Freedom Regardless of Gender
The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, as well as the narratives such as Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, all deal with the sufferings of slaves and their determined struggle to obtain freedom. Mindful of the obvious oppression of the blacks under slavery, as well as the liberation that comes with freedom, the question of whether or not slaves hold distinct visions of freedom due to their gender arises. Of course, before this question can be arrived at a conclusion, there must be clarification as to what constitutes freedom. Once the definitions of freedom are identified, they must be applied to both male and female slaves to show the different expectations of freedom, or lack thereof, as a result of gender. The examination based on these stories and narratives, thusly, of this issue shows that gender does not alter what slaves consider freedom. The definition of freedom, then, is universal to both men and women. What, then, are the definitions of freedom? A very basic principle of freedom is free will. A person that is free has the ability to choose in matters regarding work, family, leisure, to name a few. Hence, to be co
In reading the three different slavery works, the conclusion seems to be that freedom is the same to both men and women. Freedom is the universal want of mankind, the free may have taken it for granted, but for those in bondage freedom is the ultimate goal for their struggles. And as a universal want of all human beings, it matters not whether the person is a man or a woman. nsidered free, a person must have the power to choose how to live his or her own life. However, that is not the only consideration regarding the definitions of freedom. In a society, a free person not only has the right to personal liberty, but also the right to protect property and family, whether through personal power or institutional laws. Therefore, another aspect of being free requires the means to protect ownership and familial structure. Also, freedom is not limited to only physical freedom, as emotional freedom is important to being one's own master. The feelings of security, as well as self-respect play an integral part to independence, in addition to being free of physical bondage. These definitions of what freedom signifies are valid because slaves were denied such freedoms, and because of these aims they risked their lives to escape slavery, whether they were men or women. As mentioned above, one of the basic principal that freedom entails is having the power to choose how to live one's life. Slaves, on the other hand, cannot choose what they can do because their masters own them. Hence, their everyday actions are not what they choose to do, but rather what they are told to do. One example of the lack of free choice can be found in the second chapter of Uncle Tom's Cabin, with the situation dealing with George and his master. George, with the consent of his master, is sent to work in a factory, and because of his intelligence, he invents a machine that saves a lot of work. As a result of his ingenuity, the owner, as well as the workers, of the factory esteems him highly and George can hold his head up among the whites in the factory. However, the master, seeing that his slave can walk with pride and being so highly regarded by his co-workers, senses his inferior to his slave, and decided to have no more of it. He abruptly takes George away from the factory, and when confronted by the factory owner, he simply replied that George is his property, and he has the right treat his property however he wants
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Approximate Word count = 1623
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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