In the reading by Fredrick Douglass called the Narrative of the Life, slavery was brought up a lot. In my opinion yes slavery was bad but that is the way the life was back then. Can we say that slavery is in the Romantic time? Well as stated here, “he would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave” (925). With this being pointed out we could say that yes it is talking about one slave, but he doesn’t mention on exact slave but he does talk about the individual group among with the rest of the world. So in a way we can say that slave in this time period was about of the Romantic period but was also apart of the Enlightenment, but it was opening the door up for the new society out reach. One other part of his reading would be, “ I told him as well as I could, for I scarce had strength to speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the side, and told me to get up” ( 953). We can see once again he is talking to one single person within a group. For Douglass to be able to pull some of the enlightenment period into the romantic period is great. What I mean by that is he takes a group of people, which are the slaves, but turns it into one person a single slave being taken advantage of when he is doing the work that he was told to do by his master. So yes Slavery would be apart of the Romantic period.
I agree that Douglass uses both Romantic and Enlightenment styles in his writing, and I also agree that slavery is more Romantic than Enlightened. I think that Douglass actually touches on the difference between Romantic and Enlightenment when he describes his feelings as he observes the ships on Chesapeake Bay. As he watches them he says, “You are loosed from your moorings, and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip!” (Douglass 952), both distinguishing himself as an individual, and also showing his separating from society as represented by the ships. I think that slavery is an inherently selfish institution (or ‘I’ centered), which subjects another person for personal profit; while freedom and equality are much more in line with Enlightenment, and the good of society as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI think Douglass uses both styles too. However, I think that slavery is more of an Enlightenment period characteristic because slaves were brought here to work hard and in a way make order out of chaos. They were forced immigrants that had no rights and were treated inhumanly by their masters. As Douglas writes, “I have said that this mode of treatment is a part of the whole system of fraud and inhumanity of slavery. “ (Douglass 956), and then he gives a perfect example: “For instance, a slave loves molasses; he steals some. His master, in many cases, goes off to town, and buys a large quantity; he returns, takes his whip, and commands the slave to eat the molasses until the poor fellow is made sick at the very mention of it.” (Douglass 956). I think the way slaves were treated in plain wrong and I’m glad there were people like Douglass to write their side of the story.
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