Hunter Birk
9/12/2014 03:18:13 pm
Quote: "During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write, in accomplishing this I was compelled to various stratagems."
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Kevin Stiemke
9/13/2014 08:17:45 am
I agree Frederick Douglas was a unique slave. I think he was motivated to learn how to read, and write, because he knew he needed these skills to get to freedom. Most of the other slaves had no education, and he was lucky enough to get one.
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Christian Klosterman
9/14/2014 02:23:42 pm
Frederick was really a one of a kind person, using the little access that he had to education and expanding it so greatly is very amazing.
Kaeli Leoni
9/13/2014 04:52:01 pm
I agree that it was very rare for slaves to be so motivated to teach themselves how to be able to read and write. It is also very inspiring since even though he was going through such terrible times, he still found the strength to teach himself those skills.
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Matt Rose
9/14/2014 12:49:14 pm
Im happy for Frederick that he took the time to learn these, It is very important and this will be very useful in the future.
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Emily Dingman
9/13/2014 04:03:17 am
Book: The Narrative Life Of Frederick Douglass
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Eli Murguia
9/13/2014 07:02:22 am
I agree. I hate how people back then can have so much favoritism towards one skin and so much prejudice and discrimination to another. Just because they have darker skin it doesn't mean they have some crazy ability to survive the winter with nothing but their own skin. They are STILL human beings. What gives anyone the right to do something like that?
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Chloe Rice
9/13/2014 12:03:22 pm
The people who did this had the same biology as us. We believe what we believe because we were raised to, but if we were raised racist we would probably be racist. I was thinking about that today. Most of us, born into these times would be slave owners or slaves ourselves.
Kevin Stiemke
9/13/2014 08:13:39 am
I agree that all kids are born with a heart, but when one race is getting clothes and the other isn't. Then it starts to turn into hate as they grow up.
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George Downey
9/14/2014 09:43:53 am
Bear in mind that this is a world where children, women and people who aren't white are constantly abused and have no control over their own future. This system is brutal because it serves those who hearts are cold, and this has only been reduced by a tiny fraction in the current day. Racism, not to this extent but definatly considerable, still exists in today's world. Minorities, Indians, Blacks and Hispanics, still face that unending hatred that comes when a country that says they are a stock-pot of acceptance where any man can make his way if he works hard enough, and yet that country is ruled by white men who have never worked, by which I mean manual labor, a day in their lives.
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Morgan
9/15/2014 05:39:19 am
I also am repulsed that someone could be so ignorant as to value social status and not helping a child who is literally freezing to death just because of their skin.
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Eli Murguia
9/13/2014 06:14:10 am
Book: The Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglas
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Shea Saulino
9/14/2014 09:18:45 am
I completely agree with what you said about slaves understanding their lives and circumstances as children- most of slaves are born into slavery.
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Mikayla Kricfalusi
9/14/2014 12:43:17 pm
I agree that it was amazing that no one saw it as a problem. However,people believe what they want to believe and see what they want to see. The same thing in different lights can look like something else entirely.
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Jack Campbell
9/14/2014 02:29:38 pm
I agree, perspective changes the way people justify things and they will always try to justify what they are doing.
Kevin Stiemke
9/13/2014 08:10:00 am
Quote: She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone.
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Chloe Rice
9/13/2014 12:06:05 pm
I don't think there were considered human beings. The same way dogs we adopt grow up without a puppy momma, the slaves were expected to grow up without a slave momma.....or at least I think so....
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Shea Saulino
9/14/2014 09:20:08 am
What you just wrote was incredibly powerful Chloe- I absolutely agree that as slaves they were treated like dogs; trained to be loyal and to be of assistance to the slave master.
Noah Legier
9/14/2014 01:55:19 pm
Yeah you have a good point Chloe, they weren't necessarily given basic needs such as growing up with a mom. I wonder how the slaveholders back then felt about this.
Christian Klosterman
9/14/2014 02:24:47 pm
Great connection Chloe!
Kaeli Leoni
9/13/2014 04:54:05 pm
I agree with what you said about how it was very inspiring that his mother went through so much trouble just to lay down with him for a couple of hours at night and put herself through so much risk to be there.
