Frederick Douglass An American Slave Summary

Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery around 1818, will forever remain one of the most important figures in America's struggle for civil rights and racial equality. As an ex-slave, his inspiration grew beyond his boarders to reach the whole world. Without any formal education, Douglass escaped slavery and became a respected American diplomat, a counselor to four presidents, a highly regarded speaker, and an influential writer. By common consent Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845) is recognized as the best among the many slave narratives that appeared before the Civil War. He amazed people when he spoke bravely in his Fourth of

In the year 1845 Douglass wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. This was his autobiography in a sense. Before the book was published Douglass had many nay sayers questioning his

In the 1800’s, slavery was a huge part of America. Slavery helped boost the economy and was heavily dependent upon by Americans. Slaves were treated as if they were not humans, but property. Slaves natural right of freedom was taken away by the white Americans. This oppression occurred in America, while they claimed that their nation was the nation of freedom and liberty. One of the slaves that would help change history was named Frederick Douglass, and he had a lot to say about American hypocrisy. Frederick Douglass was a former slave. He taught himself to read and write at a young age, and years later he started his own newspaper called “The North Star”, and ended up writing and editing most of the articles himself. Another thing he

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave was written by Douglass himself, giving a detailed description of the slaveholders cruelty. Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland, and he makes known that he does not know his specific birthdate, “... no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.” (47), but it was approximately around 1818. Once being enslaved, and then escaping in 1838 he became known as an eloquent speaker for abolitionists, being able to deliver passionate speeches about the role of a slaveholder and their relationship to their slaves, especially since he was one of them. Douglass even discovered the true meaning of the songs sung by enslaved people, “ I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs, I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear.” (27). The book is not an easy read for those who believe in equal rights, as Douglass put into painful words the description of brutal whippings, signs of no mercy, and people being taken advantage of because if they had shown mercy they believed they would have lost their dignity.

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, more commonly known as Frederick Douglass, was born around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland (Hagler). Douglass was one of the most influential human rights leaders and one of the most renowned abolitionists. By learning to read and write around the age of 10, Douglass was able to develop a greater understanding of the world that didn’t revolve around slavery, along with the desire to become a free man and civil rights activist (Hagler). Douglass is now well known for his famous autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, in which he recalls his many experiences in slavery and the ways he dealt with the daily suffering. In his autobiographical narrative, The Narrative of the Life

Fredrick Douglass (1818-1945), both a fugitive slave and a free man, was one of the most courageous and influential leaders of the abolitionist movement. His narrative, published in 1845, illustrates his childhood and early manhood experiences as a salve, as well as his escape to the North and find of freedom. Within his narrative entitled “The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass,” Douglass argues that in order to achieve physical freedom, a slave must seek knowledge and an education.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” This famous quote is from a speech given by one of America’s most influential abolitionist speakers, Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery, this great American leader led a life many of us would find impossible to bear. After gaining his freedom from slavery, Douglass shared his stories through impressive speeches and vivid autobiographies, which helped America move forward as a country liberated from racial inequality. Although Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave allows readers to understand what life was like for slaves in antebellum America, the most important and relevant lesson to take away from this narrative today is the importance of perseverance. Douglass’s courage to resist and learn paired with his determination to keep his faith and ultimately find himself, is something to which people from every culture and time period can relate.

One of the most well-known slavery narratives was lived and written by Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was a civil rights activist who was born into slavery on a plantation in eastern Maryland in February 1818. His exact birth date is unknown, he states in his narrative, “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.”2 His birth name was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, which was given by his mother Harriet Bailey, who died when he was about 10 years old. At a young age, Douglass was picked to live in the home of a plantation owner Captain Anthony, whom some believe may have been his father. In his narrative that was published in 1845, sixteen years before the Civil War began, Douglass describes his life as a slave and his aspiration to become a free man. He describes the painful struggle to break free from the physical and mental bondage of slavery. Frederick Douglass resisted slavery by withstanding along with defying his owners. He prepared himself for life as a free man by self-improving himself through the use of education. Douglass’s experience reveals about the difficulties enslaved people would face, when and if they were granted their freedom, was that if they were not educated they were not totally “free.”

Frederick Douglass, on the other hand, didn’t have the money to free slaves, but he did have the knowledge to convince wealthy people to help free them. He published three books in total and started two newspapers. His first book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, was an autobiography about his slave life. Ten years later, he published My Bondage and My Freedom, another narrative about his early life. In 1881,z he published the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, his third autobiography also talks about the civil war, and his encounters with other presidents.

Frederick Douglass was born in Maryland in 1818 as a slave to a maritime captain, Captain Anthony. After decades of enslavement, Frederick Douglass escaped to the North and became one of the prominent members and drivers of the abolitionist movement. In an effort to provide an eye-opening account of the harsh treatment of slaves, Douglass wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In his autobiography, Frederick Douglass detailed his life beginning from his meager early years through his escape to the North. In writing his autobiography, Douglass utilized a variety of techniques including the use of the three rhetorical strategies: Ethos, Pathos and Logos to create a powerful and influential argument against the institution of

During the eighteenth century, slavery was already well-established section of the American labor system. As the amount of slaves grew in size, they did not receive rights, and were mostly separated from their families. They were mostly needed for agricultural labors and had to work mostly from dusk to dawn. Frederick Douglass’s experiences as a slave was different than that other colonial labor because of the strict treatment he received from his masters, the inferiority to other humans that he felt, and the harsh conditions he lived in.

“My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather. My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage.”

The Heroic Slave a novella written by Frederick Douglass is loosely based on The Creole Revolt of the only documented successful African – American Slaves eighteen who revolt gain their freedom including one hundred ten other slaves, who were set free in Nassau, Bahamas in 1841. (Eschner) Whereas, in The Heroic Slave, Frederick Douglass alters the actual account to introduce ideas to illicit whites to assist in abolition for slavery. (Douglas) In his novel based his story on Madison Washington one of the four slaves who is noted as prominent leader in the revolt.

Douglass had initially avoided mentioning his flight from slavery in fear of his capture and re-enslavement. Stepto states, “In 1855 Douglass published his second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom” (pg. 5). Douglass uses publication of his works to extend details of his life as a free man including extracts of all of his speeches. Douglass’s narratives sold over 18,000 copies in Germany. In 1881, Douglass published his last autobiography entitled, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Douglass limited his slavery experiences and incorporated the Civil War and postwar events. Douglass did not sell as many of this last autobiography as he had previously sold because society had progressed past any interest in slavery. It is a known fact that none of the other publications of the Douglass’s autobiographies could top the sales, nor garnered as much influence as the first autobiography written in 1845. Stepto notes, “Douglas was a prolific writer; speeches, personal letters, formal lectures, editorials, and magazine articles literally poured from his pen” (pg. 4). It is evident that the interest of the press in Douglass’s life as a slave contributed to his book

Frederick Douglass wrote his book/autobiography in 1845, Frederick Douglass was a very important slave in the 19th century for all that he had done. He was the son of slave woman whom he had been separated from at around twelve years of birth. “ My mother and I were seperated when I was but an infant- before I knew her as my mother” Douglass was born Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough which was around twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland.His birth name was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, but later changed it to Frederick Douglass.He was raised by his grandmother. He also had a brother and two sisters, but they never lived together as a family. Most slaves did not know their age while white children could. Douglas estimated he was around twenty six or twenty seven years of age around the time this book was published, he estimated from the time he remembered his master say he was around seventeen in around 1835. “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus