Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave

When someone thinks of a religious person, they think of someone who is kind and caring. Well, this is not the case for Frederick Douglass. According to Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a religious slave master is the worse kind of master. In Douglass’ narrative, there are examples of religious slave owners being delusional, hypocritical, and mean. Throughout his narrative, Frederick Douglass states many incidents with religious slave owners.

Since before the time of Jesus Christ, religious hypocrisy has run rampant throughout those who held power. Countless lives have been affected by others twisting religious interpretation in order to fit their own needs. Slaveholders used religion and scripture to their advantage when disciplining slaves, sometimes even if they did no wrong. Religious hypocrisy is especially relevant in the life of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass’s life story depicts how religious hypocrisy committed by both slaves and slaveholders diminished the rights of slaves, while at the same time allowing injustice to endure.

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

While Slavery was against human nature and while Abolitionists believed in ending the practice of slavery, the South had their own reasons why slavery was needed in America and how basically they supported pro slavery. For instance, some arguments for slavery followed this so-called logic: “Sudden end to the slave economy would have had a profound and killing economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the foundation of their economy. If all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and chaos. And by comparison with the poor of Europe and the workers in the Northern states, that slaves were better cared for” (ushistory.org). But in a section from, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written by him, Douglass describes some of the brutality that he had witnessed. “The overseer’s name was Plummer. Mr. Plummer was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster. He always went armed with a cowskin and a heavy cudgel. I have known him to cut and slash the woman’s heads so horribly, that even master would be enraged at his cruelty, and would threaten to whip him if he did not mind himself. Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder” (Douglass 44). This shows the brutality that even female slaves endured and while the Maser may have showed some sense against the cruelty that the slaves faced, it wasn’t enough to say that they too were also cruel. Just putting aside the inhumanity depicted in true

Slave owners used Christianity as an excuse for the awful ways they treated their slaves. Christianity played a major role on the increase of brutality and violence that spirited the slave owners. The scriptures in the Bible were twisted in the eyes of slave owners to how they wanted to interpret them. Douglass had a powerful experience with one of his masters, Thomas Auld. Mr. Auld was not a religious person and treated the slaves very poorly. In August 1832, Auld attended a Methodist camp meeting and that marked the day when he became religious, and suddenly even more cruel. “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.” After becoming religious, Auld uses scripture to justify his cruelty. Douglass thought that with discovering religion and using it, Auld would become more polite as how Douglass viewed Christianity. Unfortunately that was not the case. Auld justifies that being affiliated with religion would not change a person for the better. Being a slave, Douglass found that slave owners found religious sanction for their cruelty. “He that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.", was what a slave owner had said to justify why he beat

One of the themes that the book dealt with is society and it’s handling of slavery under the guise of Christianity. Those who professed to being the most Christian i.e., the minister who lived next door, was actually the most cruel. Douglass stated adamantly that religion

Slavery can be viewed as one of the greatest examples of immoral treatment towards African Americans in the United States alone. Most Africans that were either captured, born, or sold in America, lived the life of a typical slave, however Frederick Douglass was the exception. Douglass, was an African American writer, abolitionist, and so much more, but before any of this, he was a slave. Fortunately, his master never treated him unkindly, until he was sent to be with a master that was the extreme opposite. By learning to read and write, Douglass eventually came to the conclusion that he was not living the life he wanted and longed to get away. In the Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass, we are exposed to the iniquity of slavery and the dehumanization of the black race, which then led Frederick Douglass to recognize that literacy and education would aid him in his flight to freedom.

Douglass focuses on why slavery cannot be justified by Christianity. He goes into detail about what he believes that the Northern states should do more to try and end slavery. He shares his belief that by failing to end the institution of slavery in the south, the North is just as bad. He also argues that slave owners are complete hypocrites. This is because of how they go to church on Sundays and claim to be Christians. They then go and whip slaves and punish slaves even for the slightest thing. In Frederick Douglass’s mind, the slave owners go against the words of Christianity by owning any other human being. He makes sure to note how his harshest words were meant for the slave owning versions of the

