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Justin Higgins

Mrs. Bouch

Honors English 11

14 March 2018

Frederick Douglass Theme Essay

Slavery in the United States of America was one of the worst atrocities committed by

Americans. It stripped many people of basic rights such as freedom and the right to read and

write, all for the economic gain of slaveholders. During the time of slavery in America, most

Americans were Christians, including slaveholders. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick

Douglass by Frederick Douglass, Douglass reveals the evils of slavery that he experiences

firsthand, as a slave. One theme Douglass develops is that religion among slaveholders makes

slavery worse than without religion, and Douglass develops this theme with characters, irony,

and by directly stating it.

One way Douglass clearly develops that religion makes slavery worse is through several

characters in this book. The first character that fully shows how religion makes slavery worse is

Master Thomas Auld. When Douglass first works for Auld, Auld is not a religious man, but Auld

attends a Methodist camp, becoming very religious. Once he becomes religious, Auld becomes

even “more cruel and hateful in his ways” (Douglass 66). Auld becomes a large part of the

religious community. He spends much of his time praying, teaching, preaching, converting and

leading others. Despite this, Auld uses his new religious fervor to justify whipping slaves, and

when he whips slaves he quotes Scripture saying “’He that knoweth his master’s will and doeth it

not, shall be beaten with many stripes’” (68). Another major character in which this is seen is

Mr. Edward Covey, who is a very religious, but horribly cruel slaveholder. Covey spends much
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time in prayer and often even sings hymns to God as praise. He is devoted to his faith more than

most others are. Despite this, Covey is the worst slaveholder Douglass endures. Covey whips

Douglass so often that Douglass’s wounds are not healed before his next whipping. Covey also

buys a female slave as a breeder and pays a man to have sex with the woman so that Covey does

not need to buy more slaves. This theme is seen again when Douglass works for Mr. William

Freeland, who is not religious, and he is the best slaveholder for which Douglass works. Freeland

is much more humane and fair than any other slaveholder for which Douglass works, especially

Covey. Freeland works his slaves hard, but he feeds them enough, gives them time to eat, and

treats them fairly, which is unusual for slaveholders. Douglass shows that slavery becomes worse

with religious through several characters, including the religious but cruel Edward Covey and

Thomas Auld and William Freeland, who is humane but lacks religion.

Douglass also develops the theme that slavery with religion is worse through strong irony

throughout the book. As seen with Master Thomas Auld, religious slaveholders would use

religion to justify their actions and the evils done to slaves. Auld shows this when quotes

scripture while whipping a slave, using the quote to justify his actions. This is extremely ironic

as Christians are to treat all others with love, respect, and equality. Christian slaveholders who

use their religion’s teachings to justify the terrible treatment of slave go directly against these

teachings. Christianity is centered on loving others, and using this teaching to justify whipping a

slave is extremely contradictory. It is also ironic that slaveholders do not allow slaves to read the

Bible, although Christianity is focused on spreading God’s word. During Douglass’s time

working for Master Thomas Auld, a white man, Mr. Wilson begins “A Sabbath school for the

instruction of such slaves as might be disposed to learn to read the New Testament” (67). The

school is soon shut down by other white slave owners who do not want slaves to learn to read.
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This is very ironic because a large part of Christianity focuses on reading Scripture and

spreading God’s word. Instead of enabling slaves to read Scripture and learn about Christianity,

other Christians shut down the school because they do not want slaves to read. Christians go

against a large part of their faith simply for their own gain, since literate slaves are more of a

threat and more likely to run away. It is also ironic that religious slaveholders are often more

cruel to slaves than nonreligious slaveholders. Of all the slaveholders Douglass has, the religious

ones always treat their slaves the worst. Douglass shows this through Auld and Covey, but he

also tells of two local reverends while he works for Freeland. Douglass explains that the two

reverends will whip and beat their slaves often to prevent future offenses by the slaves. One

reverend, Reverend Weeden whips slaves just to keep his authority, even if the slaves so not do

anything wrong. Weeden even whips a woman so often that her back is constantly a raw, open

wound. The other reverend, Reverend Hopkins, whips slaves for the smallest mistake or offense,

like looking at their master incorrectly, and he claims that he “whip[s] for the smaller offenses, to

prevent the commission on the larger ones” (87). Hopkins whips slaves even if they are innocent,

to instill fear in the slaves and ensure that they do not act out of line in the future. These acts of

religious men strongly contradict the much more humane acts of the nonreligious William

Freeland. Freeland, for a slaveholder, treats his slaves fairly and justly, unlike Reverend Weeden

and Reverend Hopkins. This is very ironic, since Christians are to be loving to all and

nonreligious people do not have this same obligation through faith, so Christians generally are

expected to be more kind and loving to others, but just the opposite is shown through slavery.

The theme of slavery being worse with religion developed as Douglass shows that religion is

used to justify slavery and its evils, slaves are not even allowed to read the Bible—which is a
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major basis of Christianity—and religious slave holders are often much more cruel than those

that are not religious.

Douglass also directly states that religion makes slavery much worse. Throughout the

Appendix, Douglass explains his view on religion, explaining that he loves real Christianity but

hates the Christianity of the South. He states that he loves “the pure, peaceful, and impartial

Christianity of Christ” but hates “the corrupt, slaveholding, woman-whipping, cradle-plundering,

partial, and hypocritical Christianity of this land [the South]” (122). He loves real Christianity

because it is loving and equal for all, but he hates the Christianity of slaveholders because it is

hypocritical and used to justify slavery. In the Appendix, Douglass also explains how the

Christianity of the South is hypocritical. Douglass lists many of the hypocritical acts which

Christian slaveholders commit against their slaves. He tells how slaveholders sell women into

prostitution while preaching purity, prevent slaves from reading but proclaim that all must read

the Bible, preach the necessity of marriage while keeping slaves from marrying, and sell slaves

to support Churches. In all of these situations, Christian slaveholders act directly against the

Christian teachings they support and profess. By directly stating his love of real Christianity and

hate of slaveholding Christianity and the hypocrisy of slaveholding Christianity, Douglass shows

that religion makes slavery worse.

Throughout his autobiography, Frederick Douglass develops that religion makes slavery

worse through characters, irony, and by directly stating it. Despite this theme that is against

religion, Douglass was a very religious man and believed that his freedom was a providential act

of God. This book shows another evil aspect of slavery, which is its ability to corrupt. Slavery

was able to turn Christians, who are to be pure, just followers of Christ, into evil men. Its

corruption was so strong that it was able to corrupt even the most holy men of the South, like
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Church leaders. This shows that slavery truly is one of the more evil acts that humans can

commit.