Slave Narrative Song

During the 1845 Narrative of Frederick Douglass, he attacks the institution of slavery, not only on “white America”, but of the idealism behind superiority and oppression.During the time of publishing, Douglass used the writing as to “inform rather than offend” the general public of literate readers. Due to ability from status and wealth, mostly whiter pigmented people were able to obtain an education so his depiction of the miseries of slavery were very emotional. Rather than descriptive, Douglass illustrates the “souls boiling over with bitterest anguish”. Through the declaration of white supremacy, the blacker inferiorities felt their freedoms of individuality and humanity expunged through ignorance and prejudice.

Deriving from Asian culture, the idealism of whiter pigmentation reflecting higher status spread into Europe through colonisation and adaptations from social interactions. The business workers of the economic status pyramid desired less sunlight due to indoor work space, therefore reducing the pigmentation of the skin. The workers believed that the more time spent inside reflected status and skin colorization as well. Because agricultural farmers spend more time in the sun, their pigment darkened and caused whiter pigmented people to believe that they are of higher status. The whiter pigment transferred into Europe and developed into the America’s as an exaggerated separation of classes. The asian culture treated lighter and darker pigmented people as equals in human importance but created class systems between socio-economic variables.

The American perspective of skin pigmentation was distorted to adapt the conjecture that darker pigmented people were inhuman and did not have any rights of their own. The translation of status within skin color was lost to ignorance and prejudice to exploit the lives and labor of others. In order to “uncover the truth of slavery’s brutality”, Douglas embodies the miseries through emotional turmoils and struggles while Morrison portrays the arduous nature of slavery and the burdensome decisions that haunt the characters. Douglas acknowledges the “vital relationship between the ‘personhood’ of African Americans’ to establish the recognition of human rights. The “handling of music and song” through Douglas’s Narrative becomes a reference of an “indicator of human status” deprivation. The song affirms “‘personhood” in a world where a slave is constantly challenged and denied”, as seen through Baby Sugg’s preach of individual and family compassion. In order to “defend status as human beings”, the African Americans had to stand up and share their stories of despair and grief and recognize that every person, no matter the skin color, is a human being and must not be perceived as malignant or as an animal.