Frederick Douglas' Experience
In the world today, there are over twenty million slaves living amongst free men and women. Can their lives truly be called living? Slavery has manifested since the dawn of time, although most do not realize it. The majority of slavery today is found in third world countries, like Africa. In such conditions, poor individuals are availed, or taken advantage of, by being threatened to work for powerful people in the large cities of Africa. If the poor people are noncompliant of what is asked of them, their families will be hurt or tortured.
Frederick Douglass a widely known abolitionist, once stated, “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.” Frederick Douglass explains how slavery is a complex way of threatening individuals who are not strong enough to fight back. Most people thought slavery in America ended on January 1, 1863, the day when the emancipation proclamation was put into action, but it truly didn’t. Most people already know about how Martin Luther King Jr. fought for his rights and the rights of African Americans.
This struggle showed repetition of the acts of slavery and racism that was committed earlier in American history. Connected with this is that we truly don’t know if slavery will ever be emancipated, or liberated. It went on in the past, it still continues to go on today, and it is most likely to happen in the future. Slavery comes in many shapes and forms today. Sadly but true, poor people in Africa get threatened to work because they need to protect their families.
It seems that this form of slavery could be easily stopped, but it is not that easy. The people who command these acts are certainly not humane. They don’t care for the poor families who fight to survive; they just use them as workers. They are very obdurate, unwilling, and do not want to release their slaves; they think the slaves are useful as workers and useless for everything else. The poor families must execrate their masters; it is difficult to understand that no benefactor can help them in their time of need. A similarity between these forms of slavery is that the enslaved are either African or African American.
Although Frederick Douglass slavery was very different than the slavery today, they still go through a similar process. They get tricked and cheated to work for no pay, either by being threatened or taken from their homeland. If they do not work effectively, they get beaten or harmed. The ruthless individuals who command these acts are debasing innocent families who deserve to live their lives peacefully. Those families will never be the same. The people in Africa easily submit to protecting their families, this leads them to be controlled by someone who can harm them and their families.
In the slavery Frederick Douglass experienced, every African American was considered a slave. They were either taken from their homelands or born into slavery. They were put together in groups on plantations where they worked all day. Families would be separated into different plantations leaving mothers and children apart. In Africa, the enslaved still work but live in their houses. A similarity between Frederick Douglass slavery and slavery in Africa is that people are used to work and undergo labor without reward or pay.
If they do not obey their master’s commands they are whipped, beaten, or threatened. The slavery that goes on in this world today is not only inhumane and merciless, it is a resurrection of the suffering the enslaved dealt with in the past. The enslaved in Africa are not protected which leaves them vulnerable to injustice; the slaves in the past were born into submission leaving them a dreaded life of enslavement. Slaves were almost never imbued by freedom. Slavery has had its differences but they all are truly the same.
For some reason harsh events seem to be repeated even after being reconciled in the past. Every time they are all the same, ways to mistreat individuals, forcing them to do work for either no pay or brutal beatings. Think about supporting a family with a job where you get beaten instead of getting paid for such useless and harming work. Although slavery comes in many appalling forms every form has an unjust meaning against a certain race, group, and especially families.
