Fredrick Douglass Connections Paragraph
Fredrick Douglass is most like the report “Trapped in a Hellhole”, written by Stan Grossfeld about child labor in India. First, children were taken at a very young age and put to work as a ‘slave’, never to see their parents again. Fredrick Douglass was taken away from his Mother and reared on a different plantation. He say’s “My mother and I were separated . . . I never saw my mother” (2-3). Child labor in India is worked in a similarly manner as children are lured by men who falsely promise safety and education for the child to their parents. A boy named Laxmi said his father came to the factory to rescue him. He watched his father be beaten, and never saw him again. Another example can be proven in the beatings given for mishap among the workers. Fredrick Douglass speaks of Mr. Hopkins, a religious man who believed, “A mere look, word, or motion, mistake, accident, or want of power, are all matters for which a slave may be whipped at any time” (100). The children in India were treated in a similitude of the manner. Laxmi said, “If you got up, you’d be beaten,” while another boy of 9, named Udai Ram, was hit on the finger with a knife every time he made a mistake. However, in Fredrick’s case there was no law against slavery or ‘owning’ a slave as property. There is a law in India, though not enforced, prohibiting children younger than 14 from working. With this law, human rights workers can fight against child labor pertaining to the law given. In Fredrick Douglass’ time though, these fights for civil rights could not be justified by the law to protect them. Fredrick Douglass gave a true sense of what it means to be a slave and have no laws in place to help protect their rights for the future in becoming