Frederick Douglass Dehumanization

Frederick Douglass’ autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave offers a depiction of slavery like very few before him, from his firsthand accounts. Douglass wanted to show his opposition to slavery and knew he would meet many criticisms. Due to this criticism, he had to mask much of his work with irony. Some of his works are obvious and others are a bit harder to see. The more difficult ones were put in place by Douglass in order to provide a deep and profound statement, without arousing too much opposition. If he had he would have faced much more threats than he did. He not only

Frederick Douglass lived in a time of great discrimination for his race and belittlement form whites. The blacks were taken into slavery and treated as less than animals by their slave owners. Frederick experienced many unnecessary whipping and other countless acts of violence being showed towards him. Frederick Douglass showed the horrors of slavery by describing his life as a plantation slave and the life of other slaves around him on the plantation and observing the cruelty of the city dwellers who owned slaves.

Douglass got his passion to promote freedom for all slaves after he escaped from slavery and ultimately had an end goal to “abolish slavery in all its forms and aspects, and promote the moral and intellectual improvement of the coloured people and hasten the day of freedom to the three million of enslaved fellow countrymen”. He also wrote several autobiographies describing his experiences as a slave. One of the autobiographies in particular, ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave’ published in 1845 was a best-selling and was extremely influential for promoting the cause of abolition. The narrative shows a compelling argument to basic human rights thus making it extremely influential as the narrative clearly possesses features and linguistic skills, which for most white people, negated their common perception of black people being illiterate in the 19th century.

Dehumanization occurs when human qualities are taken away from a person and treated like they are just an object, nothing more. Dehumanization happens throughout the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and the documentaries that were shown in class: “Rise Up: The Legacy of Nat Turner" and "Emancipation Road." Slavery shows how a dehumanization of people from from long ago continues to impact our current and past society.

Dehumanizing is the to be deprived of human qualities or attributes. Throughout Frederick Douglass’s Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, Douglass did a excellent job with showing how many people in the 1800s were dehumanized. During the 1800s slavery was widely spread through the Southern states, like Maryland where Douglass was born. Douglass was born into slavery and was a former impassioned abolitionist, writer, and orator. Douglass wrote how slavery had impacted African Americans, but also had impacted their white masters. Douglass showed that slavery dehumanized both the slave and the slaveholder.

The Dehumanization of Slaves and the Black Race of People in America, as Portrayed in the Autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and the Television Show Roots

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

In the mid-1800s, Frederick Douglass escaped enslavement in an incredible feat of tenacity, intellect, and courage. Upon escape, he became a champion of human rights and a leading figure in the abolitionist movement, despite the racial constraints of the time. Douglass exposed the atrocious injustices of the slave system and fought to exterminate them. Over the past 170 years, American policy and culture have made great leaps in creating a more just system. However, indelible remnants of the slavery era still remain in American race relations today. Remnants of slavery live on through dehumanizing language and imagery, the inability of many African-Americans to attain a quality education, and uneven treatment by law enforcement and justices.

When looking at the idea the United States emphasizes freedom vs. emphasizing the very real existence of chattel slavery. The issue of slavery in America was not as easily thought as black and white. Mostly, people in the North were opposed to slavery, while the South promoted it. However, many people were indifferent. People in the North could see slavery as neither good nor bad, instead a way of Southern life. Frederick Douglass, knowing the North was home to lots of abolitionists, wrote his narrative “Narrative of Life” in order to show indifferent people in the north to see slavery as the shameful practice that it is. Douglass focuses on dehumanization of slaves, existence of slavery, and freedom in order to get his point across.

Frederick Douglass was the most influential abolitionist of 19th century America. His main purpose in writing his narrative was to rebuke the romantic image of slavery in the antebellum South. For decades, southerners would create reasons for rationalizing slavery. Douglass convinces Americans of the true conditions of slavery by including characters that prove that slaves are as intellectually capable as their white counterparts and explain why slaves are disloyal to each other. Douglass includes friends and family from his early life that depict the horrific life of a slave.

In The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, Fredrick Douglass tells stories of his life as a slave and a many of his horrible experiences. During the time of slavery, people were discriminated against because of their skin color and where they come from. African-Americans were forced to work for British white people in America for many years. These slaves were not treated with respect nor where they treated like human beings. They were seen as animals and over-worked. Douglass was born into slavery and was a slave for many years of his life until escaping to freedom. Fredrick Douglass describes what life was like in slavery and how slaves were treated by their masters. Slavery was a dehumanizing

The issue of slavery in antebellum America was not black and white. Generally people in the North opposed slavery, while inhabitants of the South promoted it. However, many people were indifferent. Citizens in the North may have seen slavery as neither good nor bad, but just a fact of Southern life. Frederick Douglass, knowing the North was home to many abolitionists, wrote his narrative in order to persuade these indifferent Northern residents to see slavery as a degrading practice. Douglass focuses on dehumanization and freedom in order to get his point across.

This text had great meaning to many because of the heartfelt emotions that Douglass was expressing to the audience through his amazing words. This text had an immense impact on the equality for African Americans. Many look back on this account now and can’t grasp the idea that African Americans or blacks were slaves to others and treated as poorly as Douglass describes. Douglass was taught to read and write by his owner’s wife, but his owner made his wife stop teaching him because he didn’t want Douglass to have any sort of benefit or advantage over him, but clearly, it was too late. The women who had been teaching Douglass was very kind to him and almost, treated him as if he were her own son, but once she stopped teaching Douglass, her kindness towards him began to fade.

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

What the average person does not know about slavery is all of the inhumane behavior that was tolerated. To describe these acts as cruel would be an understatement, Douglass does not hold back on the tragedies he witnessed and he does not hold back on sharing them with the world. For so many years slave owners comforted themselves in the thought of the romantic image of slavery, claiming it was God’s will to let these people suffer, claiming that it was not an extreme environment. The only