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Chenoa Levy
9/13/2014 09:25:00 pm
I think it was a tactic they used to instill helplessness amongst the slave children.Family is seen as a sort of refuge and when you take that away from someone at a young age it makes them feel like they have nowhere else to go.
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Mikayla Kricfalusi
9/14/2014 12:45:43 pm
Remember that slaves were treated and lived as animals. However, even livestock stay with their mothers for a certain period of time, because it keeps them safe and teaches them how to live.
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Julia Serna
9/14/2014 05:48:04 pm
Well, if you remember from the zinn reading we learned that they are trying take away everything from them so that they are weak, so that means family too.
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Chloe Rice
9/13/2014 12:00:38 pm
Solomons introduction leading up to this quote describes 18th century america, and this life within it. He Can play violin, and is married to a wife who cooks good food for a living. He describes a happiness connected to seeing his children, and a life of general freedom. The problem is that Northup lives in a world of slavery, and old world values centered around the color of his skin make him a less than human being. I wonder, how will this world change his life in the coming chapters. What is going to change his life?
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Sarah Lockhart
9/14/2014 02:55:31 pm
I'm not reading the same book, but that quote gave me chills! I think I'll have to read it sometime soon
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Nicole Matteson
9/13/2014 02:44:27 pm
Quote: "Freedom now appeared, to dissappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound, and seen in everything. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, i heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. it looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm" (narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass, 46)
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camila Antonorsi
9/14/2014 10:21:17 am
That is a great question, i would also love to know the answer to that.
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Kaeli Leoni
9/13/2014 04:48:29 pm
Book: The Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglas
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Jenna Welsh
9/14/2014 05:51:55 am
It pains me to say it, but I honestly just think it was the standard way of treating people of different colors back then. It's extra heartbreaking because of the way religion was so prevalent during that time; why can't anyone see that it is clearly against the fundamental principle of love?
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Piper Tompkins
9/14/2014 11:06:42 am
I have the same question myself about the morals of the slave owners.
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Nicole Matteson
9/14/2014 11:12:44 am
This reminds me of ethnocentrism because us current americans are in utter shock knowing what happened to slaves back then. While in their times, it was completely normal. We believe it is wrong, but they found their actions and desires were just.
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Jack Campbell
9/14/2014 02:27:18 pm
I have had the same question, but it seems that people will always try to find justification for their actions
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Chenoa Levy
9/13/2014 09:21:05 pm
"He whipped, but seemed to take no pleasure in it. He was called by the slaves a good overseer."
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Jenna Welsh
9/14/2014 05:47:37 am
I agree that it is sickening that a slave owner who treats his "property" with barely a modicrum of kindness is considered "good." I feel like that may be why the slaves see the new owner as a good man.
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George Downey
9/14/2014 09:47:19 am
I think the slaves viewed him as good because he wasn't cruel. Its hard to say how much these slaves had gone through, but this man wasn't eager to add to it. Unlike the other overseers, he
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9/14/2014 11:00:29 am
I agree I don't think he felt all bad because in the end he still whipped them. I thought it was sad knowing that the slaves saw him a a good overseer because he still caused harm to them
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Jenna Welsh
9/14/2014 05:43:38 am
Book: 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
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9/14/2014 10:30:28 am
I thought Solomon was very brave for not doing what he said although he must have been in pain he didn't want to be known as a slave and no one would he knew his importance and didn't treat himself as a slave but rather a human being
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Emily Hayashida
9/14/2014 11:00:30 am
I really like your question, and I do think that Burch knows that Solomon is a free man, but doesn't care because the fact that since he was "sold" to him he isn't free anymore.
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Kayla Feather
9/14/2014 06:35:15 am
Book: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
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Sarah Lockhart
9/14/2014 02:58:37 pm
That question has probably been up for debate as soon as slavery was abolished. I think some people just have moral compasses that don't point North and have a stronger desire for wealth and power than empathy in them. It's incredibly awful and caused immense suffering.
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Grant Gagnard
9/14/2014 08:21:32 am
Quote
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Tristan Elghoroury
9/14/2014 09:53:09 am
To your question.Well I think that what you said is totally true and I also think that the more that they slaves new, the more curious they might get and that would be headed toward a kind of education maybe and that is exactly what the slave owners did'nt want,or else the slaves would not be as easy to control.
