. However, Frederick Douglass describes how slavery is harmful not only to slaves, but to slave owners as well. Slavery pushes the boundaries of slaves’ mental and physical states while also corrupting the moral state of
He participated in a meeting in Nantucket that was an anti-slavery convention. This was a huge accomplishment to him because he spread the word about his time being a slave. He was offered to an agency in Massachusetts of the anti-slavery society. He also traveled to New England to give speeches about being a free colored man. Douglass also touched around the world by giving his audience a description of being in slavery. Douglass also was a member of the Woman’s Suffrage Association. Douglass’ purpose was to spread knowledge about being a slave in America. (Thompson,
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.
One of the amazing things about the story is the level of description and imagery that Douglass uses to describe the suffering around him. The excerpt spans a mere three days, but most of the text focuses on his abuse and battle with Mr. Covey. Douglass skips over the common parts of his life to further his case against slavery. By doing this, the Northerners rea...
According to Douglass, the treatment of a slave was worse than an animal. Not only was he valued as an animal but also a slave was reduced to an animal when he was as much a man as his keeper. The mental faculty a slave had was diminished through the forbidden nature of reading and learning, as well as the constant drunkenness imposed on the slaves during holidays.
He was living proof that intellectually it doesn’t matter what color you skin is or where in the world you have come from. What matters is the access to information and being knowledgeable. The white people made it illegal to teach slaves anything at all for a reason. It was because they knew that slaves were not inferior, but they made them inferior. Access to schooling would ruin the white plan to continue slavery as long as they could use it to their benefit. Douglass proved that theory correct he became educated and it allowed him to start a movement and be heard. Without the knowledge of being able to read and write he would have never made the impact that he did because he was able to communicate with others, but also prove his
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.
Douglass's narrative is, on one surface, intended to show the barbarity and injustice of slavery. However, the underlying argument is that freedom is not simply attained through a physical escape from forced labor, but through a mental liberation from the attitude created by Southern slavery. The slaves of the South were psychologically oppressed by the slaveholders' disrespect for a slave’s family and for their education, as well as by the slaves' acceptance of their own subordination. Additionally, the slaveholders were trapped by a mentality that allowed them to justify behavior towards human beings that would normally not be acceptable. In this manner, both slaveholder and slave are corrupted by slavery.