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Greenberg and Douglass on Slavery Even though Kenneth Greenberg and Frederick Douglass belonged to the different epochs of literature, these two writers are united by the same theme in their writings. The Honor and Slavery of Greenberg provides a thoughtful insight to the slavery past of the United States through the prism of historic understanding of those events. And the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by the second author, is an autobiographic work of a slave who lived in the middle of the nineteenth century and had a possibility to eyewitness the happening by himself. In their works, both authors are particularly concerned with the social trends and conditions, which led to such a state when one single nation has been divided into two different and contrary regions the North and the South, and more to it two opposite societies. The situation, when one part of people is progressed and democratic, and the other is still living in the slave-owning system is interesting to both writers.
In his autobiographical work Frederick Douglass presents to us a period of the American history that virtually every citizen of the United States is ashamed of. The author, in such a way that it horrifies the reader, expresses a revealing picture of American slavery. Douglass way of narrative allows the reader to feel authors pain and pity of terrible past. Douglass writing is an attempt of the author to express his personal point of view on the deeds of the past time. Frederick Douglass views his past through the prism of wisdom, which comes only with life experience.
The author does not blame anyone in his work; he is rather concerned with the idea of why did all of that happen? What are the drives of the society that were present at those times? Douglass examines the hatred of the slavery by introducing the reader to the structure of the society of those times, and living conditions of slaves. Slave owners, often referred to as masters, simply did not have to provide adequate food and clothing because there was no enforcement of it by law or any other authority regulator.
In general, consideration and generosity for slaves were at the discretion of their beholders. Within these tragic lifestyles, ties between biological family members within the slave community were very rare. Most slave children new little, if anything, about there parents. The slaveholders instructed the elderly to care for young children and often broke the bonds between parents and their children to keep unity suppressed and ignorance high. Douglass shows his sincere astonishment when he depicts his owners, noble and honorable men, as ruthless and mean owners of not only human bodies but also their souls. In his turn Kenneth S.
Greenberg, as the title of his book suggests, talks about the way honorable things and deeds of the Southern gentlemen (such as nobleness, bravery in fighting the duels, expensive gifts presentations) could be associated with the culture of slavery and inhumanity of the society. The "honorable men" who controlled the slavery South had a code of conduct of their own, the code that constituted of numerous obviously absurd features, which disclosed a lot regarding the living of slave-owners and the essence of slavery. Greenberg attacks the slave-owners with many interesting arguments. To author the constitution of the Southern gentleman's language is very strange. Greenberg discovers that the main purpose of the honorable behavior is to support the public image of the person.
The slave-owning state of the society valued the social status and honor the most. The society's perception of dishonored people was approximately the same as of a slave. That is why it was important for Southern gentleman to keep up their faces through a complex set of gestures and expressions. However being noble has never prevented the slave-owners from unfair attitude towards their people.
Douglass heavily condemns this approach. The violence slaves endured was the most vivid representation in Douglass portrayal of slavery in the South. No emotion or rage was held back by slaveholders and no pity or sympathy was put forth either. Cruelty and abuse were the only means of control the slaveholders believed would keep order. The pain inflicted upon these individuals, even to the point of death in some cases, fueled the typical masters obsession with domination and power.
Frederick Douglass often addresses to the issue of religion and Christianity. He questions how a man could call himself a Christian and yet treat another human being in such an inhumane manner. Douglass could never comprehend how the slaveholders were able to justify slavery through their faith and church as some of his owners did. It might leave one to believe it was a search for an interpretation that would ease there restless minds so that perhaps they would not feel as guilty and be able to sleep better at night. Slavery had such a catastrophic affect on America during this century that it finally lead to the division of the North and South and brought about the Civil War. Politically and morally slavery separated the northerners against the southerners.
American slaveholders of the south believed it should be no concern of the North to involve themselves in the Souths business. Americans who lived in the north and were commonly referred to as abolitionist fought for the abolishment of slavery and justice of mankind. Slavery also created a terrifying evilness and greediness nature within the slaveholders. They found that more money came with more slaves and more slaves meant a higher social and financial status. It was a vicious cycle that was stimulated by money and the obsessive desire for it. Douglass autobiography proved us with a glimpse into why slavery was wrong for society as a whole at the time.
It was blatantly unfair to the blacks who were robbed from Africa and then diluted with the white population as an underclass of animals. It seemingly brought out the cruelty in people to see how mean and unkind they could be to these people. Whites were changed in some instance by slavery, bringing about a manner with which no one should be treated. Slavery was by far one of the most evil things ever witnessed upon the shores of this great country, and Frederick Douglass showed us how great a person it took to break these chains of ignorance.
By freeing the slaves of the day, we in turn freed our minds and souls as well. Kenneth Greenberg's examination of idea of honor during the period of slavery shows a clear sign of how it was applied to the society of those times. The concept of honor itself allowed some people (who were considered honor) to elevate themselves above many others. In our case the others were black slaves. The honor provided the ethical foundation for a number of discriminations about race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious conviction, and age. Even the definition of the word honor provides the notion as to the structure of the society.
In the South honor was used to set a particular order of social relationships. Greenberg offences honor of Southern gentlemen for sometimes it looks quite bizarre to him. It was considered a decent act to be generous in giving away presents and heavily drinking with friends, but not providing the slaves with adequate amount of food and cloths. This was an awful reality of the slaves that was made effective by the slaveholders because of the lack of education the slaves received if they received any at all. The social behavior of slaves, their abolishment of each other allowed the slave-owners to do virtually any thing with them. Greenberg, as well as Douglass, sees the only possibility for freeing from such regime in educating the slaves.
Even though both writers are heavily against slavery, they are not blaming the slave-owners or Southern society in such a situation. Both authors view slavery as the logical consequence of ignorance African-Americans demonstrated. These attacks on the slavery were very often resembling the Northern approach to the development of society. Northern people were far more advanced in questions of democracy and freedom. The structure of their society was based on the respect of personality.
Douglass and Greenberg agree that slaves did not need anything else but ability to independently judge and act as per these judgments. Bibliography: Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Yale University Press, 2001. Greenberg, Kenneth S. Honor and Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South.
Princeton University Press, 1997.
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