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   akannan Teacher
   Middle School

   eNotes Editor

   One of the principle elements of the relationship of power in Douglass' work is predicated upon the denial of freedom.  Douglass portrays slavery as an institution which can only exist when there is a complete eradication of freedom on the part of the master over the slave.  This helps to explain the foundational premise behind slave codes, the harsh treatment of slaves, and the denial of literacy to slaves.  It reflects a power relationship that realizes at its very core its own sense of inhumanity and can only mask it through draconian control and a denial of the very basic of human rights.  The reason why this is so is because if there is any particular notion of acknowledgment of the dialectical other (the slave), the entire institution crumbles.  The essence of such a relationship is therefore based on negation, not acceptance.

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   Posted by akannan on Friday September 25, 2009 at 3:40 AM