William Apess and Frederick Douglass - Research Paper Example

?William Apess and Frederick Douglass  “An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man” (1833) and “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass” (1881) authored by William Apess and Frederick Douglass respectively are scathing rebukes against racial prejudice and discrimination against racism in the United States. William Apess and Frederick Douglass were both men who accepted and adhered to the Christian faith while championing social causes for their people. William Apess is a Christian minister and missionary who works among his people and fights for their recognition of their status as worthy human beings. Apess’ writings “illuminates the meaning of the colonial and post-colonial relationship between Native Americans and the white dominant culture as well as an understanding of the violence that permeates that relationship” (Moon 45). Equally, Frederick Douglas is an ex-slave who was educated and sought to sensitize the American public on injustices against slaves and African Americans. Both men persist in laboring as advocates of human rights through their writings. Their writings classified as protest writing “found enthusiastic supporters among the entire literate black population whose resentment and indignation it voiced…the motivating force was that once they became aware of the situation, the powerful white minority would do something to improve matters” (Gaylard 20). Composed during the Abolitionist Movement and Reconstruction Era, these literary works stress the superficiality and hypocrisy of the Christian Whites in their support of institutionalized, discriminatory oppression - employing their own ideologies and religious doctrines to control the masses.        The superficiality of the White man's doctrine is a point of argument in Apess' work. Apess observes that one “may learn how deep (the White man's) principles are...I should say they were skin deep” (Apess). The foundation of the objections to non-Whites’ enjoyment of their human dignity and privileges is based on the skin pigmentation. Skin color has no inherent value in any substantial and profound argument since what lies on the inside forms the core and matters most. Contrary to the racial Whites, Apess’ major concern is “…not talking about the skin, but about principles” (Apess). In his day, Apess would have been familiar with the Great Chain of Being philosophy which privileges the Whites at the head of the human race and relegates the Other to occupy lower tiers (Lovejoy 27). American Whites manipulated this concept to justify their subhuman treatment of other races. Frederick Douglass also perceived the superficiality of racism realizing that “there was a skin aristocracy in America; no not exactly the skin, it was the colour of the skin, that was the mark of distinction or the brand of degradation” (Blassingame 50). Greed and prejudice constitute the vices that spurred discrimination. As a consequence, millions have lived broken lives and died deaths worse than an animal’s. The slavery was founded on skin color without regard for other more sterling and lasting qualities such as character. Douglass marvels at the preoccupation with something so trivial, yet which bears so much weight. The usage of skin color as a means to exalt oneself and debase another reveals the superficiality of the premises of racism. In time, the surface of any object is defaced and gradually stripped away. External appearances deceive however, only the content of character is real and enduring. As a Christian minister himself, Apess makes a stirring appeal to the tenets of Christianity, the so-called White man's religion. White men would use their religion to validate conquest, segregation, and the institution of slavery, however, Apess wields the Holy Bible, the book which instructs Christians in defense of human rights, equality, justice and brotherhood. Apess cites in his stirring appeal that “God is no respecter of persons; …By this shall all men know that they are my disciples, if ye have love one to another; …Let us not love in word but in deed” (Apess). Repeatedly Apess preaches to a people who should be acquainted with and practicing their own doctrines of love. Apess’ concept of God differs from the White man's God. Judging from the professing Christians' cruelty, avarice, and antagonism, Apess shows that according to the white man's principles, the Christian God would have to be an unfair and hateful deity who would favor a cross section of people and belittle others. True religion in Apess' eyes is an inclusive religion. To add force to his arguments, Apess continues to quote numerous scriptural texts from the Bible from Matthew, John and Romans. To hate and propagate division is not only unchristian but also unethical. One historical commentator observes that “within all of Apess's works you can find one driving motivation: his pursuit for equality” (Reuben). Apess understands that God's unconditional love is impartial and likewise, all who claim to follow the tenets of love must adopt those unbiased standards. Likewise Frederick Douglass laments the disparity between Christian principles and the cruel inequalities aimed at African Americans. Among Christian American