The institution of slavery is a stain on the otherwise beautiful and brilliant history of fledgling America. What started as an underdog story, a glorious revolution for freedom, is forever marked by the oppression of people of color for hundreds of years in the young United States. The forefathers who started this revolution, the men who built this government will forever have tarnished their place in history by not extending freedom and liberty to all, no matter their complexion. On the other hand, the men who fought for the liberty of the oppressed, those were the good guys, those are the men whose legacy of doing the right thing, the courageous thing, will live on forever. Those men argued for the very lives of slaves, using the humanity of slaves, the law of the United States, and the own religion and morality of the oppressors.
One of the central themes of the abolitionist movement is simple: the humanity of the slaves. These were very obviously human beings in every aspect of biology, yet they were treated as animals, sometimes even less than the livestock. In Walker's letter, he states the slaves in the United States were the most "degraded, wretched, and abject" human beings to ever live on the Earth at that point in time. A common attribute of the arguments for abolition in the speech by Fredrick Douglas, and the letter written by David Walker is questioning why slaves must prove that they are men. Walker asks the pointed question to the American people and government, "Are we MEN?!" This question could not be directly answered by any slavery proponents of the day. To admit that slaves were people, and not a commodity, would be to admit their humanity and the wrong that was slavery, but they had already admitted for governmental purposes that slaves were people, or at least a fraction of one. The Three-Fifths compromise allowed slave owners to count their slaves as "three-fifths" of a person for the purposes of voting and making laws. Admitting that they were at least partially a person, is admitting in their own twisted way that slaves had humanity, because they didn't extend this compromise to cover their livestock to vote in their favor. Several of the abolitionists mention the government declaring foreign slave trade illegal was a concession to the brutality and inhumanity of interstate slave trade and slavery in general, but those for slavery would not admit it, and passed laws such as the Fugitive Slave Trade Law to continue the supply of human bodies. Walker and Douglas both point out the hypocrisy in agreeing foreign slave trade is inhumane, but accepting it within the states as if there is any difference. The most common theme throughout the works of Walker, Douglas, and Garrison are the questioning of the dearest held American value, liberty. There were several references made throughout the three abolitionist pieces to the Constitution of the United States, and the Declaration of Independence and the American revolution and its connection abolitionist movement. Fredrick Douglas opens his "What to the Slave is the 4th of July" comparing the tyranny of slavery to the tyranny of England on the American colonists prior to the American revolution. He concluded his masterful and heartbreaking illustration of American slavery informing America that their 4th of July did not belong to slaves, but that it was a reminder that they were "constant victims." He called the forefathers "imposters" and republicans "hypocrites" for their love and talk of liberty, while simultaneously using their political power and whiteness to oppress Americans of color, and referenced George Washington emancipating his slaves …show more content…
Slavers used the Bible to justify their oppression of people of color, but David Walker asks where in the Bible were slaves treated as animals, that even the Egyptians did not treat their slaves as badly as Americans did. He calls into question the morals of these so-called Christians, as Christianity was a religion of love and peace. There was no love and peace in the institution of slavery, only hate and brutality. Fredrick Douglas summed it simply with the phrase that slavery was "the great sin and shame of America," as he denounced slavery and its brutality and
One of the central themes of the abolitionist movement is simple: the humanity of the slaves. These were very obviously human beings in every aspect of biology, yet they were treated as animals, sometimes even less than the livestock. In Walker's letter, he states the slaves in the United States were the most "degraded, wretched, and abject" human beings to ever live on the Earth at that point in time. A common attribute of the arguments for abolition in the speech by Fredrick Douglas, and the letter written by David Walker is questioning why slaves must prove that they are men. Walker asks the pointed question to the American people and government, "Are we MEN?!" This question could not be directly answered by any slavery proponents of the day. To admit that slaves were people, and not a commodity, would be to admit their humanity and the wrong that was slavery, but they had already admitted for governmental purposes that slaves were people, or at least a fraction of one. The Three-Fifths compromise allowed slave owners to count their slaves as "three-fifths" of a person for the purposes of voting and making laws. Admitting that they were at least partially a person, is admitting in their own twisted way that slaves had humanity, because they didn't extend this compromise to cover their livestock to vote in their favor. Several of the abolitionists mention the government declaring foreign slave trade illegal was a concession to the brutality and inhumanity of interstate slave trade and slavery in general, but those for slavery would not admit it, and passed laws such as the Fugitive Slave Trade Law to continue the supply of human bodies. Walker and Douglas both point out the hypocrisy in agreeing foreign slave trade is inhumane, but accepting it within the states as if there is any difference. The most common theme throughout the works of Walker, Douglas, and Garrison are the questioning of the dearest held American value, liberty. There were several references made throughout the three abolitionist pieces to the Constitution of the United States, and the Declaration of Independence and the American revolution and its connection abolitionist movement. Fredrick Douglas opens his "What to the Slave is the 4th of July" comparing the tyranny of slavery to the tyranny of England on the American colonists prior to the American revolution. He concluded his masterful and heartbreaking illustration of American slavery informing America that their 4th of July did not belong to slaves, but that it was a reminder that they were "constant victims." He called the forefathers "imposters" and republicans "hypocrites" for their love and talk of liberty, while simultaneously using their political power and whiteness to oppress Americans of color, and referenced George Washington emancipating his slaves …show more content…
Slavers used the Bible to justify their oppression of people of color, but David Walker asks where in the Bible were slaves treated as animals, that even the Egyptians did not treat their slaves as badly as Americans did. He calls into question the morals of these so-called Christians, as Christianity was a religion of love and peace. There was no love and peace in the institution of slavery, only hate and brutality. Fredrick Douglas summed it simply with the phrase that slavery was "the great sin and shame of America," as he denounced slavery and its brutality and