Racism In Frederick Douglas's Narrative Of The Life Of Fredrick Douglass

Racism did not exist due to African ethnicities simply being born into a race that was naturally inferior to whites. This white supremacy was an image created by slave owners, yet accepted throughout most of America. This prejudice image was painted by the assumptions that Blacks were unintelligent, incapable, weak, and lacked human qualities such as the ability to love. However, this is far from the truth; this was not a naturally occurring concept. Instead, this image was molded so that the cruel and inhumane actions of slave owners could be justified. As it can be observed in Fredrick Douglass’s autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, these prejudices held no truth; time and time again they were disproven. Yet, whites …show more content…
When the weakness of slaves is addressed, it is significant to distinguish what this prejudice is referring to. While many slaves were malnourished and some were physically incapable, the assumptions of weak slaves were more likely to be found and expected in mental capacity. Since exhausting and strenuous labor was expected of slaves in the fields, slave owners knew, that physically, his slaves were not weak. However, the presumption in existence was that slaves were too weak when it came to mental capacity, that they would not have the intellectual abilities to take advantage of their physical strength against their masters. Douglass combatted this misconception head on when he fought Mr.Covey (71-73). Slave owners were not accustomed to fighting with slaves because most slaves were more concerned with the punishment if they resisted their master; except Douglass. He had reached a point mentally that allowed him to stand up for himself and fight back, physically; proving that he was not weak just because he was a black