Item 4 Read the excerpt from Chapter 1 of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Whether this prophecy is ever fulfilled o
r not, it is nevertheless plain that a very different-looking class of people are springing up at the south, and are now held in slavery, from those originally brought to this country from Africa; and if their increase does no other good, it will do away the force of the argument, that God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right. If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural; for thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who, like myself, owe their existence to white fathers, and those fathers most frequently their own masters. How does the allusion to Ham affect the meaning of the text? 1. It allows Douglass to discredit using the Bible to justify slavery. 2. It compares slavery in the modern world to slavery in Biblical times. 3. It emphasizes Douglass's desire to be free. 4. It highlights the similarities between enslaved people and those who enslave them.
I think the casket is a symbol of death and it is also a symbol of cruelty of the narrator that he took Doodle to see it and touch it to emphasize that they thought he was going to die so needed to be brought face to face with it.
