Slavery In Antebellum America Analysis

African Americans are more than just slaves. African Americans are people that have dreams to pursue anything they want just as white people do. Throughout the novel “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” as written by himself, Douglass writes about his life during slavery and how it changed him into the man he became after he gained his freedom. He provides his own thoughts throughout this novel, which all appeal mainly to pathos. Also, Douglass provides examples of rhetorical analysis, such as chiasmus, loose sentences, and analogy. He wrote this novel to inform fellow slaves and abolitionists to stay hopeful and never give up, just as he did. He maintains a constant tone of depression and hope as he tells about his life story and being a slave. In this narrative, Douglass presents the argument that slavery is inhumane and needs to be discontinued.

In Frederick Douglass 's first autobiography, "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass”, he provides a graphic portrayal of his childhood and disturbing experiences as a slave as well as his eventual escape to freedom. Douglass went through physical abuse, starvation, and mental fatigue during his youth, yet through unimaginable circumstances he was able to overcome everything and become a writer, newspaper editor, and most of all one of the most influential abolitionist. In telling his story, Douglass paints a realistic picture of slavery. Douglass 's narrative spells out the slaveholders ' tactics in simple terms while highlighting the moral inefficiencies and the damaging effects of slavery on both the slave and the slaveholder

While the narrative’s purpose is mainly to describe the transformation from a slave to a free man, it is also to describe the transformation from a man into a slave. The passage from The Narrative and Life of Frederick Douglass depicts Douglass’s descent into the most brutal conditions of slavery and his reaffirmation of his desire to be free. Under the possession of Mr. Covey, Douglass finds himself to be a broken spirit confined to the bonds of slavery, though later transitions to describe the reigniting of his few expiring embers of freedom. The passage enforces his rage and aggression towards slavery, but the strength of the third paragraph also brings to life his desire for freedom and his willingness to act on the incentive.

Throughout Douglass’s life, being treated like a creature was the norm. Douglass shares his personal experiences about just how cruel society treated slaves. Through alliteration of the “s” sound, Douglass emphasizes how wicked his slave master, Mr. Covey, treated him: “I told him as well as I could, for I scarce had strength to speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the side and told me to get up. (66-67)”. Mr. Covey treats Frederick Douglass as one beneath him: inhumane. He does not care if he is sick and punishes him anyway with violence. In addition, Fredrick uses an antithesis comparing day and night in a parallel structure to accentuate the harsh conditions of his life: “The longest days were too short for him and the shortest nights too long for him (63).” The antithesis of long days and short nights creates the comparison that Mr. Covey doesn’t treat his slaves like people but rather animals, giving them long hours of work and short hours of rest. Later, Douglass

As one reads Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, they are convinced of the wrongness of slavery. Frederick Douglass uses heart-wrenching emotional imagery, examples of his own moral conscience, and logical arguments to create a case against slavery. The descriptions of the treatment of his fellow slaves causes the reader to feel sympathy, persuading them that slavery is wrong. Douglass then tells of instances when he put himself at risk to do something morally correct, demonstrating that he is a person of good morals and is credible in his argument against slavery. Finally, he uses clear logic, comparing slavery to other evils. These all allow him to present a solid argument against slavery in his work.

Slavery corrupts white slave owners in ways that are detrimental to the South through how it changes a normal person into a ruthless tyrant, treat human beings as less than an animal, and who overall have no sense of identity, age, or personality. As a child, Douglass’s life was not all bad because he was on the better side of being a slave , for example he worked in the great house until he was about 8 years old. As he got older he learned that different owners treated their slaves with more deception, more care, or didn’t care about their slaves at all leaving them hungry and tired. All slave owners treated their ‘property’ with cruelty. He had many owners including Edward Covey, Captain Anthony, and Sophia Auld. All of whom failed to see his humanity. In the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, F. Douglass shows that slavery corrupts slave owners and gives others the idea that it is okay,and that slaves should be treated as livestock and inhumanely. Douglass shows that slavery corrupts people by telling us about the lives of Edward Covey, Captain Anthony, and Sophia Auld. We see how being a slave owner shows the brutal side of a person.

