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The Life Of Frederick Douglas By Harriet Jacob

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Menal Elmaliki Blessings and Woe The glaring, almost scorching sun beats down on the backs of the enslaved. The sweat rolls down, past their scared backs and down to the heel of their tired aching feet. The plantations roar of devastation, but not of its crops but the people that tend to it. From dusk they rise and to the rake of night they rest, laden with what little sleep, and what little time they have to dream. Their aching scars tell tales far beyond, their eyes seen what no other, and their ears hear like no other; the slaves, encumbered as they are living history. Freedom is all but a dream, and those who dare to even dream or think are those who are not blind and know that freedom is their right. Slavery has weakened the back and soul of Frederick Douglas but surely not his mind and not even slavery can destroy the paramountcy of motherhood and community as Harriet Jacob’s simply shown. In after all, slavery has made Frederick a man and Harriet, a mother. In the “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave,” by Frederick Douglass, it details a momentous passage of conquering education and reconquering manhood; gaining glory even though he was left to his own devices from an early age dissimilar to Harriet Jacobs in the “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Family values are destroyed, can we even say some existed; what it means to be a man, a husband, and a mother is a trial all on its own. Slavery is a troubling situation; it can

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