My analysis of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass ha been heavily focused on seeing how his struggles can be applied to the development of the Civil Rights Movement, and of the rights of African Americans today.
One specific portion of Douglass’ narrative has followed me: “I speak advisedly when I say this, — that killing a slave, or any colored person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the courts or the community” (331). In the narrative, it is easy to see that this holds true when Douglass is speaking of the slave masters, it is easy to see that there is little compassion towards the lives of any colored person. Mr. Severe was described as, “taking pleasure,” in whipping the slaves for little to no reason (322). These slaves had no rights nor liberty. They were merely replaceable machines with no value to the courts.
Although African Americans have come a long way in the battle for civil rights, there is still a noticeable lack of recognition of their life’s worth by the courts, and by many Americans. From Trayvon Martin to Michael Brown, African Americans are still battling to not be racially profiled and targeted by people of other racial makeup.
Douglass’ narrative opens up a large amount of issues that were present in the pre-Civil War area, and sadly, some of the struggles African American’s faced now are still present today. As in one of our discussion prompt quotes, “give me liberty, or give me death,” African American slaves died fighting for their rights, and today we still see people fighting to the death for their liberty.