Frederick Douglass Dehumanization

The “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is an autobiography in which Frederick Douglass reflects on his life as a slave in America. He writes this book as a free slave, in the North, while slavery was still running its course before the Civil War. Through his effective use of rhetorical strategies, Frederick Douglass argues against the institution of slavery by appealing to pathos and ethos, introducing multiple anecdotes, using satirical irony, and explaining the persuasive effects of slavery and reasoning behind keeping slaves uneducated.

Spending more than two decades of his life as a slave, Frederick Douglass has lived through many hardships only one can imagine. In his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Douglass gives first hand insights of the brutality committed on slaves. The physical abuse was atrocious, but the mental and psychological abuse caused more pain for the African American victims. Drastic psychological separation was committed upon the slaves by their masters, and Douglass was able to capture it all, from the daily whippings to the unjustified murders. Douglass’s fight with Covey, the incident at Gardner’s shipyard, the unjustified murders, and many other violent assaults upon the slaves played major roles in the

The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass discusses the idea of being dehumanized with ecocriticism. The idea of ecocriticism connections his idea of peace and hope on the Chesapeake Bay with the treatment on the plantation. For Douglass his natural environment has a huge impact on shaping who he is as a person, his connection with nature also has an impact on making him feeling dehumanized. In chapter ten Douglass describes how “Mr.Covey succeeded in breaking [Douglass](Douglass 81).” Mr.Covey did not see his slaves as equals on the plantation, instead, he saw them as property needed to maintain his plantation.

The Dehumanization Process in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave

In chapter eight of Frederick Douglass, readers fathom the dehumanizing effect of slavery, through Douglass’s comparison of animals and slaves. In this chapter, Douglass focuses on the “brutalizing” effect of slavery, and the dehumanizing effect for both the slave, and the slave owner. Douglass claims, “At this moment [valuation of the property], I saw more clearly than ever the brutalizing effects of slavery upon both slave and slaveholder” (Douglass 60). In this narrative, Douglass often times uses the word “brutalize” to describe his strong feeling toward slavery. This term went beyond the common understanding of treating people badly, however, it become the term for a negative transformation.

In The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass slaves are dehumanized in many different ways. In many ways the slaves are pushed to the point of breaking by their slaveholders and by their masters workers. They are wiped like animals would be and beaten to or almost death. Then the children are taken from their mothers right after birth and their mothers tend to be used as breeders. Sometimes their father can end up being the slave master.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an autobiography that gives a personal perspective on the life of a slave laborer in the rural south. Douglass, a fighter against all odds, was an African American social reformer, writer, statesman, and most importantly abolitionist. Frederick Douglass afforded himself an education against his slave masters will, and was able to read and think. This opened up his thoughts about the evils of slavery and worthy motives for its abolishment. The original reason for his hatred of slavery was not only its effects of dehumanizing slaves, but their masters too. Throughout his autobiography, Douglass talks about the many ways a slave and master would be corrupted by the labor system that was so deeply

Slaves were not treated like humans, they were treated like animals. Frederick Douglass was born a slave and died a free man. In The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, Frederick wrote about the systematic dehumanization that slaves experienced as a result of the conditions and the manner in which they were treated.

Firstly, Douglass conveys dehumanization through metaphors and compares the treatment of the slaves like the treatment of animals. One of his cruel owners, Mr. Covey, used slaves as animals in multiple ways. The most significant way it happened was through how in the book, Mr. Covey “breeds” his slaves similar to how an animal breeder breeds animals. Douglass says, “Mr. Covey was a poor man; he was just commencing in his life; he was only able to buy one slave; and, shocking as is the fact, he brought her, as he said for a breeder” (Douglass 37). This is an example of a double entendre.

People are not born racist, nor have the mentality to oppress others; rather, it is a mere social construct that causes people to eventually grow to hate, kill, and oppress others. In the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” author Frederick Douglass argues that both slaves and slaveholders were once innocent people. However, as a result of the slave-ridden culture of the south, they were both caught in a perpetual cycle of dehumanization-- a cycle that still occurs in current society. Being dehumanized is to be deprived of one's own proof of their humanity and to be human is to have a strong moral capacity or the ability to express even the slightest of emotions and many more. In the biography Douglass argues that

In the narrative Douglass describes a scene where his Aunt Hester was taken into the kitchen where she had stripped her from neck to waist. This horrific scene happened due to Aunt Hester disobeying the master order by going out and had been found in company with Lloyd’s Ned. “I have often awakened at the dawn of the day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood” (1184). The slave owner felt enjoyment out of whipping Aunt Hester, he beats her to make her cry out but at the same time he beats her to make her suffer, he continues to beat her which eventually makes her become fatigue and not cry out anymore. Douglass wants his readers to feel grief for him and others, as they go through the slavery period when they had slave owners and how if they did not obey by the rules they will get killed or beat. “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush: and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin” (1184). This to me was a very powerful scene in this narrative, this scene makes me and the readers have a lot of grief and sorrow for Douglass’s aunt and the other slaves. During, this time they experienced many tough

Frederick Douglass’s Narrative paints a very real and powerful picture of slave life. During the time that his Narrative was written, some believed that black people were unable to contribute to society and should simply be used as workers for white people. He shows how white slave owners maintained power and control over their slaves by their brutal and inhumane treatment of them and by keeping them ignorant and uneducated.

Slavery is a humongous topic involving both slaves and former slaves. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Story is one such story. Douglass suffered punishments, and watching others get punished, he uses those experiences to make his argument against slavery.Douglass’ tone in the narrative is sarcastic and dark. Frederick Douglass successfully uses vast quantities of rhetorical devices, illuminating the horror and viciousness of slavery, including the need to eliminate it.

Frederick Douglass, the author of the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass was a self-taught slave that was able to escape the brutality of slavery in the year of 1838. Frederick Douglass’s book is separated into 3 main sections, including, a beginning, middle, and end. The purpose of the narrative is to improve the audience's understanding of Douglass’s experience of being a slave, the horrible treatment slaves received, and how Douglass was able to overcome and escape slavery. All throughout the narrative, Douglass uses many rhetorical devices, including, diction, imagery, and syntax, which helps the audience understand, one of his main chapters, chapter 5. In this chapter Douglass implies that the overall purpose is to emphasize the animalistic, inhuman treatment slaves received, how Douglass felt about leaving Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, and his luck of being able to move to Mr. and Mrs. Auld's.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass details the oppression Fredrick Douglass went through before his escape to freedom. In his narratives, Douglass offers the readers with fast hand information of the pain, brutality, and humiliation of the slaves. He points out the cruelty of this institution on both the perpetrator, and the victims. As a slave, Fredrick Douglass witnessed the brutalization of the blacks whose only crime was to be born of the wrong color. He narrates of the pain, suffering the slaves went through, and how he fought for his freedom through attaining education.