Along this journey we are given an account of what slavery was like in the 1800’s, as well as an emotional outlook at the struggle which led Douglass to freedom, allowing him to become a prominent slavery abolitionist. From the beginning of the novel that slavery is evil, this is subtly apparent when I am first introduced to Frederick Douglass as a child with no identity, idea of who he is or where he comes from. Douglass has no sense of self other than his life as a slave. In a sense Douglass is
He valued freedom very much and made the point if there is no struggle than there is no progress. Douglass’s element of freedom was by educating the people in displaying the horrors of slavery and the harsh treatments. He made it his mission to exhibit how white slaveholders extend slavery by keeping their slaves oblivious. During the time when Douglass was writing, a lot of people really believed that slavery was something that was normal. They had the belief that blacks were integrally powerless of contributing in civil society and therefore would need to be kept as workers for whites.
In the series of Slave Narratives described by Bruce Fort and Randall Hall, some slaves support the idea that freedom was the solution to all their problems and that being a slave was the worst experience that life could possibly create. Charity Anderson, for instance, recalls “seeing slaves torn up by dogs and whipped unmercifully”. This demonstrates that for many, the Emancipation Proclamation provided them with opportunities to make up their lives and have a fortunate future. Maria Jackson also described her story for the slave narratives, and said that she was separated from her family by slavery and had the chance to reunite with them again after the Emancipation Proclamation. Emma Crockett also benefited from being free, because she recalls that “after emancipation, she learned to read a bit of printing...” Also, a slave from North Carolina called Tempe Herndon Durham stated that he rented his master’s plantation until his family saved enough money to buy their own farm.
Slavery, imprisonment, racism, and prejudice in My Bondage, My Freedom. Frederick Douglas’ My Bondage, My Freedom greatly influences what the author experienced in his life. During the 1800’s slavery was a big influence on literature in America, especially for slaves because most of them were illiterate, slavery was most likely the only thing they had to write about. Frederick Douglas’ autobiography, My Bondage, My Freedom, is reflective of slavery during the 1800s because of his description of the terrible life as a slave and adapting to life after slavery. He experienced the American slavery, escaped from it, and attached himself to the cause of freedom and the helping of his people to achieve freedom.
1503870 During the late 1700’s slavery was a large industry in early America and also controversial practice that challenged many people’s moral and ethics codes. One person who opposed this industry was Benjamin Banneker. Benjamin Banneker himself was a free African American who lived during these times of slavery and knowing the joys of freedom that he gets to enjoy he was inspired to write a letter to Jefferson to urge Jefferson to end slavery in America. In Banneker’s letter he uses elements of logos which include a very powerful quote and he also uses elements of pathos and ethos to persuade Jefferson’s emotionally both Banneker hoped would ultimately convince Jefferson to end slavery. Banneker used elements of Logos to give his letter a more sophisticated feel to giving his letter more credibility and respect from a highly educated and intellectual President Thomas Jefferson.
Stand Up! As we look throughout history, one could argue, that we couldn’t find a more appalling and unjust act as that of slavery. Slavery played a major part of not only history but of an innumerable amount of American people. In David Walker’s “Appeal in Four Articles” and Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”, two men of African American descent struggle with the reality of slavery and the cruel results and effect it had on people like themselves. Walker was a free black man living in Boston who had a unique view of slavery.
Desensitization of the White Person Slavery in the United States was so successful for so long because the slave owners kept the African American slaves ignorant, uneducated and without a family to call their own. In Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass points out that slavery not only desensitized slaves, but also the white slave owners. Douglass illustrates this through the evolution of Mrs. Auld. In chapter V when Douglass first meets Mrs. Auld, she is depicted as a “white face beaming with the most kindly emotions” (page29). As the “Narrative” continues, so does Mrs. Auld’s transformation.
Douglas learns this early on and decides that the key to his freedom lies in education. This novel is not only focused on the life of the slave. The text serves as a message about the negative impacts slavery has on slave owners. For example, early in the novel, Douglass discusses being sent to work for a kindhearted woman named Sophia Auld. At first, he is awed by Sophia's presence, "My new mistress proved to be all she appeared when I first met her at the door,—a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings.” (Douglass 44).
Uncle Tom’s Cabin American written history tries to record what this nation has passed through in its growth, but the mere recording of facts sometimes conveys less than the truth of the events that have occurred. The “event” of slavery is one such grand illustration. History books don’t even come close to showing the barbarous, inhumane, insanely cruel treatment black slaves were routinely subject to under the bondage of distorted thinking. Perhaps of more importance, history doesn’t convey the eternal significance of spirituality in this enslaved race of people from the African continent. Where history falls short in educating one about slavery in America, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, carries a person to a place where it can be seen, heard, and felt.
At the time, slaves cleared land, cultivated farms, built homes, built railroads and roads, picked cotton and tobacco which were one of America’s biggest exports. Slavery left a residue of discrimination and human trafficking that our country still writhes from in many communities to this day. Although Solomon Northup’s story is mind-blogging, he is not the only person to have suffered kidnapping and enslavement, his story is so intriguing because he freed himself, survived and wrote a book about his experiences as a slave. Some people may feel that slaves born into slavery would be better off than someone who was sold into slavery because as the saying goes, “You can’t miss what you never had”-Hunter S.