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Life as a Slave in the autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

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I don’t know why my life is of interest to you, as far as I’m concerned, I didn’t do anything miraculous, like raise the dead or cure cancer. But if my story will motivate someone to fight against human injustice, then I will tell you all about it. My story began as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, on a cold February day around 1818, in Talbot County, Maryland. I was born into slavery, to a black woman, Harriet Bailey, and a white father, who I would never know. They took me from my grandmother at six years of age, to begin the life of a field slave, where I was beaten, forced to eat from a food trough, like and animal, and sleep on the bare floor. Two years later, after my owner’s death, his wife sent me to serve her…show more content…
She provided me with some of her savings and a sailor’s uniform. And days after my arrival, I sent for her and on September 15th, we were married. We moved to Massachusetts, and there we adopted the marital name Douglass, to prevent recapture. This is where the man you call Frederick Douglass was created. I continued my work against slavery, by telling my story at abolitionist meetings, and eventually delivering my first speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society’s convention. In 1845, things really got crazy. I began working with William Lloyd Garrison, a well known writer of a weekly journal, called The Liberator. It was because of his advising, that I wrote my first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. My book was a bestseller, but it brought unwanted attention. They would not let me forget, I was still a runaway slave. As a result, I fled to Ireland to prevent recapture. For the next two years, I remained in Ireland and Britain, speaking on the evil called slavery. After years of slavery and hiding, I returned to the United States a free man, thanks to the seven hundred and ten dollars paid by my British supporters, for my freedom. There was never a more magnificent feeling, than knowing you are free to move about the country, without fear of being captured. It seemed like I was
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