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Chandler Gaines
9/14/2014 12:52:58 pm
I agree with tristan. It was not what the "authorities" wanted.
kane
9/14/2014 12:28:39 pm
I agree with your comment and it gives me a new perspective on the quote you chose. I agree that it is meant to make slaves feel more like animals, and subhuman.
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Morgan King
9/14/2014 02:22:32 pm
It is an interesting question you bring up. I really believe that people didn't allow their "property" to know anything about themselves, because it would impose that they are human. Which no one wanted, because it would have lead to dangerous thoughts, such as equality. If that happened then the owners would lose control.
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Kane McGrath
9/14/2014 08:45:52 am
Quote:”It required extraordinary barbarity on the part of an overseer to affect him.”
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Grant
9/14/2014 12:33:58 pm
I think that they would be discouraged to start a revolt because they would have severe consequences if it didnt work.
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Mrs. Clark
9/19/2014 06:45:13 pm
I agree with Grant, because even if they took over a plantation, they would still be executed for the insurrection.
Shea Saulino
9/14/2014 09:17:51 am
“...No words, no tears, no prayers..."
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Tristan Elghoroury
9/14/2014 09:49:05 am
Yes! I think this is one of the many quotes that is trying to show us the extremity of the horror that he was living in,and this qoute really does!
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Rena
9/14/2014 01:09:03 pm
I totally agree. In many situations I have felt helpless, and that is probably one of the worst feelings I have ever experienced.
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George Downey
9/14/2014 09:38:41 am
"Father he might be, and not be husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if its veins coursed one drop of African Blood."
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llevieux
9/14/2014 04:38:29 pm
It's interesting you mention the phrase "one drop." The one drop rule was a social rule that if someone was even one part African, they were considered black. Even if their skin is not visibly dark, they are still discriminated upon as if they were black.
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Tristan Elghoroury
9/14/2014 09:45:39 am
Book: Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass,an American Slave
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I'm surprised by this quote thinking that all slaves regardless of there "Masters" have just as hard of a time. Now that I have thought more upon you're quote, I can only imagine how harsh it must be to be a slave and then to be a slave of someone who can barely afford to feed himself.
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Grant
9/14/2014 12:39:33 pm
I agree with your quote, I cant imagine how much harder it would be for the slave of a family who could barley survive themselves.
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Matt Rose
9/14/2014 12:46:24 pm
I agree it's hard to imagine living in a society like this and some how see no wrong in it.
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Chandler Gaines
9/14/2014 12:54:01 pm
I agree with these comments as well. It is amazing how unaware the people were and thats what they thought the way of life was.
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12 Years a Slave
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Morgan King
9/14/2014 02:37:48 pm
You have an interesting perspective of this. I really see how people felt that african americans shouldn't be free, and how they were stealing them from the north to eliminate that freedom.
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Hesham
9/15/2014 08:45:10 am
To answer your question, people simply did not care who was free and who was a slave. They kidnapped any colored person they could find and would sell them just to make an extra buck.
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Adrien De Luna
9/14/2014 10:47:16 am
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Piper Tompkins
9/14/2014 11:04:21 am
He thought he was seperated from his mother because "it be to hinder the development of the child's affection towards its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child." I agree it would be awful to just have your mother being ripped out of your life at such a young age.
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Rena Dillenbeck
9/14/2014 01:04:48 pm
This makes me sad too Adrien. I mean like I don't have much of a connection with my dad and I wonder how my life would be different if I do.
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9/14/2014 10:47:26 am
Twelve Years a Slave
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Emily Hayashida
9/14/2014 11:03:01 am
I really like your comment, to your quote. It really shows your understanding to the content and you bring up thought provoking concepts.
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Emily Hayashida
9/14/2014 10:56:35 am
12 Years a Slave
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Piper Tompkins
9/14/2014 11:00:14 am
Quote: “Had he been a man of pure morals himself, he might have been thought interested in protecting the innocence of my aunt; but those who knew him will not suspect him of any such virtue.”
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Dylan L
9/14/2014 11:49:54 am
Piper- I think that the slave owners feel they have the right to own humans due to social stratification. They think they are intrinsically superior to blacks. Simply racist. But I'm going to pose a question in response to your question: Why weren't blacks for example, "superior" to whites? Why isn't it flipped?
