Frederick Douglass An American Slave

The memoir The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave was written in 1845. In Frederick Douglass’s book, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, the author criticizes the American Society through the use of Christianity, Slavery, Ignorance, Inhumanity and Humanity. The memoir recounts his life from birth to his arrival in New Bedford in 1838 as a slave fugitive and a married man.
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery in 1818. The abolitionist later became known as Frederick Douglass. Douglass lived on Holmes Hill Farm in Talbot County, Maryland. Douglass was the son of a slave named Harriet Bailey. He was taken away from his mother when he was an infant.His grandmother
He expressed that he was a spiritual man. The Christianity that Douglass believed in was the one based on the teachings of Christ, and not the misuses of the religion by the slaveholders. Douglass rebuked the Christian churches that allowed the ownership of blacks by whites. Douglass hated the slaveholding, women beating, and hypocritical Christianity of the land. Douglass found out that even the most outwardly religious masters were cruel. In the memoir Douglass describes Christians who indicate Pharisaical strictness to the form of religion and neglect, mercy and faith. The slaveholders were always ready to sacrifice the slaves but were seldom to show mercy. Douglass believed that they were professing to love a God whom they have not seen, while they hate their brother whom they have seen. In the memoir he demonstrates the way religion and its literature, the bible, had a negative influence and effect on slavery as well as the development of Christianity (Douglass, 10.19). Douglass believed that there were two different versions of Christianity. The slaves and colored people believed in one version of Christianity and the masters and White Americans, believed in another version. The two versions were “the Christianity of this land”, and “the Christianity of Christ”. In the memoir Douglass describes Christianity as loving the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ. Douglass despised the hypocritical Christianity in the land (Appendix. 1). The masters and slaveholders signify no innate goodness. Slaveholders put slaves to excessive labor without enough food and rest. Those were the characteristics of slaveholders actions towards slaves. Douglass described the relationship between the slaveholders who were religious and nonreligious. Douglass explained that the masters used Christianity as an excuse to treat slaves cruel. Christianity helped the slaves achieve grace, but the christianity that the masters practice allowed