When Frederick Douglass published his book, many read it and had their own ideas from the themes he referred to. One thing that was related to the theme of his book was how he said religious slaveholders were the cruelest to slaves. Religious slaveholders used the bible to prove that slavery was right. They quoted from the bible, Colossians 3:22, slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. They said that the bible tells slaves to be obedient to their masters, in which case, means that there are going to be slaves. They also looked back into the Old Testament and found times where the old prophets had slaves. At one point, a prophet returns a runaway slave back to another prophet who was his master. The Southerners saw that since the bible did not condemn slavery but mentioned it in many places, that they were right to have slaves. That is the reason they were so cruel to slaves; they thought that they had religion on their side backing them to do what they pleased to their slaves, since the bible tells them to follow all of their master’s commands. Mr. Covey, who was a slave breaker that possessed Frederick Douglass for a while, was a religious man. Frederick Douglass said that Mr. Covey forced a woman to break the commandment that a person should not commit adultery, but since the woman was a slave, the commandment meant nothing

Can you imagine growing up a slave and trying to get to freedom while everyone is discouraging and telling you, 'you can't get freedom', your whole life? In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Frederick Douglass wants to change his readers beliefs about what it means to be dedicated to the American idea that "All men are created equal" by telling about some people who would abuse the slaves with or without a reason. In the olden days when slavery was almost everywhere, Fredrick Douglass was a slave who grew up uneducated and being transported to new slaveholders a lot and witnessed a lot of horrible things. He believes that all men are created equal and believes that he will get freedom, so he lives believing and

Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and former slave, endured a painful life as an enslaved person and in his memoir, he addressed that the worst treatment often came from Christian masters. Douglass also explained that his critics always referred to what he called the “Christianity of the South”. He did this because he did not want to generalize as he respected true Christians but he strongly condemned those who used to call themselves Christians and were mean to enslaved people. In the memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglas says, “Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject

How did slavery continue to exist despite its inhumane practices? Many of these owners employed the ideas of dehumanizing slaves and religion in order to perpetuate their actions. Dehumanization demoted the societal status of slaves, therefore deeming blacks inferior to their white counterparts. Moreover, although directly opposing religious principles of kindness and avoidance of sin, plantation owners used Christianity as a mechanism to mask their inhumanity and encourage their cruelty toward slaves. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass develops themes of dehumanization and religion, which helps readers understand the techniques slave owners utilized to alleviate their guilt, condone malice toward slaves, and preserve supremacy over colored people in Southern society.

When was the last time you were exposed to propaganda? If you think it was more than a day ago, you are probably unaware of what propaganda really is. According to Donna Woolfolk Cross in “Propaganda: How not to be Bamboozled,” propaganda is “simply a means of persuasion” (149). She further notes that we are subjected daily to propaganda in one form or another as advertisers, politicians, and even our friends attempt to persuade us to use their product, vote for them, or adopt their point of view. Propaganda is usually considered in a negative sense. However, when viewing propaganda as mere persuasion, one can readily appreicate that it is

Right now, 3.6 million African Americans are in the United States, and most of them are slaves. Slavery has been around since 1619 and has gotten even worse. Imagine getting up in the early morning and only having little time to get ready before working, getting no breaks, and not getting home until dark. Imagine having a child and it being taken away from you. This is what happens to slaves. They are doing forced labor. What they do varies from helping around their owners house to working long hours in the fields. But they have no choice in what they can and can’t do. If they disobey their owners they can get whipped, branded, locked away, anything that their owner wants. In an interview with Frederick Douglass, a former slave who escaped, told us that, “The law gives the master absolute power over the slave… he may work him, flog him, hire him out, sell him, and in certain contingencies, kill him. Knowing that this happens every day should make you think. Think about stopping this. They’re people too, there is no logical reason to discriminate whites from black. We all have feelings and are not meant to be used like an item.

Slavery, a Scourge of Humanity, and it was once supported by the American and European churches, and every trader on the land and the sea. Now why did they keep slaves, when the bible clearly states it is sinful, and why were they so cruel? Frederick Douglass exposed the hypocrisy of Christian slaveholders by pointing out their cruelty to their slaves, their hate towards blacks, (free or slave), and their lust for extreme and inhumane punishment. The cruelty of slaveholders towards their slaves was appalling.