In The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass How Do The Functions Of Race And Gender Allow For An Authentic Identity Of Self?

p The Role of Race and Gender inFrederick Douglass Narrative of the lifespan of FrederickDouglass : An American SlaveThe role played by race and sex in the lives of African buckle d testifys in the 19th Century is comminuted to deriveing the history of slavery itself . As Yarborough points out , slaves were electrostatic human and had the corresponding judgements and feelings as others , this included opinions and attitudes about(predicate) the nitty-gritty of femininity and masculinity as well as what it meant to be an African American slave had (Yarborough 1991 :167 One of the fore approximately thinkers in the exploration of the role that race and gender played in slaver was author , editor and abolitionist Frederick Douglass . Douglass s life as a slave led him to a much diametric understanding of pitch-black masculinity than that typically portrayed in American literature at the timeIn his autobiography Narrative of the carriage of Frederick Douglass (Douglass :2001 ) Frederick Douglass describes his life growing up as a slave and the denigration and humiliation he felt when he was disrespected by White custody due(p) to his race . Douglass also describes how he was perceived as different from the other black slaves due to the fact that he was mulatto .

According to Yarborough , this was typical of the feelings of Black manpower during the slavery years of the 19th century While Black wo manpower for the most part met the Victorian ideals of femininity , Black men were not discriminaten as meeting the Victorian ideals of masculinity (Yarborough : 1991 :169As Douglas comes to understand the climate of oppression and hostility that causes White men to see Black men as so much little than they he states I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty - to wit , the white man s queen to enslave the black man (Douglas : 2001 :60 ) Black men were seen as less intelligent and creative than white men , and they were not seen as being capable of higher thought . This pattern of thinking led many including Douglass to begin developing plans to fight for their freedom , either by running out-of-door , or by other means such as saving money from contracted work to purchase their own freedomAccording to Yarborough , manhood comes to stand for the spiritual commodity that one mustiness maintain in the face of oppression in to rescind losing a sense of self value (Yarborough : 1991 167 ) Douglass thorough the parade of learning to read and write learns this sense of self worth , and he never perceives the world in quite the same way Douglass despairs as he is sold to the meanest of slave owners , and mystify little better than a bottom rung make hand . Douglass states of this tie My natural elasticity was crushed , my judgement languished the disposition to read departed , and the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died the dark night of slavery closed in upon me and behold a man transformed into a zoology (Douglass : 2001 :79 ) He feels that he is...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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