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The Life Of Frederick Douglass And Iceberg Slim, Pimp Essay

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Many ignorant people assume that the living conditions of African Americans during slavery and desegregation were not as harsh as they are made out to be. However, autobiographies of African Americans that were alive during that time prove otherwise. If people continue to believe that African Americans did not live a tough life during slavery and desegregation, America will be covering up its past and directly contributing to the further discrimination of the African American people. Texts such as Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of my Life display how difficult growing up as an African American was during this time by providing insight into the atrocities of slave labor and pimping.
To start off, during the era of slavery the African American race was forced into a life of strenuous labor. As if a life of arduous work was not dreadful enough, the slaves were often severely beaten and mistreated by their slave owners. Slave owners vehemently beat any slave that defied their demands in order to instill a state of submission into the slaves minds. To a slave owner, a submissive slave was a slave that would never run away and always obey commands. The text Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, a slave during the 19th century. Throughout his autobiography, Douglass describes in detail the atrocities that he had to endure in order to survive. Douglass
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