Essay on the "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass"

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Essai sur une partie du roman "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass " écrit par Frederick Douglass sur l'esclavage (en anglais)

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[...] Nonetheless, at this time, slavery was still very present in the life of Americans. In the south, for example, about one-third of slaves constituted the southern population in the antebellum period. While in the north, in the 1770s and 1780s, a lot of states abolished slavery, so this raised a lot of tensions between the north and the south of the United States. Indeed, for the north, slavery was an evil institution, for them, slavery was not moral and ethical but in the south, they lived thanks to the slaves on their large plantations, so there were a lot of conflicts. [...]

[...] In the narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, the author makes a lot of descriptions about how is the behavior of the masters because he lived with them every day. Masters often owned many slaves (l76) and are depicted as monsters and savages "Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder" "He was a cruel man" (l82). They took pleasure to hit their slaves (l83). And the wife of the master was just like him and sometimes even more horrible (l53) because she is angry with children of the master while these kids are innocents. [...]

[...] For anti-slavery campaigners, the violence was one of the worst aspects of slavery. They said that owning slaves turned men into monsters. The violence was not the only thing that hurt the slaves, there was also the separation of their family when they were children. Frederick lived it, "my mother and I were separated when I was but an infant" (l20). Like Frederick said the purpose of this strategy was to put some distance between the mother and his child (l23). [...]

[...] But sometimes they can be part of the lucky ones who know who is their sister or brother and work with them on plantations, but any owner was free to sell brothers from sisters, husbands from wives, parents from children. Moreover, slave marriages and family ties were not recognized by American law. Many large slaveholders had numerous plantations and frequently shifted slaves, splitting families in the process without ever feeling an ounce of guilt. All of this make of Frederick Douglass an abolitionist who wants to change things. [...]

[...] "Frederick Douglass Biography", A&E Television Networks, April https://www.biography.com/people/frederick-douglass-9278324, Accessed 16 Dec Mettra, Mélanie, et al. Abraham Lincoln: The American Civil War and the Abolition of Slavery. 50Minutes.com NBC News.1800-1850s: Expansion of slavery in the U.S.,27 May 2008, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24714472/ns/us_news-gut_check/t/s-s-expansion-slavery-us/. Accessed 16 Dec Norton, Mary Beth, et al. A People and a Nation. International Edition Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass. [...]