Abolition Research Essay:
Literature and Christianity
Abolitionism was a movement dedicated to ending the practice of slavery, along with the slave trade, with the additional goal of emancipating slaves. Although all abolitionists believed in these few goals, there were many other further goals that only some abolitionists shared, like ending racial discrimination and segregation. Although all abolitionists wanted to end slavery, they had very different reasons for wanting to do so, causing them to have very different end goals. So, the abolition movement was not very cohesive, causing it to be quite unsuccessful originally. However, the abolitionist movement and opposition to slavery in the United States grew in the nineteenth century because …show more content…
Covey] was a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom. My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place.” (Doc G) Once again, Frederick Douglass used extremely strong words, playing again on the theme of death. He used the words “resurrection,” “tomb,” and “heaven” which were all related to life and death, showing how horrible slavery was, while simultaneously juxtaposing enslavement with freedom to highlight the fact that slavery was an awful institution. Frederick Douglass’s autobiography was immensely powerful and influential due to the fact that it provided real-life evidence of the horrors of enslavement from a personal, first-hand point of view. By giving the readers examples directly from his own life, Douglass made the evidence indisputable and more reliable, as there was no way to disagree with him about his own life story of enslavement. Finally, the fact that Douglass had the courage to use real names for all the characters in his autobiography, including his own, made his story even more influential, as he held nothing back from the reader. At the time, it was very uncommon for runaway slaves to do this, as these details could facilitate the recapturing process. However, Douglass was true to his word, as he fully transformed from being “broken in body, soul, and spirit” to “bold defiance,” making his story even more …show more content…
This book, called Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was a classic piece of literature that achieved a huge audience and told the story of the struggles of another slave’s life, published in 1852. Document J depicts a poster advertising the book, specifically focusing on both the number of copies it sold and its price. The poster boldly stated that Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold 270,000 volumes, showing that it was extremely popular (Doc J). Even further, this poster was from 1859, which means that these 270,000 volumes were all sold within seven years, meaning that the book sold about 40,000 volumes per year, an extremely huge number (Doc J). Also, the fact that there was a poster advertising this book a full seven years after its publication shows that it was an extremely popular book that still applied to American society. Also, people still wanted to read Uncle Tom’s Cabin as they began to believe in abolitionism, because it was such an important piece of literature for the movement. On a slightly different note, the book was also extremely inexpensive, and therefore affordable to most people. The poster said: “An Edition for the Million, Complete In 1 Vol., Price 37 1-2 Cents” (Doc J). So, one could buy a volume of Uncle Tom’s Cabin for only 37.5 cents, an extremely low price. By making this book so inexpensive, it gained a more
Literature and Christianity
Abolitionism was a movement dedicated to ending the practice of slavery, along with the slave trade, with the additional goal of emancipating slaves. Although all abolitionists believed in these few goals, there were many other further goals that only some abolitionists shared, like ending racial discrimination and segregation. Although all abolitionists wanted to end slavery, they had very different reasons for wanting to do so, causing them to have very different end goals. So, the abolition movement was not very cohesive, causing it to be quite unsuccessful originally. However, the abolitionist movement and opposition to slavery in the United States grew in the nineteenth century because …show more content…
Covey] was a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom. My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place.” (Doc G) Once again, Frederick Douglass used extremely strong words, playing again on the theme of death. He used the words “resurrection,” “tomb,” and “heaven” which were all related to life and death, showing how horrible slavery was, while simultaneously juxtaposing enslavement with freedom to highlight the fact that slavery was an awful institution. Frederick Douglass’s autobiography was immensely powerful and influential due to the fact that it provided real-life evidence of the horrors of enslavement from a personal, first-hand point of view. By giving the readers examples directly from his own life, Douglass made the evidence indisputable and more reliable, as there was no way to disagree with him about his own life story of enslavement. Finally, the fact that Douglass had the courage to use real names for all the characters in his autobiography, including his own, made his story even more influential, as he held nothing back from the reader. At the time, it was very uncommon for runaway slaves to do this, as these details could facilitate the recapturing process. However, Douglass was true to his word, as he fully transformed from being “broken in body, soul, and spirit” to “bold defiance,” making his story even more …show more content…
This book, called Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was a classic piece of literature that achieved a huge audience and told the story of the struggles of another slave’s life, published in 1852. Document J depicts a poster advertising the book, specifically focusing on both the number of copies it sold and its price. The poster boldly stated that Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold 270,000 volumes, showing that it was extremely popular (Doc J). Even further, this poster was from 1859, which means that these 270,000 volumes were all sold within seven years, meaning that the book sold about 40,000 volumes per year, an extremely huge number (Doc J). Also, the fact that there was a poster advertising this book a full seven years after its publication shows that it was an extremely popular book that still applied to American society. Also, people still wanted to read Uncle Tom’s Cabin as they began to believe in abolitionism, because it was such an important piece of literature for the movement. On a slightly different note, the book was also extremely inexpensive, and therefore affordable to most people. The poster said: “An Edition for the Million, Complete In 1 Vol., Price 37 1-2 Cents” (Doc J). So, one could buy a volume of Uncle Tom’s Cabin for only 37.5 cents, an extremely low price. By making this book so inexpensive, it gained a more