Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People and Her Struggle for Freedom The period of history leading up to the Civil War was one of turmoil and immense change- politically, socially, narrative of the life of frederick douglass essay, and economically- in the United States. Slave owners feared the loss of the salves for without them their wealth could not be possible. A professional writer will make a clear, mistake-free paper for you! Douglass is headed back to where he had once been born into slavery, the Great House Farm. Douglass's grandmother, who had cared for several generations of the Anthony family, was turned out into the forest to die alone.
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Want to get an original essay on this topic? His life and the details of it are seen to many as a representation of what it meant to be a slave in America. To many his narrative was influential and inspiring as it was not a commonality for slaves to become free narrative of the life of frederick douglass essay the way that Douglass did, most were born and died a slave. Throughout his narrative, Douglass is telling the story of his life while simultaneously criticizing slavery in America through anecdotes and personal insight, narrative of the life of frederick douglass essay. After reading the narrative, it can be believed that regarding American political developments the ideas about America and what was truly happening were two very separate realities.
The first relationships humans build in their lives are with their parents, by taking this right away from slaves, who were typically raised by women too old to work in the field, slaveholders also took away a sense of home and comfort. Slavery prevented Douglass and most other slaves from getting the chance to ever fully develop a relationship with their families. Throughout their lives, slaves were deprived of family relationships and given a false idea of what family meant. Masters wanted their slaves to believe they were treated like family, even though family could never inflict the pain and suffering upon each other than white men inflicted onto African American slaves.
His use of language in this quote is sincere in a way that readers can tell he wrote with truth. Douglass not only admitted the faults of his masters in his narratives but would also admit his own faults to allow for a fair argument in his writing. Its possible this family deprivation may explain why Douglass still felt a sense of loneliness narrative of the life of frederick douglass essay after he became a free man, he still had a large part of his life missing that he could never make up for. Education was another theme in the lives of slaves and in the life of Frederick Douglass that played a great role in his narrative and thus also played a role in convincing northerners to act against slavery.
Douglass discussed the importance of education and the role it played in his escape to freedom all throughout his text. At this stage in America, it was economically beneficial to own slaves and if you did not own them, to hire them from people who did for months or years at a time. Masters attempted to hold power over their slaves by keeping them ignorant- not allowing them to think for themselves or even to access the educational tools to help them better develop their own thoughts and opinions about all topics, including slavery. As far as a master was concerned, the less slaves knew aside from in the aspect of how to do laborthe better. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He narrative of the life of frederick douglass essay at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.
As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. Thus, unlocking a whole new world of intellect and understanding of America, slavery, and freedom. To not allow a person to think for themselves is inhumane, and this is something slaves were deprived of for years. When Douglass created the Sabbath school he made it known that just for the offense of attempting to read and write, slaves were subject to getting whipped upwards of thirty times. Slave owners feared the loss of the salves for without them their wealth could not be possible. This is when we begin to see the idea of hypocrisy in the form of needing slaves but not providing them with the sort of life that would encourage them to stay.
The final theme of importance that Douglass touches on which plays a role in criticizing hypocrisy and giving an honest account of slavery is religion. Just like today, religion has always been a large part of American life. Most slaveholders Douglass had identified as Methodists. However, to Douglass, their ideas of religion were backward. He did not believe religion was about attending church and praying louder than the man next to you, he believed religion was about self-improvement and humanity towards others, including American Americans. An important quote to analyze is the following. You move merrily before the gentle gale, narrative of the life of frederick douglass essay, and I sadly before the bloody whip!
O that I were free! O, that I were on one of your gallant decks, and under your protecting wing! betwixt me and you, the turbid waters roll. Go on, go on. O that I could also go! Could I but swim! If I could fly! O, why was I born a man, of whom to make a brute! The glad ship is gone; she hides in the dim distance. I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery. O God, save me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God? Why am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it, narrative of the life of frederick douglass essay. I had as well die with ague as the fever. I have only one life to lose. Here, Douglass is going through an internal crisis in which he questions how God could let men treat other men the way he and his fellow slaves were treated.
However, this quote also contradicts the belief of many that Douglass had criticisms of religion, narrative of the life of frederick douglass essay. His criticisms were not of narrative of the life of frederick douglass essay itself but of the ways slaveholders could use religion to justify their immoral and heinous actions. Douglass calls upon God in the above quote to help him to his freedom, never denying that there is a God but putting his faith in the fact that a just God would lead him to a life worth living. In his appendix, Douglass finds it necessary to defend himself in that his discussion of religion was not to criticize religion itself but criticize the hypocrisy of white slave owners to use something as peaceful as religion to justify horrid and crude actions.
Throughout his narrative, Douglass not only recounts his life as a slave but also does so in a way through his language that makes the reader feel while also letting the reader know his stories are true and unfortunately, far from exaggerated. The tales of watching family members and friends, as well as himself, experiencing the pain of a cowhide to the back brings his mid-nineteenth century readership to stop and think about how inhumane these actions were. He makes it a point to not exaggerate his tales or make them only the fault of his slaveholder when necessary he too admits to his own faults yet none of them are ever enough to justify the treatment from his masters. This text fully exposes the disheartening truths of what it meant to be a slave.
In the eyes of slaveowners, slaves were not human, even in the eyes of the government, an African American was only considered to be three fifths a person. There is irony in the fact that slaves did not ask to be Americans, they were stolen from their homeland and brought to this country unwillingly; from the origins of slavery, it was flawed. Furthermore, one of the biggest takeaways from the narrative is that the whole basis of American slavery was hypocritical when compared to the values upon which this country was founded. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. com, Oct 13, Accessed January 7, comOct Order paper like this.
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I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery. O God, save me! God, deliver me! Let me be free! Is there any God? Why am I a slave? I will run away. I will not stand it. I had as well die with ague as the fever. I have only one life to lose. I had as well be killed running as die standing. He is prepared to die trying to end his own struggles which is a strong statement to a reader that might have been impartial to slavery during the time this was written. But instead of turning against God, Douglass is able to figure that since there is a God, that God will help him become free.
From this point on in the story, Douglass is certain that he will gain his freedom back thanks to his strong religious beliefs and faith. This logic is important to his followers since many of the abolitionists were devoted Christians and they believed that God would not want slavery. Frederick Douglass continues this point when he wrote about how he felt when he thinks about the people he used teach in his illegal Sunday classes, I held my Sabbath school at the house of a free colored man, whose name I deem it imprudent to mention; for should it be known, it might embarrass him greatly, though the crime of holding the school was committed ten years ago. I had at one time over forty scholars, and those of the right sort, ardently desiring to learn.
They were of all ages, though mostly men and women. I look back to those Sundays with an amount of pleasure not to be expressed. They were great days to my soul. The work of instructing my dear fellow-slaves was the sweetest engagement with which I was ever blessed. We loved each other, and to leave them at the close of the Sabbath was a severe cross indeed. When I think that those precious souls are today shut up in the prison-house of slavery, my feelings overcome me, and I am almost ready to ask, Does a righteous God govern the universe? and for what does he hold the thunders in his right hand of the spoiler. Douglass ends this quotation by questioning how a righteous God can exist given him allowing slavery to exist, yet he continues to teach the other slaves religion and educate them at personal risk.
If he did not believe that God existed, then why would he put himself at risk of getting whipped or punished by the slaveholders for continuing to study and practice religion. Frederick Douglass truly believes that God backs abolition and that he will end slavery which is something that people can relate to and will follow. Frederick Douglass was exposed to very harsh conditions during his time in slavery that the typical person might not be able empathize with. He was able to strategically use religion to describe some of the people and scenarios he was put in.
Frederick Douglas describes slavery as a power struggle where the owners must always keep the slaves in check. This means that some characters that may have started out at least relatively decent will quickly transform. One of these characters was Mrs. Auld when Douglass wrote, The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon.
A reader would easily be able to see this and see that even the few slaveholders that might take care of their slaves are still inheritably wrong. When slaves were in the fields or doing hard labor, they would often sing songs to try and lift their spirits. Frederick Douglass wrote about these songs and what they meant. He wrote, Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them. The master had a farm that reared horses and some slaves hired as keepers. The horse sickness or slowness in running led to the punishment of the slaves by the master.
The master would blame the slaves of neglecting the horses by not feeding them well. The worst experience for the writer was when the master sold one of the slaves to Georgia because he talked the truth about the poor conditions in the farm Frederick The sale of the slave separated him from friends and families. Gore, one of the overseers, killed a slave because of not heading to his advice Francis The killing did not result in a judicial proceeding in order to get him punished. The overseer claimed that the killing was necessary to ensure other slaves did not resort to disobedience of their master's orders. The slaves would not institute any judicial proceedings because their evidence was not admissible in the courts.
The learning was halted when the wife was instructed that teaching a nigger was illegal Francis The whites believed that teaching niggers would make them enslaves the whites. The movement in Baltimore allowed the writer to experience the difference in treatment of farm and town slaves. The town slaves were better fed and clothed because the masters feared to be labeled cruel slave owners. Slave owners treated the slaves as properties. The writer upon death of his master in Baltimore, he was taken for valuation together with other slaves. The slaves were valued together with animals such as pigs, goats, and chicken. Captain Auld, one of the slave owners was mean to his slave. The captain would keep food in the stores while the slaves were hungry.
The captain had gained the slaves through marriage, which made him furious in order to show his authority Frederick The master and his wife would pray to God to bless them with a lot of food while they continued mistreating slaves. The Sabbath school was supposed to educate slaves on reading and writing skills. Slaves tried escaping from their farms in the south when the chances arose. Douglas planned the escape by hiring his time while paying his master. He escaped to New York where he felt lonely because he had left his friends in Baltimore. The arrival of Douglas in New York saw him get married before moving to Bedford, which was a free state Frederick Churchmen who believed New York was not safe for slaves facilitated the movement to Bedford.
The movement to the North by Douglas allowed him to get a job where he did not pay his slave owner named Hugh any weekly allowances. The people of the North did not believe in slavery, but discrimination was practiced in the workplace. The discrimination made it hard for colored people to get jobs that were reserved for the whites. In Bedford, Douglas attended an anti-slavery meeting and had a chance of addressing white men, a thing that would not have happened in the South Frederick Frederick, Douglas. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas. New York: Dover Press, We accept sample papers from students via the submission form. If this essay belongs to you and you no longer want us to display it, you can put a claim on it and we will remove it.
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