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Frederick Douglass Paternalism

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The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglas is an autobiographical recollection of Frederick Douglas' journey to freedom. Douglas was born into slavery to a slave mother and unknown white father, suspected to be an overseer on the plantation his mother worked for. He was separated from his mother, and did not develop a close relationship with his siblings. Throughout his time as a slave he worked under several different masters, each of which taught him something about the institution of slavery- be it the necessity for abolition, the means of suppressing slaves, or the inherent flaws in slavery. Through his experiences Douglas concludes that abolition is necessary because it is an unnatural institution, leads to the decline of morality, and is …show more content…

Paternalism is the idea that slavery benefits African Americans because they are unable to take care of themselves. However, even if this is to be assumed true it is not because African Americans are genetically or otherwise biologically inferior to caucasians but rather that they have been manipulated to appear weaker. For example, African American slaves appeared to be unintelligent because they often spoke broken English and were illiterate. While some may have interpreted this to mean that African Americans were not intelligent enough to "speak properly," their verbal skills were a reflection of their lack of formal education. It would be asinine to presume slaves could learn these skills on their own, especially considering that it was often illegal to educate …show more content…

In December, slaves were given a few weeks off of work and could spend their time as they please. The masters encouraged the slaves to engage in merriment and indulge themselves with alcohol. Douglas states that the purpose of this break it to appease the slaves so they have some reprieve and cannot claim that they are constantly worked. However, it could be argued that the masters also encourage slaves to engage in these types of activities during the break, so that they do not find work elsewhere which would enable them to acquire money (which eventually might be used to acquire their freedom). By showing that the slaves are not using their free time to its full potential, slave owners were able to project the idea that slaves were not intelligent enough to make the best financial decisions for themselves. Therefore, under this logic, it would be best for slaves to work for the slave owners, and in return slave owners would provide the necessities to ensure an adequate quality of life (which slave owners rarely did in

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