Two Books In African American History

The analysis of the under discussion autobiography indicates a lot of major universal themes and human exploitation is one of them. A reader can see bleak picture of black slavery from the narration of Frederick Douglass who confronts brutal conduct of white masters throughout his childhood.

Prior to the publication of any slave narrative, African Americans had been represented by early historians’ interpretations of their race, culture, and situation along with contemporary authors’ fictionalized depictions. Their persona was often “characterized as infantile, incompetent, and...incapable of achievement” (Hunter-Willis 11) while the actions of slaveholders were justified with the arguments that slavery would maintain a cheap labor force and a guarantee that their suffering did not differ to the toils of the rest of the “struggling world” (Hunter-Willis 12). The emergence of the slave narratives created a new voice that discredited all former allegations of inferiority and produced a new perception of resilience and ingenuity.

Since the publication of the first slave narratives as early as 1740, black authors accounting their experiences as former slaves have used a variety of tactics to best reach audiences with whom it was thought they had little in common with beyond basic humanity, including testimonials, documentation, and use of the popular literary techniques of the era. As the tradition of the slave narrative grew alongside the abolitionist movement, these narratives became increasingly political, as authors hoped to not only share their stories of subjugated, but motivate those in power to action against the institution oppressing them. Two of the most significant

INTRO YO: Throughout history, all over the world, people have been enslaved and mistreated based on various arbitrary factors. From the slavery of cultures all over the world, to racial oppression of today, these people have been subjected to subhuman cruelty. In America, the turning point for this mistreatment was the late 19th century and early 20th century. With the civil war and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, slaves and free African Americans gained more freedom. The best path for these African Americans of the 19th and 20th centuries is to combine the ideas of great African American leaders like Frederick Douglass, WEB DuBois, and Booker T Washington. The optimal path to freedom for the subjected people is to become educated, to value themselves, working hard, and proving to oppressors that they are equal.

In the book titled The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, author John Blassingame’s theme, focused on the history of African slave experience throughout the American South. After much research, the author said in the preface that most historians focused more on the planter instead of the slave. He also pointed out that most of the research on slaves by previous historians was based on stereotypes, and do not tell the real history of slave life and a slave’s inner self. Most of these historians, who focused on antebellum southern history, left out the African-American slave experience on purpose. Through much gathering of research, Blassingame hoped to correct this injustice to the history of African-American slaves, and show how slavery affected slaves, but also American life, culture, and thought.

Africans have long faced racism in their long history in America. They have had their identities and rights lost under centuries of slavery. Even after the Civil War, the inequalities between African Americans and Caucasians did not cease to exist. From these troubles, many strong people have risen and been able to tell their stories. Among these include a former slave who traveled north and gained freedom, Frederick Douglass and civil rights activist, Malcolm X who both wrote their own autobiographies about their journeys against racism. While Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass lived about a century apart, they share similarities in how they faced and combated racism through education, inspiration by other people, and their eventually finding of freedom.

In this chapter I've learning many interesting things. Slaves had to endure hardship, cruel punishment, separation, and religious cultivation. Through all that they still managed to remain strong and keep their heads high. Blacks had many ways of ways of revolting but mostly the passive away although there were many violent rebellions. The whites in the south also had conflicts such as the slaves trading, the disagreements with northerners, and the slaves trying to take their families.

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.

The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois, published in 1903, and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, published in 1845 both show the complexity of the life of an African American living in Antebellum and Post-Antebellum America. To be Black in America means to identify with two separate groups, one accepting, and the other neglecting them. In this society it is difficult to be seen as equal. Africans Americans must see themselves through the eyes of their oppressor and through the eyes of their own race. Even from looking at the two points of view it is hard to find actual freedom. Double consciousness has the ability to cause a disenchanted view of the world because both sides of the Veil are flawed. Therefore

“Slavery.” The name comes about so many times in history. However, I did not truly comprehend the full extent of the term until I viewed the movie The Book of Negroes. What did I expect, based off of the title? I expected a historical documentary on slavery and the effects it had on military, politics, and economics. Instead a got a film about a girl who had to endure slavery from age eleven, when she was captured and her parents were killed before her own innocent eyes.

The Book of Negroes and A Boy Called Nam are two influential pieces of Canadian literature. Published in 2007, Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes is a historic fiction while A Boy Called Nam, written in 1984 by Leo Heaps, is based on a true story. The Book of Negroes chronicles the fictional life of Aminata Diallo from the time she is kidnapped from her West African village and sent to colonial America as a slave to her eventual journey to freedom. Conversely, A Boy Called Nam is about a ten-year-old Vietnamese refugee, his survival of the shipwrecking of his refugee boat, which kills everyone else on board, and his new life in Canada. To better understand the two literary works, a reader must examine the authors’ life in addition to the text.

A slave society, what could be called the “original sin”. The injustice that had to of been paid to form this new democracy, but even with the new freedom the black society would find this was just the beginning to there quest for their democratic equality. Proving that blacks struggling in a white society could suffer in many more ways than when on a plantation; with not just the physical abuse but mental. What hit them and their youth the most was financials, neglect, and the unrelenting irony of the place they considered home.

In A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the memoir offered a lesson about treating others the way you would want to be treated. The unfair way most of the white people treated black people was disgusting and had the roles been switched, these white people wouldn’t have respected this way of life either. The part of this memoir that had the biggest impact on me would be when Douglass described how exactly the slaves were treated and why they were treated this way. The way the author described the ways these innocent people were looked upon made me feel compassion to recognize people's’ feelings before I react to a situation. Douglass also influenced me to want to stand up for my beliefs and everything I do. He also helped me comprehend

Me as a 8th grader, I learned about most of my history and is soon to learn more. Now sense I’m African American I Know a little bit more of my history. After reading the life of Frederich Douglass, an American slave I realized that Frederich had been through a lot. He had a determine mindset to learn to read and learn about the immoral of slavery. He also realized that enslaver’s where criminals, and that if he was an animal he wouldn’t have any feelings and emotions.

Author C.S. Lewis in the Horse and the Boy provided the perfect statement about slavery, “But one of the worst results of being a slave and being forced to do things is that when there is no one to force you any more you find you have almost lost the power of forcing yourself”. One of the most important aspects of anybody’s life and also thought to be the meaning of life is, for everybody to what they want when they want as long as they are not hurting anybody else. A life spent playing by somebody else’s rules is simply a life not worth living. Slavery is one of the most disgusting parts of many parts of history and violates the right that every person on this earth is entitled to, the freedom of choice. Two of the most seminal and timeless pieces of literature written about slavery, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl written by Harriet Jacobs and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass both do a tremendous job of showing the harrowing effects of slavery. Jacobs and Douglass had to endure the hate of a society that despised their race and mistakenly encouraged the existence of slavery in society. These two stories present two different perspectives of people from the most oppressed groups in one of if not the darkest time in American history. Both stories while being incredibly dark and true to life, called for a change of the treatment of slaves and the black community and were able to show the true colors of slave owner’s warts and all. Slave owners had never been