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Influence Of A Slave 's Point Of View

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The Influence of a Slave’s Point of View
As taught, slavery existed for a good portion of American history from the 1620’s until its abolishment in 1865. Its existence created a big controversy over the morality of white Americans and challenged Americans ideal of a free country in a multitude of ways. As brutal as present-day Americans think of slavery, is the same way the abolitionists thought of it then, especially after reading Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave by former slave Frederick Douglass. This narrative became a big deal when published in 1845 for its influences that it had on the white Americans that were ignorant to the brutality of slavery. The narrative was purposely created to move the emotions …show more content…

This then leads to the other argument that slaves need to be governed like children, according to George Fitzhugh’s excerpt from “The Universal Law of Slavery.” Fitzhugh uses the idea of paternalism to make a claim against the idea of slavery’s brutality. His argument is that slaves do not have enough intelligence to make their own decisions and that they are happy to slaves because they get the resources they need to live and they don’t have to worry about making complicated decisions like the adult American. Fitzhugh also makes a claim against the northern factory laborers work in which he refers to as being more uncomfortable than being a slave. James Henry Hammond furthers this argument in 1858 by recognizing the idea that the slaves of the South are incapable of recognizing their enslavement and therefore, are made by God, to serve as free labor for the white race. Religion also plays an important role in the pro-slavery argument. Just as Hammond agreed that slaves are made inferior by God, he furthers this notion in his excerpt from “Letter to an English Abolitionist” by quoting specific words of the bible that support his point that slaves are what God considers to be “bondsmen forever.” Because America is supposed to have been based on high morale of religion, this biblical support allowed slaveholders to feel morally right in their pro-slavery decision. These arguments were deemed legitimate for a while until Frederick Douglass’s narrative proved the

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