Frederick Douglass Dehumanized Essay

Great Essays
Essay 2:Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass
The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass gives an idea about African Americans slavery in both the city and also the rural area. Frederick Douglass himself went through these types of slavery and in his book, the lecture is getting a first person perspective about slavery and why it should be abolished. There are several reasons for why Douglass believed slavery should be abolished, but the main reason is the fact that slavery was dehumanizing people, both the slaveholders as well as the slave themselves.
For Douglass, everything started making sense when he witnessed his aunt Hester being beaten as an animal because she didn’t followed instructions given to her by her master. From that precise moment little Douglass understood that he himself was also a slave and the only wrong he had done was to be born black. In his book Douglass is showing how women are beatean treated for less than humans. They are being rapped or forced to bear children for their master so that the number of slaves can increase for the only profit of the master. As shown and described by
…show more content…
Slavery did not only destroy black people slaves, but it also dehumanized the slaveholders. They could not act or do things like normal human beings, but they turned to demonic beings that hold other people under them and marched over their head just because they did not share the same skin color. Frederick Douglas who was himself a slave since his coming into the earth, he tried to be the exception and free himself then help his fellow to freedom as well. He was able to do so because he persevered and finally escaped from his masters and became a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In chapter six From Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass , Douglass focuses on how slavery has affected not just the slaves, but also the slave-owners themselves. In addition, he explains how slavery changes people behaviors. Also, he talks about women. He analyze White women in general and then talks about Sophia specifically. He think that all people are victims in slavery, but they are different in the degree of suffering.…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Frederick Douglass argues in his narrative that slavery dehumanizes both the slave and the slave master generating a dependency for each other. For slave’s, this dehumanization came in the form of having their name, culture and personal identity stripped away from them and for the slave master, the inability to function when deprived of slave assistance. In this essay, I will use Frederick Douglass’s narrative; along with, first-hand accounts to demonstrate how both the slave and the slave master became dehumanized through the institution of slavery. Using Frederick Douglass’s narrative, I will explain how slaves became exploited for cheap labor by the slave master creating a society depended on slaves.…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, Douglass wants readers to understand how the power of knowledge was key to overcoming the terrible tribulations of slavery. Countless of times Douglass thought acquiesce was the only was he was going to make it though slavery alive. Instead the thought of freedom was overpowering. With the use of imagery, symbolism, and situational irony, he shines light on his unimaginably, gruesome, dehumanizing experience as a slave; allowing readers to undergo his journey to becoming educated with him.…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Narrative of The Life of Fredrick Douglass effectively shows readers the hardships slaves had to live with on the road to freedom. From the faulty idea of a “romantic southern image” to the unfortunate slave-on-slave betrayal, Douglass debunks these ideas and blames them for the inability to improve the slave’s well-being and the societal ignorance regarding southern conditions. Several epiphanies, such as his new knowledge of the north and realization of slavery’s malice, motivated Douglass and filled his heart with determination to focus his train of thought towards freedom. Despite the many difficulties, he made it there. Douglass rebukes the romantic image of slavery by using vivid imagery to describe the horrors of his everyday situations…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    At the beginning of Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass faces racial segregation, especially in education. Douglass isn't allowed basic information, like who his father could be, because he is born a slave. Observing a lifetime of wrongdoings, Frederick Douglas writes his life story from the perspective of a self-taught slave as an argument to all of those who support slavery, his argument is that slavery is wrong. Frederick Douglass makes his argument compelling by exposing the means of knowing; and revealing education as the great equalizer; in the absence of education and knowledge enslavement is fostered while to enslave, its unnatural tendencies require instruction.…

