As we continue to read A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in AIS, our teachers have been urging us to decide whether or not we believe Frederick had as bad of a slave experience as all the other slaves. As I continued, I found it interesting that Frederick mentioned his belief in God more than once. For example, when Douglass speaks of how he was the one child chosen to go to Baltimore, he said that "This good spirit was from God, and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise." (page 19) However, even when actually suffering due to the horrible acts of slavery, Douglass not once renounces God. This leaves me with a question. How could someone that has had to endure so much suffering believe that there is a God letting all these terrible things happen?
Now, in no way am I trying to call Douglass's life a walk in the park. However, I believe that the slaves that had experienced the very worst of slavery couldn't possibly believe in a God that was letting this happen. This leads me to believe that Douglass had it a lot easier as a slave than many of the others.
Kasia,
ReplyDeleteFine job blogging so far this year. I like the way your meta-post honestly assesses strengths and weaknesses. While you claim to range beyond class topics in that post, your most recent entry is about our class text! Your comment is interesting (reminds me of the counter example: no atheists in foxholes: distress leads people to cling to ANYthing that helps them make sense of their lives), but I don't think it gives readers a lot of room to respond. Perhaps you could move from Douglass to a larger principle? Does this post pass the "currency test"? i.e. aside from our class, will readers find it relevant?