there should not exist the perpetuation of systematic oppression, inhumanity and hostility. Douglass argues that a Christian should never be a slave-owner for doing so puts at detriment his own soul and contravenes the founding principles of his faith. He urges the equality and brotherhood of Negroes and Whites according to the Christian doctrines and wonders at White Christian hypocrisy. Douglass wonders that “in this Christian country men and women were obliged to hide in barns and woods and trees from professing Christians…Their minds had been cramped and starved by their cruel masters” (Douglass 189). As a Christian himself, Douglass is perplexed at the inconsistency of Christianity with tyrannical inhumanity. Slaves espousing Christianity are not treated on par with their other Caucasian brothers and sisters. Recalling his own experience as a slave, Douglass encounters the “unchaste, demoralizing, and debasing character of slavery in …. professedly Christian slave-holders” (Douglass 160). Apess wields irony as a potent mechanism to reveal the fallacies of racism. Native Indians are called savage barbarians who are uneducated. However, he wonders at the Europeans who called themselves enlightened individuals and despised the opportunity to teach and educate his people. The mark of savagery is not in culture but in ignorance. Yet, he discovers that it is the White man's goal to keep 'inferior' races in the dark by denying them education. This continuity of ignorance would guarantee the misinformation of the colored races. “Now if these people are what they are held up in our view to be,...why they are not brought forward and pains taken to educate them? To give them all a common education” (Apess). Education would be the weapon to undo the ills of ignorance and improve the chances for mental cultivation and intelligence. At the same time, people who say that they are education are acting worse that the said barbarians themselves for they indulge in common and base vices which depreciate their own value before other races. Frederick Douglass also uses irony to make a bold point concerning the willful denial of education to Blacks. A brilliant, lettered ex-slave, “Douglass realized that knowledge represented power. Words provide access to the power of communication, and the route to long-term control of the message is through literacy (Morgan 77). As a result, Douglass aims to equalize the playing field so that slaves could be educated, empowered and liberated from the chains of ignorance which captivated them. However, to retain the monopoly on power, slaveholders and school institutions refused to slaves education so that “their poverty kept them ignorant and their ignorance kept them degraded” (Douglass 352). The slaves are called inferiors because of their race and lack of education. They are considered incompetent to even learn like other American children. One sees the glaring presence of ethnocentrism where instead of agreeing to instruct slaves to read and write, one people choose to devalue, dominate, and suppress another. Because of opposing schools of thought, the friction which abolitionist generated as they pressed against popular thought becomes problematic.             In sum, William Apess and Frederick Douglass skillfully integrate irony as a literary mechanism to pinpoint discrepancies, unjust exploitation and inhumane treatment of the colored races. Both served tirelessly to achieve a better standard of living for their fellow men. They respect and uphold equality and human dignity and actively protest against discrimination and dehumanization on the grounds of color and race. Believing in the concept of equality, Apess and Douglass struggle to awaken a comatose American society, conditioned to racial bias. Because of ethnocentric attitudes, Native Indians and Negroes are mistreated, while their white counterparts are considered natural superiors. However, these immortalized literary masterpieces expose the duplicity of racial discrimination and argue for principles of brotherly love and equality. Works Cited: Apess, William. “An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man,” Texas A&M University .  Accessed 4 December 2011. Blassingame, JW. F. Douglass. The Frederick Douglass Papers: Series One, Speeches, Debates, and Interviews, Yale University Press, Connecticut, 1847. Douglass, F. The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Cosimo Inc, New York, 2008. Gaylard, R. “Writing Black: The South African Short Story by Black Writers,” University of Stellenbosch, 2008. The University of Chicago: Theories of Media-Irony        . Accessed 4 December, 2011. Lovejoy, Arthur. Peter Stanlis. The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea,  Transaction Publishers, New Jersey, 2009. Moon, R. William Apess and Writing White. Studies in American Indian Literature Series 2, 5(4),1993, 45-54. Accessed 5 December, 2011 Morgan, W. Gender-Related Difference in the Slave Narratives of Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass. American Studies Journal, 35(2), 1994, 73-94 . Accessed 5 December, 2011 Reuben, Paul. William Apes or William Apess, Perspectives in American Literature: A  Research and Reference Guide-An Ongoing Project . Accessed 4 December,  2011. Read More