My Bondage And My Freedom By Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass, a former slave and influential abolitionist, wrote the book My Bondage and My Freedom in order to prove that he was a former slave and to inform people of how he became an educated individual.

Many people struggle for change because they believe they aren’t being treated fairly, a certain group of people aren’t being treated equal, or they just want to see a certain change in something. “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”, “Ain’t I a Woman”, and “Brown v. Board” are all examples that clearly show why people struggle for change. “What to the Slave” focusses on what the Fourth of July means to slaves. “Ain’t I a Woman” discusses the differences between how black women are treated compared to white women. “Brown v. Board” is about how segregation has a lot of negative factors and how they need to change it.

Douglass began his speech to the audience by asking a series of rhetorical questions in addition to the use of sarcasm. He referred to the Declaration of Independence as “that” instead of “the” Declaration stressing a separation between African-Americans and the freemen of the United States. He extended the use of his rhetoric by asking, “What have I or those, I represent, to do with your national independence?” Slaves, whose freedom is denied, do not share other Americans’ patriotic feelings regarding the Fourth of July. His use of these rhetorical questions was valid because it separated Douglass as a different man than the rest of his white audience. Furthermore, Douglass asked, "Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty?" He indicated that people knew in their hearts that all were entitled to freedom. Douglass demonstrated sarcasm in this principle of freedom, almost as if the aforementioned rhetorical question shouldn’t need to be stated. He further declared that the stigma separating free whites and enslaved African-Americans was blatantly foolish.

Authors often exaggerate or revise small details of their own books in order to produce an emotion in the reader instead of a factual representation. However, this does not make authors to be liers, only fabricators. In times or social unjust it is necessary for the oppressed to voice their opinions for the purpose of gaining equality. As it may seem immoral to twist truths, if done correctly it will strengthen the author's message, without compromising the authenticity of the plot. One can see this in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, along with his, My Bondage and My Freedom. Both novels are accounts of Douglass’ troublesome journey from a slave to a freeman. These heroic accounts served as prominent and respected

On July 5th, 1952, Frederick Douglass addressed the ladies of the Rochester Anti-Slavery Sewing society in his famous speech, titled “What to the slave is the fourth of July?” 1 In this address, Douglass points out the hypocrisies between the principles of the American Constitution and the way in which American society functioned at the time. Prior to this speech, his early experiences, friendships, and observations of different aspects of society pushed him to advocate for the participation of blacks in American democracy and freedom, and later in opposition to the many voices within the abolitionist movement that argued for the opposite. While Douglass saw the blatant contradictions between the words of the Revolution and the way in which marginalized groups were treated by most of the ruling white-male population, he was by no means against the principles outlined within the Declaration of Independence or the United States as a nation. Douglass’s thought was very much an olive branch between the ruling white class and the enslaved and disenfranchised black population. His self-made story, inspiring influences, and determination to promote American freedom amongst the many evil aspects in the country he lived in made him one of the most important intellectual figures in the road to abolishing slavery.

Throughout our country’s history, there have been several instances in which minorities, and native groups have been victims of our country’s people and government, as well as policies that our government has enacted. Some of these policies and treatments have made them very vulnerable and victims to barbaric and inhumane treatment at the hands of the “true” American people. Slavery in America is a prime example of these type of government policies and inhumane treatment of other groups who deserve the same rights as us “Americans do”. While most focus on how Slavery dehumanized the slaves themselves, it also dehumanized the people who owned, worked, and dealt with the slaves: The American People. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Douglass illustrates, quite graphically, though appropriately, through his own personal experiences the brutality and violence of life as a slave, but also how it dehumanized both the slaves and the whites using masterful imagery. As Douglass says about one of his slave owners, “Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness.” (Pg. 52) This was true for many more people than just his mistress.

In the book, Up from slavery, Booker T. Washington, the former slave who wrote the book on his experiences, spent the majority of his life in the “after emancipation” era. He was a slave only up to the 10th year of his life, and he did not experience the many beatings that many of the older slaves had. He enjoyed learning, and he “fought” his way into college to do so. He had a family, and he was able to live with his mother and siblings, but he never knew his father, who was said to be a white man. When he was freed from slavery, he still experienced the scorn and hardships of the “separate but equal” mind set of those around him.

During one semester of Mr. McGee’s class, one will read more texts and novels than they ever have in the rest of their English career combined. With that in mind, clearly there has to have been several important texts. Each and every text had their place in American literature and each one served a purpose, but some had more meaning to certain people than others. For one, these three texts could be The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass, and To Build A Fire by Jack London. The Declaration of Independence is an inspirational text, in which Jefferson and the founding fathers declared the American Colonies independence, establishing their freedom, from Great Britain.

Eric Foner in Forever Free the Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction mentions that the Revolution made slavery a more discussed and controversial topic. Prominent figures like Abigail Adams wondered, “Could the ‘passion of liberty’ be among those ‘accustomed to deprive their fellow citizens of theirs?’” (Foner 9). Although Adams was white and a prominent figure, she was a woman who could not enjoy the same rights as African Americans. However, she was at a higher social status than the black population. That an important figure in the revolution for independence was able to question the idea of post-revolution liberty shows that freedom was a concept restricted to the white male population since the treatment of African Americans suggests freedom was not applied equally. Around 50 years later, Frederick Douglass reminds the America of the unequal treatment and rights of freedom at an abolitionist

For a national document concerning individual’s natural and legal rights to be made without the thought of including African Americans and those enslaved was paradoxical and something that could not be done unnoticed. In his speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, although Frederick Douglass at first commends what the founding fathers did for America, he soon goes on to condemn American society’s attitude on slavery and how people try to just ignore the cruel exploitation and treatment slaves were subjected to. On behalf African Americans, Douglass asks society “are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us [blacks]?” (Douglass, 1852, paragraph 34) and proceeds to argue that “the rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me” (Douglass, 1852, paragraph 36). There is a sort of paradox of the positive that Douglass brings up how something meant to be positive can still exclude individuals and in this case, those enslaved. Douglass puts a lot of emphasis on the attitude of American society which is still a theme and focus of current civil rights activists. Currently, there is still a color line in society and “the present attitude of the American people toward the Colored race is a fixed and unchangeable fact, not a prejudice of the day” (Du

George Orwell is the utmost influential figure in the debate concerning thought and power. Orwell does compose his concepts with some invaluable attributes about politics and excessive government. Although, Orwell does share some unique characteristics and thoughts that Frederick Douglass had as well, Douglass’s and Orwell's thoughts on the importance of language compare to each other quite nicely. Both authors believe that language is the ultimate way to infringe on an individual's life. By means of using their language to make themselves a considerable opponent compared to political leaders. The following are a few ideas of how Douglass and Orwell explain the more advanced thoughts of language, while at the same time be able to use simplistic language for mass audiences.

“Language itself is so value-laden as to render value-neutrality almost impossible” sums up Douglass’s work titled My Bondage and My Freedom (Arthur Holmes). A writer cannot create any pieces without an addition of feeling. This feeling is present through the author’s wording. Every word an author decides to be included holds some emotional, added value. This emotional value is incredibly important because without emotion a text lacks significance to its audience. Without emotion, the reader cannot connect with the text and, in return, the text has no interest attached to it. However, with emotion, the author’s audience is able to connect and identify critical literary elements. Also, the reader, while going through the work, can pick up on multiple occurrences when there is more

Slave narratives frequently start with prefaces, written by white editors, which attempt to prepare white readers for the story itself. Such introductions typically affirm to the truthfulness of the story—the accuracy of its facts and the trustworthiness of its black authorship. Since the publishing supervisors position themselves as authorities on the stories, the prefaces indirectly place black stories underneath the power of white editors. Garrison’s prologue in particular displays the urge to control and contain Douglass’s career and narrative. Garrison places himself at the center of the text. Douglass’s success story is replaced somewhat by the story of Garrison’s judgment and fostering of Douglass’s talent. Phillips attests that Douglass’s

Slavery is the result of racial prejudice. We see evidence of this dating back as far as the 1670’s when we see the English in the colonies “connoting evil and inferiority to black people” (Moretta, 2013, p 47). Here, we see that slavery is easy to digest for the English because they viewed it in this light. The evidence of the support of racial prejudice is laced throughout our history; we see racial tendencies from leaders like Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, and landmark Supreme Court case decisions like the Dred Scott case where African Americans are denied citizenry. While we have the Declaration of Independence in 1776 declaring “all men are created equal,” America doesn’t begin to see that equality formally acknowledged until 1865 with the Thirteenth Amendment. Stefan Molyneux points out

Slavery was persisting in the South because there was an abundance of cotton, which was very profitable. The slaves were needed to help farm the cotton for the owners of the land. During this time, those in power in the North and South were debating and negotiating with one other. They were attempting to create a compromise which would satisfy both sides. While this was going on, slaves were