Brown provides readers with narratives of daily life on the plantations, at slave auctions and during the dark hours of individual pain but what makes his narratives so unique is his constant reference to all these situations in the paradoxical realm of democracy and religion. ... Brown always felt in his heart that he should be free and vowed to "not die a slave" even before being separated from his family. ...

• Word Count: 541
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Douglass's autobiography is one of the most important historical documents of the eighteenth century--written with the goal of abolishing slavery by reaching out to the hearts of his fellow men and women and captivating their sympathy as he describes the many roadblocks that he as a slave was forced to overcome, both physically and mentally. ... He deems that life with illiteracy is the equivalent to a life full of "mental darkness," swearing to become literate no matter the cost (66). ... He instead captures the reader's heart, invoking sympathy as the emotions pour out over the ...

• Word Count: 1456
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In the two examples I gave we see how the heart of the black man was taken out of his depiction. ... If these narratives proved anything it showed these narrators delving back into the dark world of slavery and how they were bound by it. ...

• Word Count: 1560
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Slave culture had at its heart a set of cultural themes, forms of artistic expression, a religion, a family pattern, and a community structure which set blacks apart from whites and enabled them to form and control a world of their own values and definitions . ... He stated: It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. ...

• Word Count: 2340
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes, -a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, -a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds, -and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection." ...

• Word Count: 1984
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate