Frederick Douglass Relationship Between Father And Son Essay

Douglass recalls his grandparents being in the community for a very long time and being thought to be important to the community. He describes his grandmother as being a very good nurse and being held into high regard in the community more than most African Americans. Douglass than goes on to describe on why he is not living with his parents and being raised by his grandparents. “The practice of separating children from their mother, and hiring the latter out at distances too great to admit of their meeting, except at long intervals, is a marked feature of the cruelty and barbarity of the slave system. But it is in harmony with the grand aim of slavery, which, always and everywhere, is to reduce man to a level with the brute. It is a successful method of obliterating [29] from the mind and heart of the slave, all just ideas of the sacredness of the family, as an institution.” Slave owners would separate children from their parents in order to diminish any bond that they might form or any form of attachment that might hurt their future

It is a common custom in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age”(Douglass 2). He does this to show the cruelness of the slave owners even when the slave children were but infants. By him giving his own experiences it draws out the empathy that he was wanting. He then moves to a memory he has of his aunt Hester being punished. After giving a

Douglass likes to tell us about his own life in order to depict slave life as a whole. Talking about his own parents is a way of showing how slavery prevents slaves from ever having normal families. For example, slave children unlucky enough to have their white masters as fathers would get whipped by their own fathers and brothers and were often sold to strangers to appease the jealousy of their father's white wife.Douglass predicts that so much interbreeding between slaves and masters will disprove the argument that slavery is justified by God's curse on Noah's son Ham, since before long, most slaves will be descended from both white and black parents. (You can learn more about the Curse of Ham here)Douglass remembers watching his master whip his Aunt Hester. He describes the blood and the insane fury of the beating in gruesome detail. You can tell how traumatic the event was by the way he describes it, giving us a picture through the eyes of a horrified child too innocent to understand what was happening .Chapter II

This starts off young for Frederick when he was only newborn his mother would be sold off and he would be raised by his aunt, also he would never know his father but was always thought to be his master Anthony, Frederick’s first master. Many slaves at an early age would be raised by a woman that was too old work in the field and would take care of the child untill the age of ten. Frederick would know the name of his mother “Harriet Bailey” and only see her several times before her death (Douglass 1). Unlike, most slaves he would also know his grandparent’s name “Isaac and Betsy Bailey” (Douglass 1). This would be very uncommon to know mother, father, and grandparents.

Douglass uses family relationships, starting with his own birth, to gain the compassion of his target audience. He never knew the identity of his father, but it was "whispered" (Douglass, Narrative, 43) that it was his master. Douglass shocked his Northern white readers when he informed them that slaveholders regularly split slave families for no reason. This upset Northerners because their family units were the foundation of their communities. People couldn't believe that slave children were taken

During the time of pre-civil war America, southerners believed that one of the most essential means of life was slavery. In the novel, Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass challenges and debunks the idea of slavery being a necessary part of the white lifestyle; many pro-slavery arguments consisted of religion justifying slavery, slaves being “easily manipulated”/ignorant, and slavery keeping the southern economy from disappearing (The Proslavery Argument). Frederick uses personal experiences and other tactics to expose the truth behind slavery to those abolitionists and also to those foreign to the topic. He easily discredits the pro-slavery content by explaining how many slave owners are cruel and evil. In my opinion, Frederick Douglass considers all involved in slavery, and not just those who were slaves, when proving his theory.

Douglass grew up in Colonel Lloyd’s home plantation which raised tobacco, corn, and wheat. Lloyd’s property consisted a stable with carriages and horses of the “finest form and noblest blood.” This stable was run by two slaves who were, father and son, called old Barney and young Barney. It was a hard job to be the slave in charge of the stable because Lloyd was particularly concerned about his horses. The smallest mistake was paid back with the “severest punishment.” The chance of Barneys being whipped depended on the appearance and behavior of the horses and Lloyd’s mood. “If a horse did not move fast enough, or hold his head high enough, it was owing to some fault of his keepers.” The

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, depicts a vivid reality of the hardships endured by the African American culture in the period of slavery. One of the many things shown in Frederick's narrative is how slaves, in their own personal way, resisted their masters authority. Another is how slaves were able to create their own autonomous culture within the brutal system in which they were bound. There are many examples in the narrative where Frederick tries to show the resistance of the slaves. The resistors did not go unpunished though, they were punished to the severity of death. Fredrick tells of these instances with a startling sense of casualness, which seems rather

The effects of slavery continue to be seen in the world to this day, but its time of full force was during the time of Frederick Douglass, an American slave who eventually learned to read and write. He escaped from slavery and began to tell his story, which became very famous for its raw description of the conditions of slavery. Although many think that slaves were the people most affected, Frederick Douglass reveals that the slaveholders were also greatly changed by the institution. In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass highlights the dehumanizing nature of slavery, both physically and mentally in both the slave and the slaveholder by providing insight into his relationships and experiences with

In the 1800’s, one could not find many slaves who knew how to read or write. This was because many educated white men owned slaves and would not allow them to learn. By doing this, the slave owners felt like they were taking away their human rights, and in this period, slaves were not thought of as humans. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, there is a common theme throughout the book on the importance of education. Douglass was a slave for a good portion of his life, but he learned to read and write. He makes it obvious that his path to freedom is by learning these two skills, and if he wanted to help free other slaves, they needed to learn these skills as well. While showing that education is very important, Douglass also shows some disgust towards education because he begins to read about slavery. There is a paradox in this narrative, and that is that even though we know education makes Douglass more miserable in the short term, his desire to learn makes him happy in the long term. A paradox has two definitions but the one that fits this situation the most is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true.” I believe that throughout this narrative, Frederick Douglass shows that education is his driving force to freedom.

Frederick Douglass undertook abhorrent treatment from his slave masters, both Christian and non-Christian. Being religious did not matter; both kinds of owners were cruel and treated their slaves worse than they treated their animals. Douglass describes that having an owner that labeled himself a Christian, was worse than a non-Christianowner. He describes the horrors of captivity as he puts on display the monstrosity of slavery, including the way non-Christian slave owners and Christian slave owners not only mistreated slaves, but also used the Bible to justify their wrong doing.

Douglass' thesis mostly focuses on slavery and how it destroys the humanity of all those involved. He also takes time to speak of the unthinkable deeds which took place between the masters and the slaves.In many cases, slave holders commit adultery and rape with their female slaves in order to produce more slave. “He can be father without being husband, and may sell his child without incurring reproach.”[3] “A master fathering a slave child destroys the very concept of fatherhood and of family. Family is antagonistic to slavery. He made a personal argument later in that same paragraph "My father was a white man, or nearly white. It was sometimes whispered that my master was my father." The very existence of such a slave threatens the sanctity of the slaveholder's family. “Genealogical trees do not flourish among slaves”[4] The father must either sell his own child, or raise him as a slave with all the abuse that comes with such a life.”[5] He writes in vivid detail about the common cruelties slaveholders inflict against their slaves, making it a point to show how dehumanizing slavery is not just to the slave, but to anyone who supports it. Douglass uses the character of Sophia[6] as a prime example of a person corrupted by slavery in order to depict a much broader sense of the evil powers slavery possess. "Her face was lightened with the

Patrick Henry once said, “give me liberty, or give me death.” In the eyes of Frederick Douglass and countless others enslaved, this took on a much deeper meaning to them. “It was doubtful liberty at most, and almost certain death is we failed.” [51] Frederick Douglass was one of the most commonly known slaves to have existed. Slavery has been around since the 1700s, but the subject of slavery is controversial because it not only includes information written from former slaves, but information acquired from historians. The question that has with stood the test of time is, “are these encounters that have been written out, exaggerated or the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” In the early 1800’s Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland, and grew up on Colonial Edward Lloyd’s plantation. Children would be separated from their mothers before they were twelve months in age-Frederick too was separated from his mother. As a result of entering slave-hood at an early age, he did not know his birthdate (like most slaves). Frederick Douglass’s account on slavery could be seen as biased as a result of first hand experiences with being held as a slave. Although, Douglass is able to be direct our thoughts to these experiences in such a light, you feel as if you are witnessing it happen right before you. Because of Douglass’s quest for freedom, his daring attitude, and determination to learn, he shows us the way through American Slavery in his eyes. Douglass provides

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Douglass gives detailed anecdotes of his and others experience with the institution of slavery to reveal the hidden horrors. He includes personal accounts he received while under the control of multiple different masters. He analyzes the story of his wife’s cousin’s death to provide a symbol of outrage due to the unfairness of the murderer’s freedom. He states, “The offence for which this girl was thus murdered was this: She had been set that night to mind Mrs. Hicks’s baby, and during the night she fell asleep, and the baby cried.” This anecdote, among many others, is helpful in persuading the reader to understand the severity of rule slaveholders hold above their slaves. This strategy displays the idea that slaves were seen as property and could be discarded easily.