“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 important examples of perseverance in Douglass’s Narrative is his constant thirst for knowledge. The great impact learning had upon Douglass is inarguable. When his master Anthony takes him to Baltimore, he is introduced to Mrs. Auld who begins teaching him letters and small words (Douglass 250). Once Mr. Auld finds out, he warns the woman of the dangers of this kindness and forbids her from continuing these lessons (Douglass 250). Douglass’s hearing of this stirs within him his most important revelation. He tells readers, “From that moment, I
Another instance that shows that Douglass had pushed through a tough situation was when, during the reconstruction period, there were the many rights that were gained after the emancipation were stripped away, and many racist groups were behind it. As the author writes, “During the Reconstruction era of the 1870s and the 1880s, when many of the rights gained after emancipation were snatched away in the South, Douglass spoke out against lynchings, the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Jim Crow laws that were devised to keep blacks in their place and away from the ballot box.” (Freedman 47) This proves that Douglass had shown through all of the racist acts that were happening around him, and with him speaking out about how it wasn being treated as if they weren’t. He still never gave up and still continued to make an effort, even when it was difficult.
When a man grows up as an untaught slave in the southern eighteenth-century, he has no other ambitions than to be free. But for Frederick Douglass, freedom was merely step one. Douglass began his life on a plantation owed from the moment he arrived. He was not destined to stay put there. Born in (what he can come close to) 1818, he began life out as a man in chains but ended up a respected wordsmith, but still apologetic for his short comings. Douglass learned how to read, write, and give speeches; he influenced a nation for changes among writers today; and he had different approaches to the era he lived in, but knew he wanted change to exist among all. These things were needed to occur in order for the slavery and African-American society to be recognized as equals among all. His wit was not small nor was his leadership not seen as defiance. Each step of his journey, brought him to a different place where he faced a challenge that could not have been met any other way, but with strength and education where he was successful in obtaining. Douglass was not only a speaker, but was an author of his time. Many colleagues wrote of him and his life even after he passed away. In Douglass’ works he spoke of his ignorance and blunders, but continued to sow his good seed. In the book “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas an
This collage we have created by how slaves were treated in the book “Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave.” We had determined and imagined how slaves were treated from the explanation of the book. Slaves were abused different ways that no other humans could resist. They were physically abused, sexually abused, emotional abused, starved, and got a little cloth even in the winter.
Many of his audience would expect Douglass to be a brave, courageous man; however, they have to understand that Douglass was a person like any other, and that the pain and suffering he had gone through to get his education. He also used to describe his mistress a “tender-hearted woman,” as a sympathy to show that there are people out there that are caring enough to educate him(1). However, the dark turn of event happened when his mistress became more crucial and punished her slaves, just like her husband. Douglass also explained that he does not feel any sympathy towards her anyways because he was a slave and he knew she would eventually mistreat him. After his mistress’ cruel transformation, he grew weary because when he is caught reading a newspaper, his mistress would be aggressive and snatch the newspaper away from Douglass so he could not read anymore (1). The most difficult time was when his master found out he was learning to read, he would punish him (2-3). Douglass wrote, “learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing,” knowing at the time that getting an education was far more difficult than he anticipated (3). Douglass would think learning to read was not worth the pain he was getting. He thought that getting an education would help him escape slavery, but after his beating, he realized that receiving one would mean he has to endure the hardship in
Frederick Douglass believed that all people were born equal, but he also believed that humans were not just automatically born free. He deduced that man has the innate instinctive ability to mold themselves into whoever they wanted to become. So, naturally self-improvement and education were two crucial aspects of Frederick’s life. To Douglass the most horrific thing about slavery was the fact that slaves were totally and completely precluded from and form of education, which prevented them from improving themselves. Douglass worked exceedingly hard to obtain an education in order to ultimately become a free man. Although he still had to physically escape slavery his education played a vital role in his journey to freedom.
Imagine being born into slavery, where you 're forced to work, barely fed, and whipped a couple times of day. Rumble! That is the sound you hear in your stomach. Each night after working in the field for an hour a time. Pain that 's what you feel after being whipped, for not moving fast enough as you should, mainly because you are tired. You live this life of a slave. Your name is Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass once said, “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave. Frederick Douglass did not have an easy life, he has had a painful life. Douglass was born into slavery. His mother was black, and his father was an white man, as an infant, he was separated from his mother, and around the age of twelve his mother passed away. Eventually Frederick Douglass successfully escaped on the train, and he became the voice of slaves. He was able to speak up and out about the unequal treatment of slaves, unfortunately slavery still continues to today around the world, especially in America, with Atlanta been the top location for human trafficking. Frederick Douglass was able to speak up for the slaves who could not speak up for them, so he was the voice for the powerless. There are ministries, non- profits organizations, and we as individuals. as the voice for young men and women who kidnapped it 's our job, to use our voices to speak up against people who can 't speak up.
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
“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.”
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.
One of Douglass’ first endeavors on his journey of self improvement was to become literate. Upon coming to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, he says that he found his new mistress to
People have their equal right, and should not be ranked depending on their skin color or gender. However, because of the greed of wealth, some people discarded their basic humanity and discipline, and made excuses to justify their cruelty, so the slavery became like a tumor to parasitize the human society rapidly. With physical and psychological abuse, this “tumor” tortured every struggling people from day to night. As the insight of a dark history, Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave” demonstrates the dehumanization of an inhuman society and how slavery could make a man be a salve and make another man be an enslaver and how he resisted this dehumanization.
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.
of living a slave life and he feared he would walk that path for the remainder of his life. Despite
He was so thrilled to leave the life of the field work behind him. “I had been treated as a pig on the plantation: I was treated as a child now”, he says that “troops of hostile boys” he would wish that he could be back on “the home plantation”. Auld’s wife Sophia was teaching Douglass how to read, when all of a sudden, Auld walks in and he insisted that she stop immediately, he said “a slave, should know nothing but the will of his mater”, “would forever unfit him for the duties of a slave”. Douglass heard and was able to understand the message, but he got so much out of his crucial statement. “In learning to read, therefore, I… owe quite as much to the opposition of my master, as to kindly assistance of my amiable mistress”. Douglass was to determined to learn so he would exchanging bread for reading lessons, from hungry white children from the streets of Baltimore. “For a single biscuit” he states, “any of my hungry little comrades would give me a lesson more valuable to me than bread”. One of many instances where Douglass own audacity when he was still young, was when he was sent by Master Auld to the planation, as Covey aka The Negro Breaker. Auld’s objective was that the Willy and resentfulness of Covey would break Douglass’s unconquerable emotions. Auld almost achieved that. Douglass would sometimes defend himself to one of his temporary master’s. His temporary master would brutally
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.