Essay about Fredrick Douglas And Harriet Jacobs

He was so thrilled to leave the life of the field work behind him. “I had been treated as a pig on the plantation: I was treated as a child now”, he says that “troops of hostile boys” he would wish that he could be back on “the home plantation”. Auld’s wife Sophia was teaching Douglass how to read, when all of a sudden, Auld walks in and he insisted that she stop immediately, he said “a slave, should know nothing but the will of his mater”, “would forever unfit him for the duties of a slave”. Douglass heard and was able to understand the message, but he got so much out of his crucial statement. “In learning to read, therefore, I… owe quite as much to the opposition of my master, as to kindly assistance of my amiable mistress”. Douglass was to determined to learn so he would exchanging bread for reading lessons, from hungry white children from the streets of Baltimore. “For a single biscuit” he states, “any of my hungry little comrades would give me a lesson more valuable to me than bread”. One of many instances where Douglass own audacity when he was still young, was when he was sent by Master Auld to the planation, as Covey aka The Negro Breaker. Auld’s objective was that the Willy and resentfulness of Covey would break Douglass’s unconquerable emotions. Auld almost achieved that. Douglass would sometimes defend himself to one of his temporary master’s. His temporary master would brutally

Douglass had the unusual privilege of receiving the beginnings of an education from the wife of one of his masters, Mrs. Auld. Her lessons were cut short when she was discovered by her husband who, "forbade her. . . telling her it was unsafe to teach a slave to read . . . because he would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master". From this experience, Douglass learned that education was his "pathway from slavery to freedom". In essence, the act of keeping the black man ignorant was "the white man's power to enslave the black man"(Douglass 1776).

While on one end slave-owners did their best to deprive slaves of education, on the other side, Douglass constantly stresses the importance of slaves acquiring knowledge and education in any way possible. While in Baltimore, Douglass comes to the realization of just how important education is. His master, Mr. Auld, becomes angry with his wife when he discovers she is trying to teach Douglass how to write. This is a life changing moment for Douglass and from then on, he understood that education was linked with freedom. He would go to extremes to educated himself. Douglass would walk the streets of Baltimore with a book, and a piece of bread. He describes how he would meet up with young white boys and trade his loaf of bread for tips on how to read (Douglass

Fredrick was eventually sent to live with Hugh Auld. It was Auld’s wife Sophia that thought Douglass the alphabet. Douglass was a main cause why slaves could read, defying the ban. It was through reading that Douglass’s fight against slavery started. Fredrick Douglass, funny enough, learned to read from the whites. Douglass took interest in

Both Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs had similar experiences in regards to their owners getting more involved with religion resulting in a change in the treatment of their slaves. Frederick Douglass’ slave-owner in 1832 was a man called “Captain Auld” by his slaves. Douglass describes him as a “slaveholder without the ability to hold slaves”. However, after attending a Methodist camp-meeting and experiencing religion, Auld becomes crueler. Douglass had the slightest hope that Auld’s involvement with religion would incline him to emancipate his slaves or—at the very least—be more humane and kind. Douglass was disappointed. “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.” The man became more involved in religious activity; it became a part of his everyday life. Douglass provides an example of his master’s usage of religious sanction for cruelty and brutality. Douglass witnesses Auld tie up and whip a young woman while justifying his actions with a passage of Scripture— “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.” Harriet Jacobs had a comparable experience. “When I was told that Dr. Flint had joined the Episcopal church, I was much surprised. I supposed that religion had a purifying effect on the character of men; but the worst persecutions I endured from him were after he

At a young age, Douglass learns he must pursue knowledge and education to emancipate himself from slavery. Shortly after arriving at his new master’s home, the master’s wife, Mrs. Auld, teaches him the alphabet and how to spell. Mr. Auld forbids his wife to continue teaching as it is “unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read” and having that knowledge would “forever unfit him to be a slave” (pg. 48). This confession opens Douglass’

Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass both wrote narratives that detailed their lives as slaves in the antebellum era. Both of these former slaves managed to escape to the North and wanted to expose slavery for the evil thing it was. The accounts tell equally of depravity and ugliness though they are different views of the same rotten institution. Like most who managed to escape the shackles of slavery, these two authors share a common bond of tenacity and authenticity. Their voices are different—one is timid, quiet, and almost apologetic while the other one is loud, strong, and confident—but they are both authentic. They both also through out the course of their narratives explain their desires to be free from the horrible practice of slavery.

Slavery was perhaps one of the most appalling tragedies in the history of The United States of America. To tell the people of the terrible facts, runaway slaves wrote their accounts of slavery down on paper and published it for the nation to read. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs were just two of the many slaves who did this. Each of the slaves had different experiences with slavery, but they all had one thing in common: they tell of the abominable institution of slavery and how greatly it affected their lives. When Douglass was seven years old, he was sent to a new master and mistress, Hugh and Sophia Auld. Sophia was a very kind and affectionate woman, probably one of the nicest people Douglass

When Hugh Auld let Sophia Auld stop teaching Douglass education lessons, afraid Douglass would not be manageable anymore. Douglass states that "against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn"(Douglass,30). From his master's words, Douglass understood that the reason why slaveholders would not allowed to learn reading lessons, whites afraid slaves knew they are not naturally enslaved by others. Douglass wanted to be educated to become

Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs narratives are both very similar and yet are very different as they give different points of reference from the hardships African Americans faced during the slave era. Both of Douglass and Jacobs emphasize the need to keep family together and how far someone they knew would go to attain freedom or buy back freedom and how it really never happened. It was emphasized by slave owners to separate families at young ages which is known to be cruel and serves a purpose in the maturation of a slave. Although they both agree that slavery dehumanized slaves and depict gory images, these narratives come from two different perspectives; Jacobs-a female slave who had a happy sheltered child hood which lead to sexual and mental abuse, and Frederick- a male who knowledge was with held from and who was tainted with gory mental images at a very young age of slaves being beat right before him.

Men and Women’s treatment has been different as long as the two have been around to notice the difference. Even in the realm of slavery women and men were not treated the same although both were treated in horrible ways. Harriet Jacobs and Fredrick Douglass’ story is very similar both were born into slavery and later rose above the oppression to become molders of minds. In time of subjugation to African Americans these two writers rose up and did great things especially with their writing. Both Douglass and Jacobs’ experienced different types of slavery, it shaped their perspective on everything and it also shows the importance of their freedom.

The stories of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, slaves in the United States, as well as Olaudah Equiano, who spent time as a slave in North America, attest to the deeply embedded tradition of slavery in North American society. Slavery grew and was maintained through the dehumanization of the slaves, which was carried out through negligence and psychological and physical abuse. This allowed slave owners to exercise complete control over their slaves, extending to the objectification and rape of female slaves. Although the economic benefits of slavery served as a large factor for the continuation of the institution, a larger factor was the integration of the institution of slavery into American society. The narratives detailed the shift of slave owners from viewing slavery as a necessary evil to a positive good and social normality. Slavery became so ingrained in American society that slave owners used any justification necessary in order to retain their slaves, leading to the dehumanization of slaves and beginning a vicious, oppressive cycle that would continue for years to come in American society and accounting for slavery’s durability. American slavery grew and expanded as a direct result of the dehumanization of slaves, which created a culture of abuse and fear, allowing one population to become subservient to another and accounting for the durability of slavery.

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the dehumanization of slaves often occurs, as white plantation owners view slaves as objects undeserving of humane treatment in order to uphold power and warrant their unjust practices. Limiting knowledge and prohibiting education for African Americans was one strategy common among slave owners, as “it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant” (17). Due to their lack of intellect, slaves could not recognize the injustices of the slavery system and had little chances of escaping. When Mrs. Auld attempts to teach Frederick Douglass how to read and write, Mr. Auld claims, “A n***** should know nothing but to obey

During the final years of legal slave ownership in the United States, the slave narrative became a popular way for literate enslaved people to express their anti-slavery stance through their own testimony. Two of the most influential writers on the slave narrative topic were the autobiographical authors Fredrick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. Since Douglas and Jacobs were both born in a similar time period, there are many similarities found in their works. Douglass’s Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave is closely comparable to Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl when analyzing how they represented their enslavement in their autobiographies. The two authors have similar ideas when portraying their struggles with forced ignorance. Their writing also contains parallels with the corrupting power of slavery for the slave owners, as well as the parallels in pointing out the hypocrisies of using the bible to defend slavery. These similarities can be explained in part due to Douglass and Jacobs following the same basic slave narrative outline to maintain the shared goal of abolishing slavery in the United States.

Amongst the injustice and brutality of slavery is the exclusion of education and knowledge. The slaveholder would tactically deprive the slaves of any knowledge because it would expose them of slavery’s injustice. This act dehumanized the slaves to a great extent, and at the same time forbade them to pursue any form of freedom, physically or spiritually. Hugh Auld, Douglass’s master reasoned that “it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read” and believed “If you have a nigger an inch, he will take an ell.” (Douglass 40, 41) Auld advocated his reasoning by calling a slave “unmanageable,” “unhappy,” and “discontented” if enlightened. Douglass however understood differently. The withdrawal of literacy and knowledge, he believed, was one of the greater factors keeping blacks inferior to whites in society. The Narrative also documents the many physiological effects of slaveholding. Douglass carefully explains the masters whipping their slaves when they least deserve it, and overlooking their deeds when they most deserve it. The killing of a slave is also considered the least of an offense or crime, and is simply gone