“’You call me a black murderer. I am not a murderer. God is my witness that LIBERTY, not malice, is the motive of this night’s work. I have done no more to those dead men yonder, than they would have done to me in like circumstances. We have struck for our freedom, and if a true man’s heart be in you, you will honor us for the deed. We have done that which you applaud your fathers for doing, and if we are murders, so were they’” (Douglass 518).
As in Benito Cereno, The Heroic Slave targets white readers of the 19th century and forces them to view the black identity in a manner which transcends that of benevolent subservience and inferiority. In accomplishing this, Douglass slyly places the black slave and the white master on common
As in Benito Cereno, The Heroic Slave targets white readers of the 19th century and forces them to view the black identity in a manner which transcends that of benevolent subservience and inferiority. In accomplishing this, Douglass slyly places the black slave and the white master on common