The Voice of Freedom The autobiography of Frederick Douglass My Bondage and My Freedom is one of the major abolition works that influenced the views of Douglass contemporaries. Frederick Augustus Washington Douglass (Bailey) was one of the most prominent American abolitionists of nineteenth century. He was born in in Tuckahoe, Maryland approximately in 1817. Being born in slavery, Frederick Douglass escaped from his owners, moved to New York and changed his surname from Bailey to Douglass. In New Bedford, Massachusetts, Douglass participated in Anti-Slavery meetings and became an abolitionist and human rights orator. My Bondage and My Freedom was written in 1855.
This work is one of the three autobiographic books, written by Frederick Douglass. It exposes the harsh reality of slavery. Frederick Douglass served in many government positions as U.S. minister and consul general to Haiti, using his power to defend human rights, including slaves and woman All of his life as a free man Douglass dedicated to the idea of abolitionism and on his own example he showed enslaved people that they should not bear the horrors of their situation. “What was possible for me is possible for you. Do not think because you are colored you cannot accomplish anything. (Douglass, Americas Story Website) The main purpose of writing My Bondage and My Freedom was the authors aim to draw attention of society to the problem of slavery. I saw myself wielding my pen, as well as my voice, in renovating the public mind, and building up a public sentiment which should, at least, send slavery and oppression to the grave.
The Essay on Rhetorical Analysis of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
Rhetorical Analysis of “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass wrote many autobiographies, editorials, and speeches. His greatest piece is probably the book Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass. In this book he talks about his life as a slave and he makes numerous arguments against slavery. Upon a closer reading, Douglass, by metaphors and ...
(Douglass, p. 278) The author tells that at his time people were well aware of the situation with slavery, they knew the stories of the slave owners mistreating or killing their slaves. The author wants to make the white population of America to acknowledge the problem, to make them understand that slavery is not natural and not human. Douglass exposes the Jim Craws Law and attends restricted public places. Douglass wants the voters and the politicians to accept slaves as humans, not property, and allow them their rights: the constitution of the United States not only contained no guarantees in favor of slavery, but, on the contrary, it is, in its letter and spirit, an anti-slavery instrument. (Douglass, p. 281) The author stresses, that according to the constitution, all people are equal, but this equality does not affect slaves, because they are not considered humans, not considered the citizens of the free country. Bondage and freedom are key words in the book. Bondage is the reality of slavery institution. Douglass gives day-by-day account of slave life from the moment of birth to the moment of death and reveals that every moment of existence is accompanied with physical and moral sufferings. I have never placed my opposition to slavery on a basis so narrow as my own enslavement, but rather upon the laws of human nature, every one of which is perpetually and flagrantly violated by the slave system.
(Douglass, p. 3) According to the law, the children of a slave mother were considered slaves despite the fact that the owners were fathered many slave children. This was the first fact that dissuaded Douglass in deity of the slavery. The children of the same father could not be slaves and masters, only human legislation instilled such inequity. The life of slaves was the constant hunger, cold, labor and beating. They usual practice was to part slaves with their families and sell members of the families to different owners.
The Essay on Meaning to Human Life
Is there any meaning to human life? After listening to the first two lectures I gathered what I felt to be Professor Amrbosio’s definitions of the hero and the saint. I took notes and after going back through and reading them it helped me to put a few things together. He asks the question about whether or not human existence is meaningful or absurd. We live in a hostile and deadly environment so ...
The author tells many stories when the owners beat their slaves to death. The perpetrator received no punishment, because killing a slave was not a crime. The common saying of that time described the whole horror of the situation: “worth but half a cent to kill a nigger, and a half a cent to bury him.” (Douglass, p. 89) The last days of the slaves who were not shot or beaten to the death were also very sad. Douglasss grandmother, who labored for all of her life on the farm and gave many children and grandchildren to the owners, was left to die alone in the remote hut. Douglass reveals that slavery corrupted not only the slaves, but their owners too. The power that slave owners held over the lives of another people made their souls dead and turned even the kindest persons into harsh and evil.
The author tells the story of his life in Baltimore and his owner Mrs. Sophia Auld, who had never been a salve owner until she married to the family of slave owners. At the beginning, her attitude towards her slaves was kind, she cared fro them and even taught Douglass to read. I soon learned to regard her as something more akin to a mother, than a slaveholding mistress. (Douglass, p. 100) As the time passed and Mrs.
Auld learned the taste of power, her attitude changed. These facts reveal the truth about slavery, which is more impressive them all beating and humiliation. Slaves were commonly considered not humans, the property, and they were treated as such. At the end this situation turned against their owners, it corrupted their souls and robbed them of moral qualities, making them not human. Ironically, slave owners got into their own trap: they tried to deprive their kins of humanity (we should not forget, that many slave owners were fathers and siblings of their slaves) and they were loosing their own humanity. Douglass also held a strong view on slavery and Christianity. Throughout his book he calls out many slave owners as hypocrites who preached the kind and humane gospel of Christianity.
Douglass stresses the danger of slavery for the society, where moral and Christian values crushed under the power of superiority and permissiveness. Conscience cannot stand much violence. It may be broken toward the slave, on Sunday, and toward the master on Monday. (Douglass, p. 107) The themes of corruptive nature of the slavery accent the next major issues of the book, freedom. Every sad fact of slavery pushed Douglass to the idea of freedom. From chapter to chapter, the idea of escape in the heart of the narrator is more vivid and strong.
The Review on Frederick Douglass A Fight For Freedom
... his second autobiography. Liberty and Slavery Contrasted! Ready August 15.MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM By Frederick Douglass (Note on the texts), ... because many people in America still feel repressed, if not oppressed. The desire for freedom consumes all the slaves in Narrative ... autobiography happens to the title character. Douglass and Uncle Toms usually kind owners become so desperate for money, they ...
Every new event in Douglasss life, every new encounter pushes him towards the escape. This is ironic that such a great number of people in the free country dreamed of freedom. The author presents himself as a person from the beginning of the book to the end, he reveals, that slaves acknowledge themselves as humans and they are ready to fight for their rights. The book My Bondage and My Freedom was written for attracting attention of people of education and weight who could influence the changes in the political system of the country. Douglass was well aware that white and educated society would look down on his work. “A wood- sawyer” offering himself to the public as an editor! A slave, brought up in the very depths of ignorance, assuming to instruct the highly civilized people of the north in the principles of liberty, justice, and humanity! (Douglass, p. 279) The low opinion of slaves was wide spread all over the country in the times when Douglass wrote his autobiography, in the North as well as in the South.
The author was aware of the fact, that public will not welcome his intrusion into the problems with slavery, especially while he was the recent uneducated slave himself. Still, Douglass believes in his work. I thought that an intelligent public, knowing my early history, would easily pardon a large share of the deficiencies which I was sure that my paper would exhibit. (Douglass, p. 279) The author believes in progressive educated people, among those people were his friends, who helped him to rise money for his liberation. My Bondage and My Freedom reveals that the recognition of the slaves as people was an irreversible process.
On the example of his own autobiography, Douglass showed that within physical and mental constraints slaves could find strength to recover their conscience and fight for freedom. Besides, the enslaved people achieved more and more supporters among educated people who fought for their rights. My Bondage and My Freedom, which had been written not long before the Civil War introduced many facts showing that people would gather against the slavery institution. Douglass successful escape and following liberation was the result of efforts of many people who participated in his destiny. The author calls for the public, for the authorities to give slaves their rights before they came and took those rights themselves. Bibliography Douglass, Frederic.
The Essay on Frederick Douglass Slave Slaves Life
The institution of American slavery was fraught with many heart wrenching tails of inhuman treatment endured by those of African descent. In his autobiography Frederick Douglass details the daily horrors slaves faced. In Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave he depicts the plight of slavery with such eloquence that only one having suffered through it could do. Douglass ...
My Bondage and My Freedom. University of Illinois Press, 1987. Meet Amazing Americans. Americas Library Website. 12 Apr. 2005. .
