Frederick Douglass- An American Slave

When the United States was first established it was hard for everyone to get on their feet in a “new world”, but for some people it was harder than you would think. I do not know how we get away with slavery, but somehow we did and I hope we never have to go down that road again. One of the most famous people you hear talking about slavery is Frederick Douglass he is significant because he was once a slave who learned how to read and write and eventually stood up for what he believed in. Frederick Douglass ended up with his own views and he had a lot of different influences throughout his life to make these opinions and views. There are two sides to slavery and they have completely different views on governments and how to handle that situation. Frederick Douglass wrote a narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave in this he sides with Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, in this he makes his own views on the political ideals that are significant like natural law, and on the other side the slave holders would agree most with Machiavelli’s Prince in the aspect of how to run government.

Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast, -at her, the child of honourable parents, -at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman, -at her, who had once been innocent, -as the figure, the body, the reality of sin.

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne’s act of adultery with Arthur Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 231) ultimately leads to negative and positive impacts on her life, including being isolated from everyone in town, being mocked and gossiped about, being more mature, and being more compassionate. One of the negative

According to google, the definition of freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. The Freedom from imprisonment or enslavement from those who holds a person against their power or will. However, when freedom is expressed by an ex-slaved, their views are completely different. Ex-slaves found it difficult to adjust to the liberal freedom because they have to deal with relocating families, no political rights to vote, and the ability to establish land.

Frederick Douglass was an African American social reformer, abolitionist, and writer. Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland on February1818 and he died on February 20, 1895. And was named by his mother, Harriet Bailey. But the exact date of Douglass birth is unknown. After escaping from slavery, he becomes a leader of the abolitionist movement. He know that as a living counter is a example to slave holders augments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to the function as independent American citizens. He was known as the narrative of the life of American slaves. His dialogue was “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it”. He was of mixed race, which included Native American on his mother side as well as African and European. He is author and narrates of the Narrative. Douglass has always thinking about views regarding the slave owner’s interpretation of Christianity. He is the rhetorically skilled and spirited man is a abolitionist movement. He talks about the religion, Resistance, Coming of age, the importance of friendships, the poverty of slavery, and the abuse of women.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” This famous quote is from a speech given by one of America’s most influential abolitionist speakers, Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery, this great American leader led a life many of us would find impossible to bear. After gaining his freedom from slavery, Douglass shared his stories through impressive speeches and vivid autobiographies, which helped America move forward as a country liberated from racial inequality. Although Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave allows readers to understand what life was like for slaves in antebellum America, the most important and relevant lesson to take away from this narrative today is the importance of perseverance. Douglass’s courage to resist and learn paired with his determination to keep his faith and ultimately find himself, is something to which people from every culture and time period can relate.

During the eighteenth century, slavery was already well-established section of the American labor system. As the amount of slaves grew in size, they did not receive rights, and were mostly separated from their families. They were mostly needed for agricultural labors and had to work mostly from dusk to dawn. Frederick Douglass’s experiences as a slave was different than that other colonial labor because of the strict treatment he received from his masters, the inferiority to other humans that he felt, and the harsh conditions he lived in.

No one can argue the horrors of slavery. I always immagined that slavery was the worst thing possible that could happen to a person. .That was until I took this class and read the book about Frederick Douglas.

Douglass is just starting to get used to Baltimore, when he suddenly hears that his old master, Anthony, dies without leaving a will. He heads back to the country, where he’s evaluated alongside the cattle, sheep, and pigs to figure out what all the slaves are worth. Once the slaves are given values, they are divided up and sent to new homes. All slaves are frightened about where and who their masters will be, and Douglass is especially worried because he knows what it’s like to be treated kindly. He gets lucky and gets sent back to the family in Baltimore.

The new Puritan society wanted to punish Hester Prynne horribly so that she would set an example of the consequences the others would receive if they committed a

Envisage living in a community where one could only be intimate with their husband. Sounds insane, right? Though being sexually active with more than one partner in a lifetime is moderately common in today’s society, it was severely looked down upon in the 1800s. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathanial Hawthorne communicates the story of Hester Prynne, an adulteress. Hester Prynne lived in a Puritan Society in which women were held to high, difficult, and unjust standards by men. Evidently, she undergoes unusual punishments for her infidelities against her estranged husband. She forcibly wears an embroidered, scarlet letter A on her breast for the remainder of her life. Though physically benign, its call of attention to Hester’s transgression is emotionally straining. As a man or woman, adultery must always be perceived as improper and unlawful. However, the author exhibits transcendentalist values when one can conclude that Hawthorne’s words were not demeaning Hester, but more so commending her. His execution of rhetorical devices applauds Hester’s individuality in a conforming society. Through the author’s implementation of diction to illuminate Hester and debase the rest of society, manipulation of symbolism to compliment Hester’s individuality, and application of irony to manifest Hester’s gained dignity from rebelling, Hawthorne illustrates Hester’s journey in a culture against change as one of dauntlessness, and conveys his purpose that individuality is precious.

of living a slave life and he feared he would walk that path for the remainder of his life. Despite

A judgmental society criticizes one’s wrongdoing based on religion, gender, and time that all conforms into idealistic expectations of perfection. Society only remembers an individual’s mistake than their achievements, whether minor or major, to lower their self-esteem. From history to present, religion is the foundation of distinguishing right from wrong and good from evil, which then implements the expectation of gender roles. Men possessed physical strengths and entitled to respectable power. Unlike men, women are heavily relied for household responsibilities and taking care of the family, yet they are subordinate to men. Imagine a woman who was condemned for committing adultery and publicly shamed in a Puritan community. This situation refers to a popular American novel, The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. Hester Prynne, the story’s leading female protagonist, was punished for her crime by wearing a scarlet letter A for adulteress, and face challenges that strengthen her character. The community heavily criticized her actions and isolate the Devil’s descendant as Hawthorne inserts, “nothing made her feel as if she belonged to society” (126). Within a close-minded society Hester lives in, her sin does not indicate an ending, but a beginning to rebellious, shameless chapter in life full of meaning. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne portrayed a feminist protagonist who challenged Puritan theology, endured harsh judgements, and increased

Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the book The Scarlet Letter, introduces three major characters in his telling of a story, set in a 17th-century puritan colony, of betrayal, struggle and repentance. Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth lives are explicitly intertwined in the narrative. But the main focus by the author is the actions of Hester Prynne and the impact of these actions on others throughout the novel. As the main character, Hester is first introduced to us by several outraged rotund and ruddy-cheeked matrons expressing how they would have handled the punishment of Hester for adultery. “At the very least they should have put a iron on Hester Pyrnne’s forehead” (Hawthorne ###), they echoed as these matrons righteously attend an execution on the gallows in a market place. “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die: is there not law for it?” (Hawthorne ###). But despite this scorn, Hester chooses not to cower in her public shaming but faces her situation holding her infant with as much dignity, spirit and ladylike demeanor in a way that allows her natural beauty to show. In fact, the narrator in Hawthorne’s book continuously remarks on Hester’s beauty and states “Here was the taint of deepest sin the most sacred quality of woman’s beauty, and the most lost for the infant she had borne" (1034?). Meaning that her sins are labeled and judged in the minds of others because if they had not previously

Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most prolific symbolists in American literature, and a study of his symbols is necessary to understanding his novels. Generally speaking, a symbol is something used to stand for something else. In literature, a symbol is most often a concrete object used to represent an idea more abstract and broader in scope and meaning. The Puritans translated such rituals into moral and repressive exercises, Hawthorne turns their interpretations around in The Scarlet Letter. The Puritan community sees Hester as a fallen woman, Dimmesdale as a saint, and would have seen the disguised Chillingworth as a victim — a husband betrayed. Instead, Hawthorne ultimately presents Hester as a woman who represents a sensitive human being with a heart and emotions; Dimmesdale as a minister who is not very saint-like in private but, instead, morally weak and unable to confess his hidden sin; and Chillingworth as a husband who is the worst possible offender of humanity and single-mindedly pursuing an evil goal. The time period in which this story is set holds a great deal of importance. While adultery is a devious act no matter how you look at it, it was especially devilish in this time period of Colonia America. In a 1996 talk given by Sacvan Bercovitch in Salem, Massachusetts titled “The Scarlet Letter: A Twice-Told Tale,” he explains that part of the reason this sin is so taxing on the both of them is because of the weight that their society places