    • 1558 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fredrick Douglass’s Narrative written by himself is one of the best books of the 19th century to shine light on the cruelty and injustice of slavery. Not only does he use his experience to portray the unfortunate life of a slave but also other slaves that he encountered and even later tried to escape with. He also expresses how slaves were looked down upon and why the slave owners thought the way they did about slaves. His experience growing up on a plantation is what exposed him to the extreme racism that occurred in the life of every slave. This treatment later resulted in his escape and freedom.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Phoebe Wolfe Professor Neary ENGL 399.96: Race and Visual Culture 10/30/2014 Frederick Douglass’s Demolition and Reconstruction of Visual Codification The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass exemplifies the complexities and paradoxes involved in the genre of the slave narrative. While, at many points in the narrative, Douglass appears to be merely conforming to the standard requirements of the slave narrative genre, the subtleties and intricacies of his work challenge both common characterizations of slaves and the narrative conventions themselves. By appropriating the very mechanisms and tropes that readers expected of him, Douglass retools traditional techniques to illustrate his specific account of slavery and to assert his humanity.…

    • 1748 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Franklin Douglass is a prominent figure in history. That’s perhaps due to a misfortune of being born as a slave, but eventually gets free and becomes one of the most prominent figures in history. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, this tale expresses inequality, education and freedom that even exist during slavery. This book informs first-hand what is like to be a slave, the conditions, and any circumstances that people of color have to endure by the same species. The three things I learned that I did not know before reading this book are the reason slaves are forbidden to learn, slaves’ behavior and how impoverish white children act toward the slaves.…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, reads an incredible story of one man’s struggle to become a free from the bonds of slavery. Experiencing his hardships and celebrate his triumphs along the way, the story saddens you with the cruelty of humans, but leaves you crying for joy. Written to prove a well-educated black man was indeed a slave and even with a life riddled with trials and tribulations he roses above and succeeded in obtaining his dream of being a freeman. Fredrick Douglas was born a slave and as a small child he was unable to work in the fields and spent a lot of his days wondering around the plantations where he lived.…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He drew me into his narrative with informing the reader of everything from whipping to being separated from your mother when you were an infant, not having a last name or even a birthday. Slavery in a synopsis is being taken from your family to work without pay, without necessities like proper clothes and food, and being maltreated for little to nothing. Many enslaved women were raped by the masters, Douglass’s mother being an example. They had to bear children, who they didn’t get to see after they were born, by a man they despised.…

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Frederick Douglass’s use of his personal meanings of slavery and freedom in his writing were exercised to hasten the abolition of slavery in American society in the 19th century. Frederick Douglass defined slavery as a permeating system of oppression and abuse that is forced upon people of color, in such a way that they cannot fully understand the atrocity or determine ways to overcome it. Douglass made a very strong argument that a slave’s lack of knowledge is the reason for the…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As humans we go through great deal of thoughts and emotions that are cemented forever in our brains. No matter the change in our lives we will remember and we don’t forget the worst that we go through, but we use it as motivation and to change others. Douglass and many other slave’s stories are the remnants that legitimately tells us how slavery was and how they experienced the feeling that they did. Douglass’s argument in these paragraphs were that the cruelty and lengthy hours of work and never ending pain that comes with it, breaks down who you are as a person. Douglass lays out in the opening that the work was unbearable and at times the slaves would hope for it to rain, blow, hail, or snow, too hard for them to work in the field but they never stopped working.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Myths of Slavery Rewrite In the famous narrative, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass himself addresses the negativity and effects slavery. He elaborates this thought through the various terrors he experiences and explains throughout his life as a slave. Douglass’ main belief is that only through education can freedom for black society be obtained. Douglass’ determination to no longer live the life of an ignorant uneducated slave led to his conviction and utmost desire for liberation.…

    • 1163 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Specifically, in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by himself, Douglass emphasizes the lack of moral standards and hypocritical beliefs slaveholders held using examples of dehumanizing acts…

    • 1820 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Frederick Douglass was one of the most influential abolitionists of 19th century America. His main purpose in writing his narrative was to rebuke the romantic image of slavery in the antebellum south. For decades, southerners and northerners would create reasons for rationalizing the institution of slavery. Through his narrative, Douglass convinces Americans of the true conditions of slavery by including characters that contradict the romantic image of slavery, proving that slaves are intellectually capable, and explaining why slaves are disloyal. Douglass includes many figures from his early life in his narrative that portray an accurate depiction of the horrific life of a slave.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays