Monthly Archives: March 2021
Assignment #8 Frederick Douglass
The most impression sentences of me are “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master–to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now,” said he, “if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy”. “I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty–to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom”. Douglass realized that how to get rid of slavery and being freedom. The most important way is to improve slaver’s social status, and the best way to raise their position is to be educated. If a slave understands how to read and write, he or she can propagandize by writing books or public how slavery inhuman such as Douglass himself. Or when they have enough knowledge of technology, their social status will be increase, and get more respect because they are more valuable than illiterate slaves. Douglass understands “the white man’s power to enslave the black man” because white man monopoly of knowledge and education, the black man doesn’t have the opportunity to study, which means the black people will not have a weapon to break their chains. I quite agree with this view. Between the 19th and 20th centuries, my country and people also suffering from famine, plague, war, and the imperialist invasion. Many people were trying to save themselves, they all chose to be international students. Once they finished their study, they came back to China and used their knowledge to construct our land. Because of that, I chose the same way with the revolutionaries. Knowledge is a weapon.
Assignment 8- Minahil Imtiaz
Reading this Narrative made me extremely sad and lose faith in humanity. It never occurred to me that in those times slaves were treated this cruelly more like animals by their fellow humans. As Fedrick Douglass tells us that he was deprived of one of the purest forms of love, his mother at a very tender age. It appears that slaves never got to experience any form of emotions or affection but only knew what punishments were, pleasing their masters were all they had known. As I skimmed through the chapters, the series of awful events witnessed by Fedrick spoke to me making me realize how important it was to put a stop to slavery. On page 11 the paragraph “…very many of their sleeping hours are consumed in preparing for the field the coming day; and when this is done, old and young, male and female, married and single, drop down side by side, on one common bed, — the cold, damp floor, — each covering himself or herself with their miserable blankets; and here they sleep till they are summoned to the field by the driver’s horn. At the sound of this, all must rise, and be off to the field. There must be no halting; every one must be at his or her post; and woe betides them who hear not this morning summons to the field; for if they are not awakened by the sense of hearing, they are by the sense of feeling: no age nor sex finds any favor. Mr. Severe, the overseer, used to stand by the door of the quarter, armed with a large hickory stick and heavy cowskin, ready to whip any one who was so unfortunate as not to hear, or, from any other cause, was prevented from being ready to start for the field at the sound of the horn.” After reading this paragraph I imaged what it would be like for us to be in their place and just by simply thinking about it I realized how they had to endure everything without saying a word. In these lines Fedrick drew a transparent picture of the struggles they had to go through, even after a long day of slavery they were still expected to set aside their own necessary chores like cooking and laundry to prepare for the upcoming day. There was no destined place for them to sleep on, they had to sleep on the hard floor even with all those bleeding bruises and sore bodies. They were treated as robots and expected to behave as such, dare if they may say, do or take a break they would be punished severely. Fedrick’s literacy style and syntax enhances the experience of its readers and makes them wonder what it might would have been like, drawing attention to struggles that have been overshadowed.
Assignment # 8
“Before he commenced whipping Aunt Hester, he took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back, entirely naked. He then told her to cross her hands, calling her at the same time a d—-d b—-h. After crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong rope, and led her to a stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose. He made her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to the hook. She now stood fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes. He then said to her, “Now, you d—-d b—-h, I’ll learn you how to disobey my orders!” and after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor. I was so terrified and horror-stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet.”
This passage just demonstrates one of the incidents that got written down by Fredrick Douglass. This is just an incident that we have been told of, imagine how many people suffered the same fate. The slave owners did not care if they were whipping slaves in front of their children begging for mercy as that begging feeded the barbaric souls of the slave owners. This passage shows that this whipping and blood dripping had become a common practice for the slaves.
It reveals that at a young age he had to see these horrid scenes and by the time he got old he got accustomed to it. Seeing these things since childhood can affect a child in many ways, one of those ways could be for the child, in our case Fredrick Douglass would be to see these things happening to be normal. Yes he didn’t become numb but he knew it was inevitable so he wasn’t holding on to some false hope.
The way Douglass narrated this whole scene in his narrative shows that he was just writing about any other days as this passage lacks emotion. He describes this horrifying scene so casually cause for him it did become a normal thing. On top of that, he saw this incident as a kid and by the time he learned how to read and write, he had seen so many worse things happening to people that this incident just made it to the top but it was nothing out of the ordinary for him.
Why did they have to be so cruel when the work slaves were asked to do was done. Why did he have to torture her in front of a child. Where was human decency. And most importantly who came up with the idea of racism that oh because they are of a darker skin they don’t get to have rights, who started all of this. And so many more questions cause this whole narrative is so troubling.
Assignment #8 Simran Sharif
A quotation that I choose from the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas that had a strong impression on me is “After a patient waiting, I got one of our city papers, containing an account of the number of petitions from the north, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and of the slave trade between the States. From this time I understood the words abolition and abolitionist, and always drew near when that word was spoken, expecting to bear something of importance to myself and fellow-slaves. ” This quotation stood out to me because the people were waiting for petitions to get signed to stop slavery and handed the petitions to Washington DC to put an end to slavery. Frederick Douglas was fighting for abolition to end slavery permanently and he was fighting for his slaves and giving them the rights they deserve. This passage adds to our understanding of slavery is slavery was a difficult time in history and people just worked days and night as slaves in very bad conditions. The literary style Frederick Douglas uses in this reading is diction and syntax by describing the horrible conditions of being a slave and the tone of how the slaves were feeling and how hard it was for them being slaves. When I was reading the reading I can picture in my head the slaves working in bad conditions. The reading contains a lot of imagery by describing how the slaves are feeling and how their slave owner was treating them as slaves. He wants the reader to understand the slaves working conditions and it is not easy being a slave.
Assignment 8 Part.I
“The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was. heard in every sound, and seen in everything. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition….It looked from every star, and it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm” —
- This passage gives an insight on how knowledge about the world and literature had given Douglass a hope. By not teaching slaves how to read and write, slaveholders wanted to restrict their minds about their situations and wanted their minds t0 be consumed with labor. It’s ironic that America was founded on the idea of freedom, however, slaves were restricted to that freedom and shows that slavery in America was a period of time when America let go of their own principles.
- It reveals that Frederick Douglass’s perspective on the world had changed and he realized his horrifying condition about slavery. Since he had gained knowledge through reading and writing, it had become his strength and weakness. He was going through a very challenging, therefore, freedom was his only hope to survive and fight the battle.
- In terms of Frederick Douglass’s literary style, he uses a lot of imagery to familiarize readers with the situation. When he describes how freedom was with him every situation, connecting it with the wind, and storm, it shows how important it was for him to survive. Also, his writing is very straightforward which makes readers understand every detail he is trying to convey. It feels like reading a personal diary of someone since it’s very transparent about his journey as a slave and justifies the title of his book.
Group 1 – Frederick Douglass
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By: Zijie, Sadia, and Yessenia
Assignment #8 Fiona Persaud
During the reading a quotation that made a strong impression on me was, “I have said my master found religious sanction for his cruelty… I have seen him tie up a lame young woman, and whip her with the heavy cow skin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of the Scripture— ‘He that knoweth his master’s will, and does it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.’” Reading this struck out to me because I found it gruesome that someone was using the Scripture as an excuse to tie a woman up for hours and excessively whip her, especially since she was burned so badly and couldn’t even use her hands. A question that raised for me when reading this was, “How can this be considered something that is morally and religiously accepted?” Religion is supposed to guide people into making the right choices, however, this master is using it as an excuse to do damage instead. This passage made me think that perhaps the masters were brainwashed into committing these hate crimes thinking that it was okay to do because it’s what everyone else was doing at the time. I don’t see how such a large amount of people could justify the atrocities they were committing. Frederick’s literary style tells me that he was very much literate and had been reading for a while because his writing is well put together. I found it easy to read and it contained a lot of voice and imagery inside. The way he describes certain situations are extremely gruesome, but I know it’s because he wants the reader to imagine what it was like to be in that situation. I felt like he was almost having a conversation with the reader which also made it easy to trust him.
Zijie Lu
when I first time reading this article I feel so miserable, on page six the paragraph said ” He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin. ” This paragraph made me have more influence for slavery, how the people treat slavery during that time period, how people are so cruel to people, even its slavery but also so cruel to them, I never know the people treat slavery was that bad. I think from here he has some thing in his mind, that he really want to stop the slavery period, he really need to do something to end this thing. I think his diction, syntax, and literary style will help the reader read more clearly, can help the reader know what he is trying to say, and he explain so clearly so people can continue to read and understand him. One question I have after reading this paragragh is why such people treat slavery that bad, they are also human, why have so many difference, why the slavery have so many discrimination, they are also human, why such big difference between people and people. I feel real miserable for them.
Assignments – Week #8
- Reading – This week, we are reading Frederick Douglass’s autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (in its entirety) as well as a short excerpt from Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. You can find a link to the Jacobs reading under the “Readings” tab at the top of the blog.
- I have recorded a brief introduction to the reading which you can access HERE. Use the Passcode: x#K6x#x# to access the recording. After watching the video, please share a comment on this post offering one possible motive a slave or former slave might have for writing his/her autobiography. Please share your comment by Monday, March 22nd.
- Choose a passage or quotation from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass that made a strong impression on you in your reading. Post the passage on our class blog and provide a brief (300 word) analysis of its significance. Some things to consider: What does this passage add to our understanding of slavery in America? What does it reveal about Frederick Douglass? What do Douglass’ diction, syntax, and literary style add to his story here? What questions are raised for you by the passage you’ve selected? Please share your response as a “new post” (not as a comment on this post), and include your name in the title of the post. Your post must be up by Wednesday, March 24th in order to receive full credit. Please be prepared to share your passage during our zoom call on Wednesday.
- After reading the excerpts from Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl that I have linked to on our “Readings” page, please compose a two-part response post. Your post must be shared by Sunday, March 28th.
- First, what does Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl add to our understanding of the experience of slavery? How does this narrative connect to or differ from Douglass’? (As you read Jacobs’ description of her attic hiding spot, which she refers to as a “loophole of retreat,” keep in mind that she remained in this hiding place for seven years!)
- Second, please address the following prompt: Although slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865, slavery in various forms continues to be an important Human Rights issue even in our own day. Spend some time exploring the topic of contemporary slavery on the internet, and share three important things that you learn about this subject.
5. Office Hours: I will be holding regular office hours on Monday. You can sign up HERE. This is a good opportunity to meet with me about your essay!
6.. Essays Due: Your paper must be submitted to me as a Google Doc by Friday, March 26th. Please share it with [email protected]. While your essay itself should have an engaging title, please give the file the generic title: Your Name. ENG2850 Essay 1. (As I indicated earlier, you have the option of submitting the essay as late as Sunday, March 28th, but I would encourage you to get it done by the 26th in order to enjoy an unburdened Spring Break.)
Assignment #2 – Art illustration
This art print by William Blake caught my attention in the way that there are two men explicitly hurting the man in the middle. This suffering the man must be experiencing from the abuse of these two men reminds me of the poem “The Chimney Sweeper” as in the poem Blake speaks on the suffering done by having to work at such a young age which can be seen as exploitation. In addition, the poem, says how children are forced to pretend happiness as their parents are at church praying and praising the leaders in charge of this abuse.
