The Importance Of Dehumanization In Narrative, By Frederick Douglass

In his Narrative, Frederick Douglass evidently exposes the barbaric and treacherous abuse that blacks endured during the period of slavery. He argues that the inferiority or the non-subject status of slaves was in result of blacks being denied the basic concepts that any other human would obtain in order to construct a legitimate self-identity. Douglass viewed himself as a subject rather than an object and emphasized the importance of utilizing one’s self identity as a pivotal tool against suppression and dehumanization. Douglass’s famous line, "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man,"(Douglass 64) conceivably illustrates how slaves were perceived as non-humans because they were not treated or represented as such, and not in fact because they were biologically insubordinate, as Jefferson arguably claimed in his Query 14 doctrine. In this essay, I will analyze Jefferson’s dehumanizing portrayal of slaves by employing Douglass’s moral ideology from his Narrative.
Douglass emphasizes the dehumanization aspect of slavery …show more content…
Jefferson’s biased judgment towards blacks was evidently mentioned throughout his doctrine and “real distinctions which nature has made” must be abided