In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass argues that slavery is wrong. He believes that slaves are not powerful enough to rise up and fight for their rights. However Douglass had the courage to escape from slavery and become a free man. He said, “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.” In his narrative, he uses pathos, logos and ethos to show how slaves were mistreated and didn’t have the strength to fight for freedom. Douglass uses narration as his main rhetorical mode and keeps a serious, dignified tone throughout the novel.
One story that goes in depth about these things is about a slave who worked his way up towards a house-slave. These slaves got to stay in the house, and more often than not, these slaves would be REALLY hated by the other slaves. Anyway, this slave, even though a house slave didn't just betray his fellow slaves to the master. This slave self-taught himself to read so that whenever the master and another helper were talking, he could understand them. You see, whenever the master and someone else were speaking, and they didn't want the house slave to know, they would spell out whatever they're trying to say.
Mike Larson History 231 American Slavery In the early 1800’s slavery is the main topic of argument. One side of the story believes having slaves is wrong and no human, no matter what race; should be treateddifferent than another. On the other side the southerners think that Negros arebetter off under slavery. Each side has legitament reasons to believe what they think to be right. The northerners who live in a society that does not have slaves believe that every man has the right to be free, whereas the southerners do not agree and think that slavery is right; the Negros do not have the ability to fend for themselves and are better off under a master.
He became “a classic example of the guilty pro-slavery slaveholder. He doesn't know how to free them. He doesn't know how to go to emancipation. Instead he develops a highly intricate theory of how he's going to use slavery to save black people. He's going to ameliorate their conditions, he's going to make their slavery on his plantations so effective, so good, such an even joyous form of labor, that he will be doing God's work by improving slavery” (Blight).
These articles about Frederick Douglass, Solomon Northup, Joseph Taper and Nat Turner are all men who have experienced slavery firsthand. Defending the institution of slavery are Frederick Norcom, J. D. B. De Bow and George Fitzhugh. The life of a slave was it that
They never did anything to them, they were just slaves because they were a different skin color. This continues all the way to the end of the film when slaves are again being transported, but in a truck. The way white people are portrayed throughout the film is also accurate for the time period. They think they are better than everyone else and that they have power over blacks. It is true that white people owned plantations and that they had slaves that would tend to the cotton as well as the house on the plantation.
In the articles against slavery from the northern states they talk about how most of the slave holders won’t allow their slaves to become educated. Such as reading, writing or basic math. So that if they were able to ever have jobs off their plantation they wouldn’t be able to do the basic things that the whites of America would be able to do. They also talk about how the white men in the south will do anything to get money they don’t care how they get but they will get it even with it being as dirty as beating their slaves to get the job done. As I was reading these articles the one that stuck out to me the most was the Fredrick Douglas article and how he started the article stating “that all men are created equal…” in this he is saying that slaves are looked down upon but, they don’t deserve to be looked at and kept on a level that is so slow.
Even though whites were looked at as the superior race because of slavery, there was still a difference between poor whites and rich whites. That’s the impression I got from him about justice difference between black and people of color and whites. Fredrick Douglass would agree with the statement, “ No one can be enslaved if they have the ability to read, write and think. I feel as if only someone who cannot think for him or her self can be enslaved. Frederick Douglass was a man of using his mind.
He shows us just how terrible the life of a slave was, and how he is able to escape from this hell. Not only does he escape, but he is able to put into effect a revolution against slavery, to finally open up the eyes of America to its’ own foundations on which it is built. Our founding fathers said that all men are created equal and this is what Frederick Douglass is fighting for. One of his keys to his escape and his influence of the American public is his education. He would not have been able to accomplish any of his feats without the knowledge and the willpower he gained from his teachings.
All codes also had sections regulating free blacks, who were still subject to controls on their movements and employment and were often required to leave the state after emancipation. Slaves charged with crimes in Virginia were tried in special non-jury courts created in 1692. The purpose of the courts was not to guarantee due process but to set an example speedily. "Those slaves who attacked white people or property usually acted with a purpose and not just on impulse," wrote Philip J. Schwarz, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who has studied slave courts. "Many killings, poisonings, thefts, uses of arson and attempts to rebel were efforts to oppose the means of maintaining slavery."