Frederick Douglass Power Corrupt

There have been countless atrocities committed throughout history. Most of these atrocities are justified and developed from ideas and false realities. The most infamous atrocity of all history, the holocaust is no exception. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany from 1933 until his suicide at the end of WWII, was directly responsible for the deaths of over 12 million people. Alan Bullock in his book Hitler a Study in Tyranny dispels any notion that any of Hitler’s ideas were original. Bullock proposes that Hitler and his rise to power was a product of other political ideas and a knack for exploiting the timing of events to extend his influence. According to Bullock Hitler’s coming to power was the product the political ideals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries which he was exposed to, the world post-WWI, and a knack for exposition events to his favor. He used his gifts of using propaganda and his organizational skills to use politics as a means to achieving power.

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.

“All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” is a quote from Lord John Dalberg-Acton, explaining that any amount of power can corrupt the mind, but absolute power will take over. This is represented throughout history: in politics, monarchies and times like the french revolution. Many writers have used this theme in their works. One work that includes this theme is William Shakespeare's Macbeth. The play Macbeth follows Macbeth, a brave warrior as he gains power from his deeds both good and bad. By killing the Duncan, the former king, Macbeth rises to power and takes control of his country. With every bit of power that the Macbeth’s gain, they become more and more corrupt.

In a Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave written by himself, the author argues that no one can be enslaved if he or she has the ability to read, write, and think. Douglass supports his claim by first providing details of his attempts to earn an education, and secondly by explaining the conversion of a single slaveholder. The author’s purpose is to reveal the evils of slavery to the wider public in order to gain support for the abolition of his terrifying practice. Based on the purpose of writing the book and the graphic detail of his stories, Douglass is writing to influence people of higher power, such as abolitionists, to abolish the appalling reality of slavery; developing a sympathetic relationship with the

Greed is the undertone upon which Douglass states that slavery “corrupted souls” and “turned good people into bad people.” The institution of slavery was based on the ultimate control and power over a human to whom he is stripped of all of his identity and becomes sub-human. Consequently, the institution forces slave holders had to buy into this concept in order to justify any and all cruelty toward slaves. Douglas states “Slave holders resort to all kinds of cruelty” and later describes various ways of torture and punishment “all are in requisition to keep the slave in his condition as a slave in the United States” (Douglass 272). Slave holders showed no mercy when reprimanding slaves. The brutality and cruelty of these punishments were more of a statement of power and control and often times the punishment was worse than the offense.

The power that they have over their slaves has a damaging effect on their moral health because they are careless. Douglass describes adultery and rape as typical behavior patterns of slaveholders which damage their families. Sophia Auld is Douglass's main illustration of the corruption of slave owners. The power of slaveholding changes Sophia from a nice woman to a demon. She went from a kind, caring and loving person into a typical mean slave master. She was no longer able to teach Douglass how to read because her husband disapproved it. Slaveholders gain and keep power over blacks from their birth onward by keeping them ignorant of basic facts about themselves. For example slaves didn't know their birth date or who their parents were. They didn't want slaves to have a natural sense of identity. Slave children were not allowed to learn to read or write because this would lead slaves to question their rights.

Power had a huge part on how people were treated back in the times of slavery. In the novel Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, an African-American woman named Dana traveled between the 1800s and the present to help her great-grandfather throughout his life while also trying to shape him into a better person in the racist society that he was in. One of the things she noticed was how power could dictate how people lived their lives, especially since slavery was prevalent in the area her great grandfather, Rufus Weylin, lived in. Dana, Rufus, and Alice were all characters whose power affected how their lives turned out and the choices that they made.

Douglass argues that slavery corrupted slaveholders, debunking what the Northerners thought, that slave holders didn’t change. “That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage.” (Excerpt 3 Paragraph 3) Douglass had lived with a kind woman who

It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason” (10). He puts a lot of emphasis on the ideas that slaves need to be tricked into accepting their enslavement. Since no person in his right mind would ever accept such a condition, it is the intent for the master’s to destroy the slave’s minds. Douglass expresses how slaves aren’t the only victims and how it corrupts all of those who are involved in

The reform movement that I feel best represents Frederick Douglass’s statement would be the Abolition movement. His statement goes with this movement because he had lead the abolitionist movement and his main goal was to free all slaves. Douglass firmly believed in equality among all people. He had once been a slave, and he knew how horribly mistreated they were. Slaves had been degraded by a majority of white people. It would have seemed as if all odds were against them. They had been denied justice for years, they had been oppressed, and they had been treated terribly, and made to feel like they were lower than the white man. The fact that Douglass himself was or African-American descent, most likely made the movement more difficult to accomplish.

History is brimming with examples of people who, in a ravenous quest for power, have met their untimely end. Lord John Acton famously quipped: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." Perhaps, prior to making those astute remarks, Lord Acton had studied The Tragedy of Macbeth. The complex characters and their interactions in William Shakespeare’s iconic play reveal that corrupting force power can have on man.

“Seventy-five years ago, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, and a 12-year reign of terror across Europe began. Could History repeat itself?” (Smith, 15). In the article, Hitler Comes to Power, by Patricia Smith, European Jews were punished because they were blamed for most of Germany's problems. After Germany lost World War 1, the citizens of Germany were desperate for help. So, they turned to Hitler hoping he could help improve their lives. Hitler coming to power was one of Europe's most horrible accidents of all time. His punishments for the Jews were unright, unnecessary, and prejudice. Hitler's actions affected the Jews and scared them for life... How would you react to a leader like Hitler? If your freedom was taken, what would you do?

Once the great Frederick Douglass said “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Frederick Douglass was a more effective speaker than Elizabeth Cady Stanton because of his uses of rhetorical questions, knowledge of his topic, and uses of pathos, ethos, and logos.

A common misconception about the Holocaust is that the world was naïve of the atrocities happening under the Nazi’s rule. The horrors of the Holocaust were not left undocumented. Unfortunately, many saw these malicious acts as insignificant to the global population; people only start sympathizing when the hindrance affects them. Hitler, with the help of his many allies, achieved to murder millions of innocent men, women, and children. After spending this semester studying the Holocaust, I have realized that the Nazis’ greatest ally was neither an individual nor a country; Hitler’s greatest ally was indifference.

Alice Walker, an American novelist, once stated that “the most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” In current society, power is everywhere, and everyone has at least has some control, no matter how ineffective they might feel. In the novella “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, the concept of power is represented on a ranch in the 1930’s. On the ranch, there is a group of outsiders- people who do not fit in- that consists of Crooks, a black stable buck, Curley’s wife, who is married to the powerful Curley, Lennie, a worker with a mental disability, and Candy, and old swamper. These outsiders are isolated and feel powerless compared to the rest of society. However, within this group of outsiders, power structures still exist and everyone has power in one way or another. Steinbeck, through the story of Crooks and Curley’s wife, teaches that no matter how powerless someone seems, they may still wield power over others.