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Michele
9/14/2014 01:57:14 pm
I agree, the way the story is told is very brutal and scarring. The fact that its all being told by a child makes it worse.
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Ryan Cormack
9/14/2014 03:38:18 pm
I agree that its horrific told from a childs point of view.
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Mikey Saunders
9/14/2014 11:17:55 am
Quote: “In winter seasons I relied upon my violin, though during the construction of the Troy and Saratoga railroad, I performed many hard days’ labor upon it.”
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Dylan L
9/14/2014 11:45:45 am
Mikey- I think when he is saying the winter seasons, he is meaning that specifically in the winter parts of the year he relied on his violin to get him money since there was little agricultural work in the winter.
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Camila Antonorsi
9/14/2014 11:31:36 am
"But no good angel of pity came to my bedside, bidding me to fly-no voice of mercy forewarned me in my dreams of the trials that were just at hand."
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Abby Elliott
9/14/2014 02:09:57 pm
Depending on the circumstances, I may or may not change the fate.
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Dylan L
9/14/2014 11:44:33 am
Book: 12 Years a Slave
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Kane
9/14/2014 12:31:43 pm
I liked your quote because I am not reading that book but your comments gave me a good insight on the character.
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Abby Elliott
9/14/2014 02:20:45 pm
Yes, I do agree. I strongly believe that Solomon would not use the "white as snow" simile after his enslavement.
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Nicole King
9/14/2014 12:33:00 pm
Qoute: " I could not comprehend the justice of that law, or that religion, which upholds or reconizes the prinicple of slavery; and never once, I am proud to say, did I fail to counsel any one who came to me, to watch his oppurtunity, and strike for freedom."
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Mrs. Clark
9/20/2014 02:59:57 am
Who would he tell? How could he save them?
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Matt Rose
9/14/2014 12:35:22 pm
Quote- "The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it." pg 1
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Mikayla Kricfalusi
9/14/2014 12:40:00 pm
Book: 12 Years a Slave
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Rena Dillenbeck
9/14/2014 12:45:42 pm
Book: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
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Alexis Miranda
9/15/2014 05:25:51 am
Yes, I also thought that as well! Even though they don't have that much to be happy about, its usually the little things that can make their day.
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Chandler Gaines
9/14/2014 12:51:27 pm
Quote: "All his brutal blows could not force from my lips the foul lie that I was a slave."
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Kendall Tally
9/14/2014 01:49:02 pm
Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass
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Michele Moua
9/14/2014 01:52:39 pm
in response to your question- I think that it was believed that that kind of stuff was irrelevant if your only purpose was to serve someone else and work.
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Michele Moua
9/14/2014 01:50:41 pm
"Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass"
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Mrs. Clark
9/20/2014 03:08:22 am
I know what you mean, we don't often think about what slavery looked like through their eyes. Imagine those that were just born into it and just understood it as the "way it is", without knowing anything different, but still wanting to be free.
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Abby Elliott
9/14/2014 01:58:27 pm
“Now had I approached within the shadow of the cloud, into the thick darkness whereof I was soon to disappear, thence-forward to be hidden from the eyes of all my kindred, and shut out from the sweet light of liberty, for many a weary year.” (12 Years a Slave, page 11)
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Abby Elliott
9/14/2014 02:01:23 pm
Question- I would like to know how many black folks born free were later enslaved and of those enslaved, how many survived?
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Hesham
9/15/2014 08:49:15 am
Many free people were captured and sold, i'm sure many died because they were not used to the conditions that they had to face.
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Noah Legier
9/14/2014 02:22:24 pm
"It required extraordinary barbarity on the part of an overseer to affect him."
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Eddie Herrera
9/14/2014 05:27:39 pm
For your question I believe that they are trying to get rid of what past they. They are basically trying to get rid of who they were so that they can lose hope and stripped from that they will easily succumb to slavery. For example, Solomon dreams of returning to this family, and that his motive for escaping. Once he stripped from that and forgets, he will have no motive to escape.
