Frederick Douglass Essay

First, one of Frederick’s masters was delusional, because he whipped his woman slave while quoting a bible verse. As he whipped another human being, he would quote, “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes (Douglass 68).” The reason this master would say this quote is because he

Imagine being woken up by the yelling of your loved one being whipped "He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush," (Douglass, chapter 1, paragraph8).In Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass. Fredrick Douglass wants to change his readers beliefs about what it means to be dedicated to the American idea that "All men are created equal" by telling about physical abuse of slavery and lack of education.

In the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave, written by himself, the author argues that slaves are treated no better than, sometimes worse, than livestock. Douglass supports his claim by demonstrating how the slaves were forced to eat out of a trough like pigs and second, shows how hard they were working, like animals. The author’s purpose is to show the lifestyle of an American slave in order to appeal to people’s emotions to show people, from a slave’s perspective, what slavery is really like. Based on the harsh descriptions of his life, Douglass is writing to abolitionist and other people that would sympathize and abolish slavery.

When comparing two essays, there are many different aspects that the reader can look at to make judgments and opinions. In the two essays that I choose, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. 'Letter from Birmingham Jail', and FREDERICK DOUGLAS'S 'From Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,' there were many similarities, but also many differences. Some of them being, the context, style, structure and tone. Many times when readings or articles are being compared, people over look the grammatical and structural elements, and just concentrate on the issues at hand. I believe it is important to evaluate both.

system? Well, Douglass wrote a whole autobiography talking about his struggles and punishments through his whole life. This essay will use Douglass’s view as a slave and other people’s aspects on slavery to explain how Frederick Douglass threw light on the American slave system and what how his position differ from those who defended slavery.

As a young child, Frederick Douglass was introduced to the acts of violence towards the slaves including the all too common whippings. He says, “I have often been awakened at the down of day by the most heart-rendering shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood.” One could only imagine the horrid pictures that slaves would have seen on a daily basis of other slaves nearly being beaten to death by their masters. For the black children growing up on the plantation, the master was seen to be a man of great power and not to be taken lightly. This was exactly

Continuing with the theme of family values, Douglass shifts to the basic family unit. Their master separated Douglass and his mother when he was an infant, for what reason he “does not know” (Douglass 2). No one gave Douglass an explanation because this situation was customary on plantations. Douglass wanted to horrify his Northern white readers by informing them that slaveholders regularly split slave families for no apparent reason. This obviously would upset Northerners because the family unit was the foundation for their close-knit communities. Multiple generations and extended families lived together or near each other. It was unimaginable to the readers that a society existed that took children away from their mothers without reason. Northerners would think of anyone who was part of such a society as a heartless monster (Quarles ix).

The analysis of the under discussion autobiography indicates a lot of major universal themes and human exploitation is one of them. A reader can see bleak picture of black slavery from the narration of Frederick Douglass who confronts brutal conduct of white masters throughout his childhood.

Issues of freedom vs being enslaved did not stop with whippings. Douglass has memories when it was time to eat, "our food was coarse corn meal boiled. This was called mush. It was put into a large wooded tray or trough, and set down upon the ground. The children were then called, like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none with spoons. He that ate the fastest got most; he that was strongest secured the best place; and few left the trough satisfied" (Douglass 957). This moment they have of them eating a meal could be that of rats fighting over garbage. This was no way to treat hardworking people that had worked all day long. Douglass experiences the discomforts of hunger and cold during his time as a slave.

He said,“they have been severely whipped day by day” yet he was known to be prideful of his concern for the well -being of his slaves. [ Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! Seagull 3rd ed. (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2012), 138] This idea of beatings as a form of care can remind one of growing up in the southern region of today’s United States.

In Douglass’s memoir, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave,” he recounts his traumatic childhood as a salve and puts a first-hand perspective on the nefarious, evil acts that is slavery.

Throughout his autobiography, Douglas writes about his experiences with his masters and the conditions in which he lived. When he was young, he lived with a master who “was not a humane slaveholder” (Douglas, 17). He “seem[ed] to take great pleasure in whipping a slave” and would “whip upon her naked back until she was covered in blood” (Douglas, 17). It was horrifying for Frederick to hear the agonizing screams of his fellow slaves being whipped every night. When he got older, he moved to Baltimore to live with his new master, Mr. Auld. While he was there, he was subjected to see his master “tie up a lame young woman, and whip her with a heavy cowskin” (Douglas, 57). This horrific punishment would last four to five hours. Many of the slaves were exposed to “cruel scourgings,… mutilations and branding,…severe flagellation[s],…[and] depriv[ation]…of necessary food and clothing” (Douglas, 6) So, not

In the early 19th century, slavery was legal and popular in the southern states, among these slaves, one slave in particular impacted the 19th century was Frederick Douglass. Although he was a slave for most of his life, Douglass eventually became a freeman, a social reform, writer, and an abolitionist for slavery. However, before he became a freeman, Douglass experienced a brutal life as a slave. He faced dehumanization in his early life, but accomplished what most slaves we not allowed to do; which is getting educated, by self-educating himself and retaliating against the idea of slavery. Furthermore, since he self-educated himself, he was able to published the narrative, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas; which, Douglass shows the audience how methods such as, physical abuse, psychological abuse, and lack of education were used to dehumanize slaves. He describes how he resisted these methods and realized that whites who participated in slavery themselves were being dehumanized.

Douglass explains the negativity of the master watching his kids get whipped, “...he must not only whip them himself, but must stand by and see one white son tie up his brother...and ply the gory lash to his naked back... it is set down to his parental partiality, and only makes a bad matter worse…” (Douglass 19). Douglass shows that his master is torn by his parental duty by loving and caring for the child, but instead having to watch his own child suffer by seeing the tears and the blood from the lashes on his child’s back. Masters who wanted a lot of power became an issue to the slaves.

Frederick Douglass first realized experienced the horrors of slavery being a slave when his Aunt Hester disobeyed her master by going out when she was not supposed to. when he desired her to be present but she was out. Previously, her master told her not to go out but she did and was in the company of another man. Although Frederick Douglass was hiding he watched his aunt stripped, hung up and severely whipped until she was completely bloodied.[3] After that incident, the young Frederick Douglass saw a great deal of pain and suffering that came from the heavy cowskin whip for major