Frederick Douglass Hypocrisy

David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in particular, and very expressly to those of the United States of America, “promoted racial solidarity and moral elevation with fervor,” and is as much a political source as it is religious. His Appeal adamantly argues against oppression and slavery while encouraging a vivacious and lively spirit amongst the black community, in the hopes of promoting unity and diminishing the acceptance of mistreatment from their white counterparts. To convey this message, which was presented in a mannerism that was extremely radical, Walker uses the bible and what can most clearly be defined as a Methodist theology to support his stance on the issues of society.

In the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave, written by himself, the author argues that slaves are treated no better than, sometimes worse, than livestock. Douglass supports his claim by demonstrating how the slaves were forced to eat out of a trough like pigs and second, shows how hard they were working, like animals. The author’s purpose is to show the lifestyle of an American slave in order to appeal to people’s emotions to show people, from a slave’s perspective, what slavery is really like. Based on the harsh descriptions of his life, Douglass is writing to abolitionist and other people that would sympathize and abolish slavery.

David Walker, the author of the pamphlet -Appeal- was a black man who was born around 1796-1797 in Wilmington, North Carolina. His father was a slave, whereas his mother was a free black woman. As the law at the time demanded, the child of a free woman was automatically a free man; however, Walker lifted the veil of injustice and tyranny that covered the blacks for so long who had became servile and mentally dead. Having being told to whip his own mother to her death was one of the life changing events that fashioned the man he became. After he grew, he moved over to Boston where he started a successful thrift store, having associated himself with various prominent black activists, he became a major spokesperson in the Freedom’s Journal by the end of 1828. By September 28th 1829 he published his Appeal, which comprised of a preamble and four articles namely; Our Wretchedness in Consequence of Slavery, Of Ignorance, Of the Preachers of the Religion of Jesus Christ, and Of Colonizing plan. The primary target was for the black communities that resided in the south, where slavery was of the worst condition. Walker was determined to wake up the black men and women of the society, who he believed had succumbed to the pitiful life of ignorance,

Purpose: Douglass is pointing out the utter hypocrisy of these Southern “Christians” that own slaves.

Slave owners used Christianity as an excuse for the awful ways they treated their slaves. Christianity played a major role on the increase of brutality and violence that spirited the slave owners. The scriptures in the Bible were twisted in the eyes of slave owners to how they wanted to interpret them. Douglass had a powerful experience with one of his masters, Thomas Auld. Mr. Auld was not a religious person and treated the slaves very poorly. In August 1832, Auld attended a Methodist camp meeting and that marked the day when he became religious, and suddenly even more cruel. “Prior to his conversion, he relied upon his own depravity to shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity; but after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty.” After becoming religious, Auld uses scripture to justify his cruelty. Douglass thought that with discovering religion and using it, Auld would become more polite as how Douglass viewed Christianity. Unfortunately that was not the case. Auld justifies that being affiliated with religion would not change a person for the better. Being a slave, Douglass found that slave owners found religious sanction for their cruelty. “He that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.", was what a slave owner had said to justify why he beat

……In 1845 an extraordinary piece of work by Frederick Douglass was published “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”; this was the life of a man who through many adversities stood tall with his head in the heavens. Douglass was the more proactive abolitionist as his work was to demolish slavery while detailing his life experience as a slave and expressing is deep emotions and theory on slavery. In the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” he expresses the way religion and its literature, the bible, had an effect not only on slavery but also with white Christianity. His position on slavery was strong and compelling. Douglass used powerful authoritative words from the start of his narrative to grasp our hold and attention and keep us enflamed while realizing God is embedded in the words. ……Phillis Wheatley overcame obstacles most people would quiver against. She showed us slavery and she showed us faith. In the poem, she tells us “Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand” (Wheatley, line 1-2) Right from the beginning , Wheatley shows us religion through her use of subtle but powerful words. She uses the words “Mercy, Pagan

The most obvious ethical problem in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is slavery. Slavery has been around since the beginning of time. All around the world you could find slavery and you can still find slavery in places in the world today. Frederick Douglass was a slave in the United States, by the 18th century slavery was abolished. Slavery was okay in peoples mind because they thought that slaves were a less devolved version of the human species and they should be treated like animals. Frederick said that if you treat people like they are lesser than you or if you treat them like animals, they will act like that. Slaves act a certain way because their owners tell them to act that way. “If their increase will do no other good, it

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself is a powerful book in many respects. Douglass invites you to vicariously witness the monstrous atrocities he experienced during the antebellum period; a time when said atrocities were not only encouraged, but looked highly upon. Throughout his narrative, Douglass expresses his exponentially growing anger and fortitude. When the reader arrives at The Appendix, it soon becomes that much more apparent that the vice of slavery that is most troublesome to him, is the curtain of pseudo-Christianity surrounding it. Why did Douglass, against the advice of his publisher, decide to include this radical piece? Douglass was adamant about including The Appendix

Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, which is located in the Talbot county of Maryland. He had no knowledge of his age. In fact, a large portion of the slaves did not. Frederick was not allowed to question the master concerning his age. The masters like to keep the slaves as ignorant as possible. The lack of knowledge he possessed was a source of unhappiness throughout his childhood. Frederick took note that white children knew their ages, but was not sure why he wasn't allowed the same privilege. The nearest estimate he possessed was made as a result of hearing his master state that he was about seventeen years old in the year of 1835.

Frederick Douglass (1845/1995), a famous abolitionist, wrote the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass telling readers of the mistreatment slaves endured from their white owners, both Christian and non-Christian. Douglass tells readers how Christians used the Bible to support their actions, which led them to be just as cruel, or in some cases more cruel than non-Christians. Through his personal experiences, Frederick Douglass tells the horrors of slavery and shows that Christians who used the Bible to support their actions were just as cruel as non-Christians. Through Douglass’s experiences, he is able to express to the readers the cruelty of slave masters.

While reading the book titled Narrative of The Life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave sparked many thoughts, and cause my brain to paint many different pictures of the world around me. This story was very complex in its approach of addressing the many issues surrounding slavery. Its main purpose was to spark interest in the growing antislavery movement, and possibly change the minds of current slavery supporters. However, there is a strong undertone of religion, and the role it plays in the furthering discrimination of the slaves.

Douglass focuses on not having any knowledge about his age or the day he was born. Based on the reading Douglass seems to really care about the lack of knowledge. I think it stops him from doing things. For example, defending himself from his master of other people.Based on the autobiography it states that,''slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs,and it is the wish of most masters within knowledge to keep their slaves thus.''Slave keepers also keep their slaves thus for their own advantage. In my opinion, it left his a big impact and hardships not having enough knowledge.

Pollard (1981) shares Frederick Douglass’ recollection of the slaves’ respect of older adults in the community:

The thing that resonated with me the most during this reading is that seemingly everything McDowell mentioned was focused on the dominance of the male slaves. Just as Kat mentioned in an earlier post, I too have not read the essays that McDowell referenced; so, I also found some of McDowell's references rather difficult to understand. For the most part, though, I think I caught on. I also found myself getting quite annoyed while reading McDowell's essay. It seemed that all of McDowell's arguments lead back to Douglass' need to be a dominant, male figure which resulted in every passage about women being beaten coming off as erotic. "The way in which Douglass constructs the scene evokes the familiar male child's initiation into the mysteries

That is an extreme of slavery can cause. Most slave-owners were not so brutal, but they were not distant from the behavior. They had to become fairly evil to keep the slaves in line. Brutality had to take the place of consent in slaves and without limitations man was bound to exercise the power.