Through Frederick Douglass’ ability to read and write, he gains disapproval for slavery and motivation to escape. Frederick holds an immense amount of influence after his escape because he is educated. His real-life experiences as a slave can be magnified and projected to the world through his writing. His knowledge of slavery can address the Southern or Northern audience. By addressing the Southern audience, Frederick could try to convince slave owners who may change their thoughts about slavery after hearing his story and the harmful effects of some of the cruelest slave owners. By addressing the Northern audience, Frederick could gain the support of the free Northerners to grow the abolitionist movement. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick …show more content…
Frederick loses all freedom during his work because Master Hugh ultimately determines where Frederick can and cannot work. In addition, Master Hugh takes a portion of the money he earns. In the South, Frederick’s slave owners take advantage of his work, and his other workers treat him poorly. Frederick negatively depicts the Southern audience because he shows that they do not work for profit. Their benefit comes from the work of slaves, instead of their work. In his writing, Frederick compares this experience to work in the North. While in New Bedford, Frederick wants to see the ship, so he travels to the wharves. He says, “I saw no whipping of men; but all seemed to go smoothly. Everyman appeared to understand his work, and went at it with a sober, yet cheerful earnestness. “To me this looked exceedingly strange” (82). In addition, he describes his work in the North when he says, “It was the first work, the reward of which was to be entirely my own. I worked that day with a pleasure I had never experienced before” (83-84). The Northern audience can easily relate to the comparison of the shipping example because the shipping industry is important to the Northern
Even though the words of his master degrade Douglass, they also inspire him to pursue reading and freedom more passionately. When Douglass sees how intimidated his master, Hugh Auld, is at the idea of his wife, Sophia Auld, teaching young Frederick to read, he realizes that knowledge is truly power. He feels the constraint his master imposed on him his entire life, and he begins to understand how to free himself. Douglass writes that, “From that moment I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom…I was gladdened by the invaluable
“That which to him was a great evil, to be carefully shunned, was to me a great good, to be diligently sought; and the argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn.” This passage was an aww moment for me when reading the novel. It shows me that Frederick was a rebel and was proud about it. Everything they told him not to do or was forbidden to do as a slave he did it and did not care about the cost, he reveled in defying the limitations put on a slave. Even though he had his moments when he would doubt if it was worth it all if he was to be caught, he presumed with bravery. “It was considered as being bad enough to be a slave; but to be a poor man's slave was deemed a disgrace indeed!” This particular quote was
Frederick Douglass spent his first 7 years of life on Captain Anthony’s farm, working in the house. Here, he had a much easier time than those who worked in the fields. Those who worked in the field were treated poorly like most southern slaves. Slaves received little to no food, few clothes, and often slept on the ground with no bed. Frederick spent his time
Frederick was put to work as a field hand and was extremely unhappy. Frederick then organized a Sunday religious service for the slaves which met near town. As quick as they started they were stopped, a mob led by Thomas Auld broke up the meetings and would not soon forget about them.
When one talks, people listen, when Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, best known as Fredrick Douglass, ‘an American slave’, wrote people read. When he spoke his truth, through his speeches he began to preach for the right against slavery. Known as the most recognised African American leader before the civil war, Douglass was born a slave. It is apparent that Fredrick Douglass was a significant figure and believed in abolitionism, a movement to end slavery, that occurred in American during middle 1800s. Literature was a major factor in Douglass’ approach in the battle in gaining the attention of his fellow victims of slavery. With no formal education, he wrote his first book, ‘The Narrative of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. An analysis of the key events, conflicts and issues that have influenced Douglass’ first step into the anti-slavery civil rights movement. Spreading knowledge about his experiences and changing the law which made reading and access to education illegal for slaves. This motivated him to purchase his first book, a collection of famous speeches, which elevated his abilities to portray his message though public speeches. Fighting with his words instead of violence. These conflicts helped him accomplish his overall goal of solving the inequitable treatments of slaves.
Throughout our lives, we undergo many changes and we also see many changes in other people. Our world today has been influenced immensely by the world of the past. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick undergoes many changes in his life and the lives of the people around him especially the slaveholders that he served. Throughout the narrative, we as the reader see that slavery was a terrible thing and that it affected the slaves in horrific ways but not just the slaves were affected, the slaveholders were also affected in horrible ways.
The most influenced person about his escape decision is Mr. Hugh Auld, who was also called Mr. Hugh. He was not mentioned for kindness, but for his words about knowledge. He claimed that knowledge unfit a child to be a slave. This helped Frederick realized that the only way from slavery to freedom is through knowledge, and this was somehow the hint of everything. There was also Mrs. Sofia, Mr. Hugh’s wife, who was kind enough to give him the beginning lessons of knowledge which changed his views and his decisions forever. Religion, on the other hands, was another factor helps Frederick believe in the life, in God, in the balance of everything. There were Hanson and Charles Lawson, who teach him how to pray, how to believe that men were born freely and equally, regardless their skin colors or their cultures. From those ideas, Frederick began to believe in himself, in the liberty of human, and in a better world where human rights exists. From then on, there was a fire of hope and belief in his heart for freedom. Additionally, while working in Baltimore, he met two Irishmen at a wharf, who also advised him to run away from slavery and to start a new life. He pretended to deny the advice though deep down inside he knew it was the right thing to do. With all the clues he had learned from people around, Frederick had determined to escape more than ever, determined to study, to be able to read and write, and determined to completely abolish the cruel slavery system at
Frederick Douglass was a civil war activist, he was a father and a husband. He grew up in slavery and once he escaped he knew he still had work to do. As Frederick was growing up and as he lived , the north and south were constantly arguing and slave owners were very harsh but people still kept going, it was mostly hard on the slaves but soon the whole country was suffering from different things. In this essay (or book as I like to call it) you will learn about Frederick Douglass 's life before, after, and during the Civil War.
