- What is the significance of the information Douglass provides about the early years of his life?
- What does he mean, on p.238, when he describes the first whipping he witnessed as, “the blood-stained gate”?
- What have you learned from reading this narrative that you didn’t already know about slavery in America?
- Explain the significance of literacy for Douglass?
- How does Douglass feel about Southern Christianity? Why?
- Where does slavery persist in our own contemporary world? Give an example.
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Where does slavery persist in our own contemporary world? Give an example.
Slavery is still very much persistent all over the world in 2024. One example is the illegal “Artisinal” cobalt mines of the Democratic Repulic of Congo where freelance workers perform dangerous labor for only a dollar or two a day. In these Artisanal Mines men, women, and children as young as four years of age mine for cobalt with their bare hands Cobalt, which is used in batteries, is also toxic when touched or breathed in.
In the Congo, Militia has also been known to traffic children from surrounding areas so they can exploit them and have them work the illegal mines. Human trafficking is one of the greatest examples of modern-day slavery that exists. In 2018 The United States, Mexico and Philipines were among the worlds top three worst countries where human trafficking persists.
What have you learned from reading this narrative that you didn’t already know about slavery in America?
Even though I’m considered to be black I’ve only heard simple things like slaves were dehumanized and beaten if they defied their master. After reading these four chapters it really opened my eyes to what really happen. Now I understand it when people act the way they do about the N-word because not only were they beaten but beaten even more gruesomely then I ever imagined, honesty reading this gave me the feeling of a bad pit in my stomach. The eye opening thing I did not know was that the slaves believed that their master was a “kind master” the only reason they think this is because having a poor master meant that they were a “disgrace”. A person like me have always thought that the slaves had extreme hatred towards their master and that they might have made a group to combat them, now I’ve learned that the masters sent spy’s to make sure the slaves weren’t bad mouthing them, teaching the slaves that bad mouthing your master will get you chained up and sold off without a moments notice. Now I’m more interested in how they were able to overcome these challenges. They couldn’t be with family, get proper rest, get proper cloths, eat proper meals nor have feelings, it sounds like hell and I am grateful to have been born in the century in which I’m in. The imagery in this story was very vivid and truly stapled what really happened in my mind. Thanks professor for this graphic read.
Explain the significance of literacy for Douglass?
In his autobiography, Douglass emphasizes that literacy was “the pathway from slavery to freedom.
We learn that when he was moved to the Auld household, Sophia Auld unknowingly began teaching Douglass the ABCs up until Mr. Auld caught them. Mr.Auld tells Sophia that literacy would make a slave unfit, and that if you teach a slave how to read there would be no keeping him.
As Douglass states, “Those words sank deep into my heart” he starts to have this realization that is also filled with excitement. Douglass is now aware that the ability to read and write, which was stripped from him since birth will be how he can finally achieve freedom.
Explain the significance of literacy for Douglass?
Douglass quite literally equates literacy as a pathway to freedom, and perhaps even towards the white man’s power.
When told that a good slave is one that does not know how to read or write, and how much white people in general seemed to want to keep this knowledge from him, he saw this as a weak point in the hierarchy. To learn how to read and write, is learning how to finally become as free as a white man. He started to get excited, and taught himself in secret. Learning to become literate both enlightened and opened his mind to the world, and the possibilities that lay in it.
What have you learned from reading this narrative that you didn’t already know about slavery in America?
I think the appeal for reading a passage like this one that Fredric douglass wrote about his life as an american slave is that we are experiencing it from a different point of view. Many of us learn about slavery in grade school from the point of view from the future looking back at those times but reading this autobiograghy allows for us as the reader to experience it through his point of view, the point of view of a slave and his specific story. This allows for us to live through his emotions and unique experiences, as well as his rise as a freedom fighter against slavery. This also taught me about a more in depth about the harsh life that slaves had to live through.
Can you identify a specific idea or piece of information that you didn’t know before but learned from reading Douglass’ autobiography?
What does he mean, on p.238, when he describes the first whipping he witnessed as, “the blood-stained gate”?
I think what Douglass means with ” the blood-stained gate” is the entrance where the whippings from the masters would take place. I think he calls it blood stained because that is how it was, stained with the blood of people who were whipped until they bled.He describes it as the entrance to the hell of slavery as it was a passage that every slave goes through. For example, he mentioned that he was about to pass through it. Aunt Hester’s whipping brought Douglass to the reality of the slave system and its cruel treatment against slaves.
Explain the significance of literacy for Douglass?
For Douglass, becoming literate meant turning his life around. Frederick Douglass faced imaginable difficulties until he began to learn to read and he realized that a world with more information and more access was opening up to him. The literature about Fredrick Douglas meant not only intellectual freedom, but also physical, mental, and spiritual freedom. Approaching a literary field now as then only leads to opening new doors, we students today study to acculturate ourselves, to expand our wealth of knowledge, and then find better opportunities in the future, same thought had the author two centuries ago. Frederick Douglass sees in knowledge what was imaginable at that moment, he sees his freedom, he sees his escape route. Through his narration, the author transmits to us all his ideas, his stories, and his indelible memories of what he has experienced, and above all, through those pages he transmits his voice, and only thanks to literature has he learned that today we are still studying his works.
How does Douglass feel about Southern Christianity? Why?
Douglass mentions religious slaveholders being the worst of all other kinds. They carry out harsh punishments and immoral acts and justify their actions in the name of Christianity. I believe he thinks of them as hypocrites who are so pious yet still find pleasure in the mistreatment of other people. Mistreatment is un understatement, some religious slaveholders are outright inhumane. He says he believes in true and pure Christianity, but what’s happening at the South is neither true nor pure.
What is the significance of the information Douglass provides about the early years of his life?
The information that Douglass provides about his early years are extremely important not only for the historical value it offers, but because it a rare first person account of what it was to be a slave. Keeping what Douglass said about his early years in mind, I just find it crazy that from such a young age, he kind of had a realization of how different he was from other kid’s his age, in a way he was barely treated like a human. And from what we see in his years with Mr. Thomas/Mr. Covey, we see his journey on losing his humanity and then gaining it back again. In the present, we of course understand how cruel slavery was, but from Douglass’s writing, it’s almost like we are closer to understanding the feeling of being a slave.
Where does slavery persist in our own contemporary world? Give an example.
Slavery like how it was back in the 19th century is no longer around. Today we have something that is dubbed as Modern slavery. Modern slavery is when an “employer” overwhelms their workers with an ungodly amount of work for extremely low wages or no wages at all. The victims of modern slavery are threatened with violence, Have debt forced upon them, have their passports taken away, or are either threatened with deportation. For example, India is a big agriculture exporter and has an estimated 11 million people who are enslaved and are threatened to work in farms and factories
What does he mean, on p.238, when he describes the first whipping he witnessed as, “the blood-stained gate”?
I believe Douglass described the first whipping he sees as “the blood-stained gate”, as he saw it as his entrance into slavery. At that very moment of watching his aunt get whipped he began to understand the reality of his situation, and realized he was going to go through the same fate as his aunt. He recognized his status as a slave.
How does Douglass feel about Southern Christianity? Why?
Even though all slave owners are bad, Douglass especially feels more resentment toward religious slave owners, mainly because of how hypocritical they are. The southern slave owners prayed multiple times a day for good deed, yet they beat up slaves, and tortured them. It is unbelievable how one can be following a religion where sin exists, yet they keep committing multiple acts of sin. I think these slave owners pray to almost justify their acts of torture, and hopefully karma had come back to bite them.