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Christian Klosterman
9/14/2014 02:22:30 pm
Book: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Jack Campbell
9/14/2014 02:24:09 pm
“They do not deny that the slaves are held as property; but that terrible fact seems to convey to their minds no idea of injustice, exposure to outrage, or savage barbarity.” This quote essentially sums up why slavery existed for so long. People who believed himself superior, slaveholders, had no empathy towards Slaves. They did not deny that they were treating these people horribly, they just convinced themselves that there was no injustice in what they were doing. By doing this they felt no wrongdoing and had no reason to stop slavery or to treat their slaves better. This makes you wonder what would slavery have been like if slaveholders saw injustice in having people as property, but they did not see slaves as property?
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Morgan King
9/14/2014 02:44:26 pm
12 Years A Slave
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Lucas LeVieux
9/14/2014 04:32:49 pm
Here's my best answer: the innocent are not prepared. They often don't understand, and are not ready for the terrible things. Innocence is ignorance.
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Sarah Lockhart
9/14/2014 02:53:41 pm
Book: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Mrs. Clark
9/20/2014 02:23:47 am
It is set in Maryland. :)
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Justin Reyes
9/14/2014 03:15:06 pm
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Jackson Sjogren
9/14/2014 03:24:50 pm
I think it is better he was separated because he wasn't able to form a bond with her. So when she died it meant almost nothing to him. Therefore he didn't have to deal with the pain of death.
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Alexis Miranda
9/15/2014 02:20:40 am
I totally agree with you, I couldn't imagine how I would feel if I were not able to see my own mother everyday.
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jackson sjogren
9/14/2014 03:20:43 pm
Quote: "the consciousness of my lowly state, indulged in pleasant dreams of a good time coming"
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Alexis Miranda
9/14/2014 03:27:15 pm
The Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass
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Ryan Cormack
9/14/2014 03:30:59 pm
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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Eddie Herrera
9/14/2014 05:37:53 pm
I believe that he is some what being peer pressured. Most of us get peer pressured to do something that we have negatives thoughts towards. In this case the "good overseer" is different because you can distinguish that he has a different view on slavery but can really do nothing as he has to be seen as the superior person. This leads to hope as there can be different people that are like him, which can lead to change. Boom.
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Lucas LeVieux
9/14/2014 04:28:43 pm
"I at once accepted the tempting offer, both for the reward it promised and from a desire to visit the metropolis. They were anxious to leave immediately. Thinking my absence would be brief, I did not deem it necessary to write to Anne whither I had gone..." -Twelve Years a Slave, page 6
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Eddie Herrera
9/14/2014 05:22:16 pm
" Awakening from the pleasant phantasms of sleep to the bitter realities around me"-Solomon (The Rapper)
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Julia Serna
9/14/2014 05:51:09 pm
I think that she came to be with his son, she wants to reside with him and her daughter because it might be their last.
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Jonathan Richeson
9/14/2014 05:38:59 pm
"By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant."
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Julia Serna
9/14/2014 05:45:56 pm
"She called them her darlings-her sweet babes-poor innocent things, that knew not of the misery they were destined to endure"
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Srdja
9/14/2014 11:43:59 pm
Book: The Narrative of life of Frederick Douglass
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Mrs. Clark
9/19/2014 07:22:50 pm
Those music styles actually come later. :)
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Isaac Fernandez
9/15/2014 12:00:46 am
During this time, I learned to read and write, in accomplishing this, I was compelled to various stratagems
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Alex de Villiers
9/15/2014 12:15:22 am
Fredrick Douglass
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Benjamin Rose
9/15/2014 12:16:57 am
“The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.”
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Allison Hopkins
9/15/2014 05:33:54 am
Quote: "He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin."
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Morgan Mcnevin
9/15/2014 05:37:14 am
"During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write, in accomplishing this I was compelled to various stratagems." I am not sure if this qoute has been used before but this speaks to me just because he had at least something to take his mind off of the fact he was helpless and kept going even when it got tough.
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Hesham
9/15/2014 08:40:44 am
"I know not but they were innocent of the great wickedness of which i now believe them guilty."
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Nathan the coolest kid
9/15/2014 04:45:53 pm
The best part so far or the part that hit me the most was in chapter one the narrative part . When the narrator said "They started a family, and Northup set about living a life filled with “nothing but the common hopes, and loves, and labors of an obscure colored man, making his humble progress in the world.” This confused me because a colored man at this time could not have such a life but some did and it's almost a privilege. It's also stunning how that was a privilege at one point I think all humans should have that ability to progress the world.
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