Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Picture this going through life without the ability to read or write. Without these abilities, it is impossible for a person to be a functioning member of society. In addition, imagine that someone is purposely limiting your knowledge to keep a leash on your independence. Not only is an American slave raised without skills in literacy, he cannot be taught to read unless someone breaks the law. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the reader is given a detailed explanation of why slave masters keep their slaves ignorant and the effects such a strategy has on the slaves’ lives. In his autobiography, Douglass describes how the knowledge he obtains has substantial positive and negative effects on his psyche. He is given renewed passion and hope for freedom while struggling with the burden of enlightenment of his situation. Ultimately, however, education shapes his fate, and he achieves freedom and prominence as an advocate for abolition.

The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass gives readers a detailed overview of the life of a slave who share his own personal experiences and struggles from a slave to a freeman.  Frederick Douglass was born in Talbot county, Maryland. He was the son of Harriet Bailey and his father was a white man  (Douglass 1). After living with his master for nine months, Frederick was sent to stay with Mr. Covey, a man who is known for “breaking down young slaves” (Douglass 34). But while he was at Mr Covey’s Douglass faced many struggles.

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass, he tells his own personal story about what it was like to live as a slave. While living through the horrors of slavery, Douglass manages to educate himself, by teaching himself to read with the help of few. As Douglass matures, life only gets harder. However, his education brings him hope. Not only does Douglass read of abolition, giving him hope, he also learns the importance of his education. Frederick Douglass discovers that education is the key to the freedom of his people through realizing the inevitable power gap is created by ignorance.

“Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read. The very decided manner with which he spoke, and strove to impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving me instruction, served to convince me that he was deeply sensible of the truths he was uttering. It gave me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost confidence on the results which, he said, would flow from teaching me to read.” (Douglass, 29-30).

The theme of individual versus society has been featured in many pieces of literature over time. This conflict can be described as an individual’s struggle against the confines of their culture or society. The individual wrestles with either upholding society’s rules or breaking them. The conflict of the individual versus society is included in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass. In his memoir, Douglass, who was a slave at the time, learned how to read and write. This was deviant from society in that period because slaves were not allowed to read and write. This conflict also appears in real life situations, such as the women’s suffrage movement or the Civil Rights Movement. Members of these movements did things that deviated from societal norms at the time. The theme of the individual versus society is presented as an individual deviating from society’s ideals.

The “Narratives of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is the story of Frederick Douglass’ life from the time he was born into slavery, to the time he escaped to freedom in the north. When Douglass wrote this book, slavery was still legal in a large portion of the United States. After Douglass’ escape to freedom and his continuation of his education, he became an abolitionist through his works of literature and speeches. In “The Blessings of Slavery”, by George Fitzhugh he states that southern slaves for the most part are the freest and happiest people in the world. He also goes on to say a number of other things that basically establish that slaves live an easy and good life compared to others. Frederick Douglass’ pure story telling in the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” directly goes against any argument for slavery from Fitzhugh, by revealing the harshness of the institution of slavery and the individuals behind it. In each piece of literature both authors also unknowingly touch on topics of early American history such as free labor ideology and paternalism therefore deepening our knowledge of popular understandings during this time period. Douglass refutes Fitzhugh’s pro-slavery argument of the average slave living an ideal life, by disproving early ideas of the free labor system and paternalism through real life encounters of the physical oppression slaves faced on the day to day basis in the forms of inhumane treatment and violence, as well as the true harsh

Frederick Douglass, throughout Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, uses religion to get many of his points across. In one way, religion plays a huge role in Douglass’ ability to become literate throughout the text. With the Bible and other Christian texts, Douglass is able to further his ability and the ability of others to read. This becomes important because as Douglass points out the slaveholders believe a literate slave is not a good slave. This union of literacy and religion show the importance of religion to Douglass. However, Douglass also incorporates religious details throughout the Narrative and the appendix that lend themselves to a separation between “the Christianity of this land [America] and the Christianity of Christ.” These two distinct religious views cannot coexist in Douglass’ America, and it becomes clear that in order to abolish slavery, first one must confront these two distinct roles of Christianity. So in a way, Douglass’ religion is not just an attack on the unrighteous ways of the slave-holding Christian, but it also becomes a political vessel to forward the abolitionist cause. If religion is viewed as a political vessel for Douglass, the appendix can therefore be seen as his call-to-arms against the oppressive intolerance of slavery and slaveholder religion.

Frederick Douglas is a former slave, abolitionist, writer, editor, and orator. He was born in 1818 and died in 1895. Throughout Douglass’ early years he suffered physical abuse, deprivation, and tragedy. Although he had a rough start he overcame every obstacle thrown his way and became a great spokesman for his people. Douglass didn’t really know who was as a person all he knew was what people told him. Throughout his early life he looked at the life of the white kids and judge his life based on theirs and he felt that his life was totally unfair because he was not afforded the same privileges as his Caucasian peers. In 1835 Frederick Douglass overheard his master say that he was 17, and this was the first time he ever heard anything of his age (1).

In the memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a slave named Frederick Douglass wrote an autobiography to show the way slavery degraded slaves and slave masters. He was born in Tuckahoe, about twelve miles from Easton, Maryland. He was born into slavery and had no knowledge of his age. Douglass was separated from his mother after birth, never saw her, except when she would occasionally visit him at night. Douglass was transferred and sold repeatedly in the slave markets of the South. The physical abuse and physical neglect of the slaves resulted in mental fluctuation. As a result, the psychological consequences that were within these elements were more detrimental to the mental development and to the identity of the slaves.

Frederick Douglass, a man who found redemption through the unknown truth, that reading is the key to knowledge, in his case is the key to his freedom. In his time, slaves have endured all kind of physical torture but the worst of them all was the mental abuse.

Fredrick Douglass was a former slave, talented writer and outspoken abolitionist. Douglass was a slave from Tuckahoe, Maryland who fled to New York and than later on to Massachusetts. He was born into slavery and was officially sent to a plantation to work at the age of seven. Prior to working in the fields he, as well as other slave children, was raised by an older woman. This was commonplace for the slave families, according to Douglass, "it 's a common custom to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached it 's twelfth month, it 's mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor" (Douglass, 2). A man named Captain Anthony, who was aid to have been Douglass 's father, owned Douglass 's mother. Due to a series of deaths within his family, which would later include the Captain himself, there were a number of property disputes. Douglass was constantly shifted back and forth from Baltimore to the south. After a failed attempt at escaping he was sent back to Baltimore.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave tells the story of Frederick Douglass and his journey to freedom. Throughout the narrative Douglass presents his experiences through the eyes of a slave and how these experiences were the main reason for his acquired freedom. Each part of his transformation into a free, educated man always involved a set of opportunities that allowed him to ultimately be able to write this historical narrative. In the narrative, Douglass never fails to mention the great impact that getting an education had on his life and tributes his education to everything other great thing that happened after he became educated. However, being educated included going through several trials that allowed Douglass to reach his ultimate goal of being a free man.

In the early stages of my education, I was taught to believe the United States came to be through heroic battles and the need for freedom. As I’ve gotten older and my education has progressed, those initial teachings have become less than believable. Though I have learned about slavery it was never from the perspective of a slave. Through reading The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass I was able to learn the real life accounts of a man who was a slave. One of the things Douglass touched on was the way the white slave owners treated the salves as less than human, something that could be controlled and an inferior race. I was able to connect this idea, to the learnings of my previous education on white people coming to America and their interactions with the Native Americans.

“I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs” This is one of many famous quotes by Frederick Douglass that illustrates that no dream or hope can be achieved without any action. In his autobiography Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass, he outlines his life as a slave and his journey towards freedom through his desire for education. In Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the story expresses repression that slaves experienced through Douglass’s related experiences as a slave. The obstacles that Douglass conquers to achieve his education teaches a modern reader that education is the key to escaping oppression.

Being a slave in the United States was not uncommon in the 19th century. There were many brutalities of being a slave including physical and spiritual abuse. Slaves were considered property and not as human beings. They were mistreated and kept illiterate. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is a autobiography written by Frederick Douglass himself that told of his experiences of being a slave in the United States. He expresses the brutality the slave owners and how he struggled with running away to become a free human being. The themes of his story include: the ignorance of slaves, the treatment of slaves as property, religion used as justification, and the victimization of female slaves.