Douglass illustrates throughout his novel the dehumanizing effects that slavery has on its primary victims through the restriction of their human expression, bestowing upon them animal-like qualities, and creating an aversion to freedom. Additionally, not only were slaves transformed into brutes, their owners were transformed into cruel beasts through the application of double standards and the corruption of their innocence. However, Douglass’s work humanizes the enslaved population by demonstrating his ability to utilize meaningful and artistic prose through his usage of constructive parallel structure, tangible personification, expressive symbolism, and tactful diction.

In modern society, almost all people understand that slavery was a terrible and immoral practice. However, slavery in America, and especially in the South, was ingrained in culture, economics, and politics. People often glossed over the problems with slavery and refused to acknowledge problems with the peculiar institution. Frederick Douglass, a former slave who fought for his own freedom, wrote his books to educate people on the dehumanizing parts of slavery and to show that African Americans were not just property or animals. Douglass pointed out the physical, psychological, and material abuses that slaves went through. When he used devices like analogies, similes and metaphors, and other literary devices, Douglass humanized himself and all African Americans.

Frederick Douglass opened people’s eyes to see how the American Slave System worked. Douglass overall purpose was to have people whether they were against slavery or for it, to understand the process of slavery. Such as racial inequality, enforced labor, course clothing and cruel beatings. Douglass had already experienced events when he was a slave. Douglass audience were abolitionist, Northerners, people who defended slavery, and Southerners. He was such a gifted speaker and his speeches were a “powerful tool”, against slavery. He wanted them to understand slavery effects slaves, how it affects slave owners and the effect the institution of slavery. Two Positions the Douglass stated was that “Slavery is terrible for slaves”, and “slavery corrupts slave owner”.

Douglass articulates his understanding of the hypocrisy of Southern “Christians” who whip slaves, prostitute female slaves, and steal the wages of working slaves while professing Christian values of humility, purity, and morality.

In his work the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass (1845/1995), famous abolitionist, describes the horrible acts committed by slave masters. He gives many examples from both his experiences and from the experiences of others. He points out both non christian male and female slave owners as well as hypocritical Christian slave masters. Douglass exposes the monstrosity of slavery by displaying male and female slave masters abusing slaves as well as Christian and non christian owners mistreating their human chattel. Douglass (1845/1995) shows the cruelty of male slave masters in his book.

Frederick Douglass tells his story of slavery and how he fought to become a free man in his book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. In his narrative he uses many techniques to appeal to ethos, logos, and pathos. Using these techniques, he helps bring attention to the horrors of slavery and why there needs to be change. Even though his struggles were a few hundred years ago, some of the morals that are taught are still relevant.

Frederick Douglass wrote the, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, in 1845, a time when many Americans questioned the concept and practice of slavery. Douglass’s book helped the anti-slave movement by “humanizing” the life of a slave. The Narrative revealed the Douglass’s intelligence as well as the moral and economic nature of slavery. Douglass helped the Abolitionist movement by speaking in front of groups both black and white. Douglass zealously argued against slavery using biblical scripture, the Declaration of Independence, and laws for slaves as examples of white hypocrisy.

The controversy of racism is a big part in the Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass himself. Douglass unveils the atrocious truth about slavery that at the time, was not spoken about. Douglass debunks the mythology of slavery in his narrative by rebuking the romantic image of slavery with very disturbing imagery, promotes his own views on the intellectual belief of slaves, and exposes the “system” for promoting the disloyalty among slaves.

Douglass’s Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass is a biographical novel of his life as slave. He expresses and reflects the social life of America in slavery era, the journey of his struggling and witnessing of cruelty that showed at that time. That era is an era of capitalism where the capitalist (white people) rules everything as the ruler or rich businessman that has plantation and the worker without payment or slave (black people) as their property tools to make them more rich with their business. They rule their business (plantation) and the workers (slaves) under the care of their cruel overseer. But not seldom they do cruel punish to the slave by her/him self. It reflects in Douglass’s Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: