Examples Of Defenders Of Slavery By Frederick Douglass

The False Claims of the Defenders of Slavery Back when there was slavery, people understood that owning people was wrong, but if they did not own people then the economy would fall apart. To make sure this is not happen, people came up with reasons to justify having slaves so they could save their economy. The defenders of slavery made the claims that slaves never complain and were happy, they had no human attachments, they had no desire for knowledge, and they had no inclination to work for themselves. However, Frederick Douglass challenges these defenses of slavery in two ways: The practice of slavery that accounts for the claim the defenders make and by telling real life examples. One defense Douglass challenges is the claim that people

Douglass brings to light the form in which slaveholders keep slaves from having a desire for knowledge. Judges in the slave communities made it a law that it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write. This made it almost impossible for slaves to learn to read or write. However, a few slaves learn to read and write, but it does have an effect on them. A slave that learns to read or write will “become unmanageable” and would do the slave “a great deal of harm” (42). This is true in Frederick Douglass’s case when he finds it easier to kill himself then to life with the knowledge of being a slave for life. Douglass does not only explain the reason that slaves have no desire to learn, but he gives real life examples of people who do want to learn. Douglass himself learns to read and write on his own after his mistress Mrs. Auld teaches him his ABC’s. He becomes determined to learn to read and write that he gets the younger white children to teach him to read by paying them with bread. Douglass then learns to spell by figuring out what the letters at a shipyard meant and conning young white boys into teaching him new words. Once Frederick Douglass learns to read and write, he gets other slaves interested in the knowledge of language. He starts his own Sabbath school and teaches the enthusiastic slaves to read and write. Frederick Douglass not only brought to

Frederick Douglass shows his reads how slaveholders are rigging the system to keep slaves from working or providing for themselves. During the holidays, slaveholders allowed their slaves to work for themselves, but it was highly discouraged by their slaveholders. However, drinking whiskey was extremely encouraged by slaveholders. It was actually consisted “a disgrace not to get drunk at Christmas” (95). The effects of drinking on the slaves were that they were happy to go back to work as a slave after the holidays. The slaveholders made them drink so much whiskey over the holidays that they felt awful about themselves and that freedom was just other form of slavery. Slaves learned on those holidays that that being free meant that they were to “be slaves … to rum” (97). However, Douglass does not only explain the reason that slaves have no inclination to work for themselves, but he gives real life examples of slaves who work and provide from themselves. When Douglass is finally free of slavery, he tries to find a job in the Free State. Frederick Douglass was willing to “do any kind of work I could get to do” just to provide for himself and his family (146). Douglass is even going to work “with a glad heart and a willing hand” (145). He is happy to be his own master and to be able to work for himself and his new family. Frederick Douglass