Themes Of Uncle Tom's Cabin

They didn’t understand the conditions that they were putting the slaves under. Being a slaveholder could make you inhuman and change your whole person. Frederick Douglass took a stand against it in his own way, he was self-reliant and believed what was happening. He stuck to himself and was always thinking about things. He never let things just pass him by, he took advantage of all of his opportunities.

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to inform her readers that slavery is evil in order to persuade Northerners to violate the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 by depicting detailed descriptions of slaves suffering, family separations, brutal masters and the act of good-hearted human beings being harshly punished. Stowe describes the evils of slavery by incorporating into her novel many scenes of slaves suffering. The suffering is not only physical, but also mentally, for instance when George Harris loses all hope, because his master decided to move him from the factory to the cruelest toils on the farm (57). Another example is when Uncle Tom starts to hesitate about his religion, because he’s growing weary through his master harassment, and the painful labor work (552). Uncle Tom gets tested about his faith from the time he becomes one of Legree slaves.

In the well-written narrative The Life of Fredrick Douglass, the author, and former slave known as Fredrick Douglass, uses multiple examples of brutal whippings and severe punishments to describe the terrible conditions that African American slaves faced in the south. Douglass’s purpose for writing this narrative was to show the physical and emotional pain that slaves had to endure from their owners. According to Fredrick Douglass, “adopted slaveholders are the worst” and he proves his point with his anecdotes from when he was a slave; moreover, slave owners through marriage weren’t used to the rules of slaveholding so they acted tougher. He also proves that Christian slave owners weren’t always holier, they too showed no mercy towards their slaves and Douglass considered them religious hypocrites. Like most southern slave owners Thomas Auld was a cruel master who always disciplined his slaves for their wrong doings.

Obviously the south was for slavery and they did not like the book because they did not want others to know what was happening to their slaves. If people were to find out they knew people would reject to it immediately and that is exactly what happened. The South disliked the book... ... middle of paper ... ... Tom continued to refuse, so Legree beat Tom until he passed out and Tom ended up dying. George's master treated him horribly too. He treated him so bad that when George invented a machine for cleaning up the hemp, his master got upset about it and took him back to his plantation.

Douglass is clearly suffering from the knowledge he gains because it leads him to be estranged and makes him often want to end his own life. This is not a good practice for anyone in life for the reason that life is precious and it should never be taken for granted. Before Douglass learns how to read, he was content with his condition as a slave, but this proved a cruel incident that occurred in his life by making him

In the narrative Douglass shows us how slave owners and their sympathizers described blacks in terms of negative stereotypes to justify treating them as property. These stereotypes provided the foundation for the mythology of the plantation. Slave owners liked to think of themselves as the masters and even father-figures of a class of inferior, childlike people who could not survi... ... middle of paper ... ...her former slaves struggled hard to reclaim the right to define his own identity. To name himself was a huge accomplishment, carrying with it the right to tell his own story. Therefore, by him establishing his own identity on his own terms he catapulted his career as an abolitionist and his own claim to freedom.

Since Mr. Gore was a slave master, he was not given consequences for his inappropriate behaviors. It was not acceptable for him to kill someone but he gave a “valid reason” so it justified his actions. However, if slaves did any wrong they would receive a severe punishment. A slave master could commit several crimes without being questioned nor given a punishment. In Frederick Douglas, Mr. Gore killed a slave because he did not like their behavior.

To be deprived of freedom and living under constant whippings and starvation is something none of us would want to experience and it should never exist, unfortunately, it did at one time. Men who called themselves the defender of freedom and support The Constitution but enjoy slavery are nothing more than a mere hypocrite. Additionally, many slaves were illiterate and poor. Their owners will do anything in preventing their slaves to read and write. As Douglas heard his master once said:If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him.

Impact of Slavery on the Individual Exposed in Beloved In her novel, Beloved, Toni Morrison conveys her strong feelings about slavery. One of the major themes throughout the book is the impact that slavery has on the individual. Morrison utilizes the characters Mr. Garner and Schoolteacher to illustrate how slavery affects everyone in a different way. Though Morrison portrays Mr. Garner as the more humane master, in actuality he is no different then Schoolteacher, because ultimately they are both slave owners. Morrison includes the character, Mr. Garner, to show that even if you allow your slaves to do certain activities, you are still a displeasing human being because you are a slave owner.

They did not want the slaves seeking hope and forming an escape plan to gain their freedom. Douglass stated that becoming literate “had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out (Puchner, Martin).” A second theme present in this narrative is how slavery not only damaged African Americans, but the white slave owners as well. It shows how slave owners thrived on the power of “owning” human beings. Douglass states how being a slave owner was harmful to the owner’s moral sense of health because it is unnatural for a human to own another human/ humans.