Douglas handful of slave narratives are analysis

Autobiography, Personal Narrative, Communion, Frederick Douglass

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To illustrate his point in the speech, Douglass also uses narrative approaches similar to the types he uses in his autobiography. Douglass explains to a story showing how a minister had each of the black users of the congregation stand by the doorway while the whites received the communion. The minister implied that it was The lord’s order that blacks be treated by doing so. In another anecdote, Douglass clarifies that to racist Christian believers the Kingdom of Heaven can be “like a net, inch that leaves out people that have “black scales. ” Douglass describes a story of a small black girl who received holy Accord. The deacon reluctantly passed the cup to the dark-colored girl, but the white girl next to her stormed out of the church. “When the cup containing the precious blood which had been shed for a lot of, came to her, she rose in contempt, and strolled out of the chapel. Such was your religion she had experienced! ” Just as Frederick Douglass criticizes the usa for supporting slavery within a supposedly free of charge and just contemporary society, he as well criticizes Christianity for supporting slavery underneath the supposed rubric of love and universal brotherhood.

In Section 7 of his autobiography, Douglass clarifies how this individual taught him self how to examine and publish. The part also address the philosophical and political role that education takes on. Education is one of the main reason how come whites have the ability to subjugate blacks and carry on and scourge of slavery. Douglass shows how his Mistress actually desired to teach him how to browse, but was afraid of retribution. The prohibition of education enabled slavery to carry on, and also allowed whites to accuse blacks of being uninformed and therefore inferior. Douglass echoes this discussion in his conversation to the Plymouth County Anti-Slavery Society in 1841. He states, “You degrade all of us, and then ask why our company is degraded – you closed our mouths, and then question why all of us don’t speak – you close the colleges and seminaries against us, after which ask how come we how to start more. inches

Douglass’s writings and messages reveal a conscious usage of rhetoric inside the abolition movements. Relying mostly on personal anecdotes, Douglass uses his ethos to convince followers that slavery is more inhumane than they would have got imagined. The stories a part of his life are filled with gross detail, including rapes and bloody beatings. Also audience users who believed Douglass could be exaggerating or perhaps lying are left with the photographs in their heads. Douglass as well uses reasoning and solennité to influence readers that slavery is definitely categorically incorrect. By pointing out the hypocrisies inherent in supporting captivity, Douglass can convince nearly every listener. Not on sensible nor upon religious grounds can captivity possibly be looked after. The communication seems like good sense in the 21st century, nonetheless it was not therefore in the nineteenth century.

References

Douglass, N. (1841). The church and prejudice. Talk delivered on the Plymouth County Anti-Slavery World, November 4, 1841. Recovered online: http://www.frederickdouglass.org/speeches/index.html

Douglass, N. (1845). Story of the Existence of Frederick Douglass, a north american Slave. Recovered online: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Douglass/Autobiography/

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