Slavery And Robbery In Frederick Douglass

Slavery and robbery

Robbery can be defined as the act of taking and or abducting property from another without their consent. On the other hand, slavery is the bondage of usually a person without their consent, for practice. But can the two intertwine as one? According to the works of Frederick Douglass, from his narrative, slavery is in fact robbery. People are born with God-given rights, like being able to sleep when they please, or eat as much as they please. It’s a right to their body, as well as their mind. Douglass writes, “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday.”(12) Slaves were not even allowed the right to their age, or birthday. Despite they were slaves, they were people. Yet, they were
He explains that everyone laid on the same bed, or the floor, and he had to steal a corn bag to keep warm because it was so cold. (Chapter 2, page 17) Slaves also worked to produce food for their holders, if they ever decided to eat the food they grow, it would be considered stealing, and they would be whipped. Is it really stealing when you rightfully grew it? Is it wrong is you’re starving? The children would run around naked, and all eat from a pig trough. As time progresses Douglass moves to a different plantation to live with Sophia Auld. She tries to teach Douglass to read and write, but the slave master encouraged her not to. He says “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell.”(29) Meaning, a slave should be kept ignorant, because they can’t fight for their freedom, if they know nothing of it. Not only is that wrong for slaves not being able to have the privilege to learn, it’s hard for slave holders to be so dehumanizing to