Master-slave morality

Levine’s Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of the Civil War is an incredibly complex and informative book that delves into the events leading up to the War, starting with the birth of the United States, and what really was behind it. The dulled down, simple view of the Civil War is thrown out the window. Levine does away with the notion of North is good and South is bad. He establishes that most of the North was against slavery due to economic reasons rather than issues of morality. In fact, the

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano exists as an extremely important work in the abolitionist movement in England. As an 18th century narrative written by a former black slave the novel provides a glimpse into the lives of the African slaves involved in the slave trade as well as the slave traders themselves. Even with the controversy over the authenticity of Equiano’s claims on his origin in Africa and his subsequent voyage through the Middle Passage, this novel serves as a powerfully

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

based on her implication of race and gender morality, Christianity and non-Christi-anity. To demonstrate her political opinion, Stowe makes her arguments in an emotional way. Stowe clari-fies herself as a partisan against the evil of slavery from all her implication and tone of description. The evil of slavery-treated human beings as property

Melton McLaurin’s book Celia, A Slave is the account of the trial, conviction, and execution of a female slave for the murder of her “master” Robert Newsom in 1855. The author uses evidence compiled through studying documents from Callaway County, Missouri and the surrounding area during the middle of the Nineteenth Century. Although much of what can be determine about this event is merely speculation, McLaurin proposes arguments for the different motives that contribute to the way in which many

Written in 1884 by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an American classic, and rightly so. The novel goes from being a historical account of culture after the Civil War, to a fictional piece, to critique of society. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a great example of satire through its ridiculing of the Civil War, denouncing the Christian moral irony, and the romanticizing of slavery. Mark Twain uses satire to ridicule the Civil War, which was fought because of moral differences

In the Genealogy of Morality, Friedrich Nietzsche took on a cardinal role in challenging traditional morality: a bid to provide a “critique of moral values” and an examination of “the value of these values”. Setting up his project as a ‘crusade’ against morality, Nietzsche set out simultaneous attacks on numerous targets such as Christian morality, utilitarianism, and the ethics of ‘compassion’, that make up much of our understanding of morality. This essay seeks to evaluate Nietzsche’s take on traditional

Throughout history, equality has been a political and social concept that has drawn controversy and confusion. The cleverest minds in time have debated what exactly equality is, and how it can be customized to faultlessly serve the purpose of the government, and therefore the state. Plato, Locke, and Nietzsche are just three of the philosophers that have contributed their thoughts for this topic. The multitude of differing opinions from philosophers on the political topic of equality and the state

labor, and morality of “saving” Africans from their previous lifestyle. The Southern states were notorious slave-holding states, while the North contained few, but far, slave-holders. Despite the number of slaves present in the south, their impact on production effected the economy in the north. The few but proud abolitionists in the north saw right through southerner’s proslavery ideology, and refuted their claims on the grounds of

Slavery and Freedom in William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” The subtly comedic interactions and juxtapositions between masters and slaves in William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” generate a question which has been the source of much controversy throughout history: are the hierarchical classifications “slave” and “free” reflections of a person’s fundamental nature, or are they social constructions based on bias and self-interest which have nothing to do with absolute truth? This question is crucial