First, Douglass explains that education and freedom are inseparable. When he is a young slave, his Mistress Hugh treats him like e another person and teaches him alphabet. However, Master Hugh perceives that his wife educates Douglass. He forbids his wife from teaching him to preserve their slaveholders’ power. Soon, Mrs. Hugh loses her kindness and becomes a cruel slave owner. In addition, she deprives his opportunities of learning. His master and mistress has a notion that “education and slavery were incompatible with each other” (Douglass 61). If slaves become literate, they can run away to escape from their masters’ control. As a victim of injustice on education, he enhances his perspective on the significance of education contributing to freedom.
Frederick describes his own story as a slave in order to express the horrific treatment he experienced and witnessed while being held in bondage. The true stories he tells are gruesome and make the reader feel sorry for him and other slaves. Whether the owners were in the city or on the farm, both showed no mercy to
As the most famous abolitionist African American leader, Fredrick Douglass is a political, historical, and literary figure whose words still reverberate the true meaning of freedom and political, economic, and social equality for all. Born a slave, Douglass was able to recount his story to a pre-Civil War American public, which had a tremendous effect on the views whites had about slavery and its role in American society. Douglass became a self-educated man as he grew up within the entanglements of slavery, but as a child he did not realize the effect that knowledge would eventually have on his life. His mistress, Sophia Auld, began teaching him how to read until his master Hugh Auld warned her against its effects on the regression of Douglass’s quality as a slave. In his renowned autobiography, Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, published in 1845, Douglass uses well-developed literary techniques in order to communicate his philosophical ideals about the institution of slavery and the inhumane horrors and depravity African slaves in the United States underwent. Douglass’s literary success allowed him to become the most famous spokesperson for abolition, and although he faced strong resistance from anti-abolitionist and pro-abolitionist groups, his perseverance allowed him to “[present] himself as a representative American whose rise to prominence spoke to the promises of the nation’s egalitarian ideology” (Baym 934).
Frederick Douglass is known for being a free black man in America during the strictest rules against freedom for black men. Douglass explains in his narrative how he came across the idea of freedom, and how he worked to achieve it. He starts out with how he was able to learn how to read, but before he could even come close to mastering his education, the opportunity had been snatched from him. However, Douglass was not going to give up without a fight, and throughout his slavery career he found several different ways to master reading. Throughout his life, Douglass began speaking out against the cruelty of slavery and joined the political abolitionists to help put a stop to the torture. Frederick used his skill with writing to help spread the
Comparatively, Frederick Douglass, once a slave having fought for his escape, used what freedom he had to speak out against slavery. As an activist and writer, he inspired many people to support his cause to create an equal and free community. Douglass played a large role in the shaping of the states. Being the editor and writer for a black newspaper allowed him to spread his influence, and with this came his fame which allowed him to speak live, having written speeches that changed minds. His skill at persuasion and use of ethos, pathos, and logos widened his audience. Harsh truths were able to be shared with those who would listen, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn,” (Douglass 3). In his works, Douglass knows how to work the audience towards sympathy and realization by using his powerful language. His adventures during the time of the civil war led him to the side of Abraham Lincoln, whom he greatly admired for their similar ideas on what is really equal. Both men worked together to organize black soldiers, collaborate on the Emancipation Proclamation, and Lincoln invited Douglass to help him with many other issues as his personal advisor (History 5). He used his skills to impact the population
He highlights how slave owners deceive themselves in order to justify their actions and maintain a peaceful state of mind. This ultimately strips the slave owners of reason and or religious purpose and thus makes them live a life of dissimulation. An example of this would illustrated through Sophia Auld, the wife of his slave master. Upon his arrival, he treated him as she treated her own. She was “a women of the the kindest heart and finest feelings.” She had never had a slave of her own and after being taught the proper ways of slavery from Hugh who believed “it was unlawful..to teach a slave to read.” She went from “that angelic face to that of a demon.” Douglass shows how her transition was terrible not only for him in experience but also for him to watch as he saw her as much of a victim as he saw himself. He depicts her as a victim of not only slavery but also of being a women as women aren’t usually responsible for slaves and are never properly educated on how slavery is suppose to work. Although traumatizing, this experience teaches him a lot. He now understands that the dehumanization of slaves by lack of power is achieved by not keeping the slaves educated. Due to the out lash of his master, he now understands that his only way to freedom will be the education of
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.