The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

After reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, it is clear to see the true horrors behind the entirety of slavery. It is one thing to learn about it from a textbook or to sit through a lecture, but it is a completely different experience to get an account of how grossly inhumane, frightening, and appalling slavery really was from someone who experienced the terrors first-hand. Reading this narrative provided extremely descriptive details of how slaves truly were treated. Douglass recounted the time where he had often:

Frederick Douglass, author of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, illustrates an emotional and extremely tragic story that describes the struggles of a slave Pre-Civil War in the South. Douglass writes with the sole purpose of showing the truth about slavery and how inhumane the slaves were treated. The slaves treated like animals and fed even worse than animals. Throughout Douglass’ narrative, he uses blunt diction to express how serious the situation is, figurative language to convey imagery to make it more emotional, and ethos numerously to make the story more credible in the hopes of abolishing slavery.

Frederick Douglass, a world-renowned abolitionist and orator, was born into enslavement in the deep south, but by the time of his death he was a free man and wrote this autobiography sharing his many life experiences. The narrative is the first of three, written by the self-taught author. It illustrates the hardships that he, as an American slave, encountered throughout his life, and confirms his reasoning behind his decision to not only join, but to lead the abolitionist movement that made such an impact in the nineteenth century. He was committed to convincing those who participated in the enslavement of the African people of how immoral the enslavement in the South truly was. Throughout the autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick

Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery around 1818, will forever remain one of the most important figures in America's struggle for civil rights and racial equality. As an ex-slave, his inspiration grew beyond his boarders to reach the whole world. Without any formal education, Douglass escaped slavery and became a respected American diplomat, a counselor to four presidents, a highly regarded speaker, and an influential writer. By common consent Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845) is recognized as the best among the many slave narratives that appeared before the Civil War. He amazed people when he spoke bravely in his Fourth of

He notes that, the slavery institution made them forget about their origin, and anything else that entails their past, and even when they were born. The slaves forgot everything about their families, and none knew about their family because, they were torn from them without any warning. Douglass explains how they went without food, clothing and even sleep because their masters were cruel to them. American slavery took advantage of black laborers as they were beaten mercilessly without committing any offense. They were not treated as human beings, but as property that could be manipulated in any way. The slavery institution was harsh for the Africans especially women who were regularly raped, and forced to bear their masters children and if they declined, they were maimed or killed.

The definition of a slave is a person or thing that is considered an object or property to another person. The definition of slavery is “a condition compared to that of a slave in respect of exhausting labor or restricted freedom”. Which in latent terms means the act of keeping a person or servant as either a practice or as a source of institution. In Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, one of the most common and influential themes that was prominent throughout the narrative was, How does the practice of slavery corrupts both the slave and the slave owner/masters?

The most stunning and horrible dehumanizing effects of slavery apparently appear in the daily lives of slaves. They are kept in the darkness since their births. Unlike white children, children of slaves are deprived of the simple privilege of telling their ages. Also, in Maryland, it is a common custom to separate the slave children from their mothers, because slaveholders wish to keep their slaves ignorant. For the same reason, slaves are kept uneducated. When Mr. Auld realizes that his wife is teaching Douglass the alphabet and some small words, he orders her to stop immediately, because he says that education ruins slaves, and they will “become unmanageable, and of no value to his master” (Ch. Ⅵ ). Working conditions are unbearable for slaves. “It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, hail, or snow, too hard for [them] to work in the field”(Ch.Ⅹ). In addition, slaves are not perceived as humans in the eyes of slaveholders, but rather as properties and animals. Under the valuation, they have to undergo a narrow examination. “There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and

Due to the inhuman mistreatment of slaves in the United States many slaves like Fredrick Douglass had to escape to fight for freedom to become abolitionists. To expose the terror and cruelties that he faced from his owners and overseers as a slave as narrated in “Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass.”

Slavery’s dehumanizing restriction on slaves’ emotions and intellect is clear as Douglass explains the common practice of separating young children from their mothers to destroy slaves’ first account with affection.1 Douglass demonstrates, in this moment, that the fundamental practices of slavery are to restrict its victims understanding of love to create heartless, mindless laborers. This process begins by stripping innocent children from their mothers, as a means strip enslaved children of their humanity. Furthermore, the emotionally numbing nature of enslavement can be seen through Douglass learns of his mother’s death and is minimally afflicted by it.2 The very thought that a person could be left unmoved by their own mother's death is devastating, Fredrick Douglass's lack of

The morals of Frederick Douglass have been greatly affected by the culture of slavery. Not having a choice on what they do in their life makes slaves depressed. Almost no slaves have any education as slaveholders do not want slaves to use their education either to escape or they may read things that could possibly make them depressed. After Frederick Douglass taught himself how to read, he consequently, became depressed after learning what else he could have done with his life. “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead,” after he started reading, he was given some insight into how bad his life truly was (55). The effects of slavery may also have a negative impact on the slaveholder, “When I went there, she was pious, warm, and a tender-hearted woman. . . Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone,” (52). Slavery furthermore proved its ability to change people through Mrs. Auld, who turned from an extremely nice and comforting slave owner into a cold hearted slave owner. This change affects Douglass, because Mrs. Auld became more aggressive. Slavery can also turn people who were initially nice, calm people into an aggressive person. A great example of this is when the fight between Frederick Douglass and Mr. Covey, Frederick Douglass has had enough of the way he is treated by Mr. Covey.

It is widely known that slavery is a brutal, cruel, and inhumane regime that had been wide-spread around the whole world. However, it has not inflamed a whole-scale political and social crisis more seriously anywhere than in the United States during the nineteenth century. People who were forced, kidnapped or passively “born” to be slaves were not only required to perform endless labor, but also tortured, suppressed and bestially destroyed in numerous heartless ways — physically and mentally. However, a few decades before the outbreak of the civil war, it was barely possible for the people in the north to know about the details of how the slaves lived in the south due to several factors such as the limit of communications. Fortunately,

The topic of slavery in antebellum America was very mixed overall in the nation. Normally people in the North opposed slavery, while citizens of the South supported it. However, at the same time, many people were unconcerned with this heated topic and needed to be persuaded to join the fight against slavery. Northern citizens may have seen the practice slavery as neither good nor bad, but just part of Southern life going on for hundreds of years. Frederick Douglass, a slave who had escaped to the North, after years of abuse through slavery, knew that in order to stop slavery, he had to persuade all the people in the North to vehemently oppose it as much as he did himself. Through the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, which he

But plantation slavery did not function simply because of threats or violence. Slaves were also wheedled and persuaded to work. They were given small motivations -extra foods, clothing, and time free from work, expecting that they would work more and effectively. They were also given land to cultivate foodstuffs or rear animals for their own use. Among all these, yet violence was the eventual threat of the entire system, much as it had been on the slave ship.

In this book, Douglass narrated the life of a slave in the United States into finer details. This paper will give a description of life a slave in the United States was living, as narrated

Slaves didn't have a voice to protect themselves from brutality because they were basically property. The treatment provided by the plantation owner and overseer were inhuman and degrading. These worker experience an average of 15 hours workday for six days a week and on sunday which is there day off, they must attend church. Slaves also suffered from whipping, shackling, beating, mutilation, branding, shooting, flogging, imprisonment and sexually abused. Slave owner basically dehumanized their servants. This made the plantation owner along the slaves themselves think that they aren't human. The stories of how slaves were mistreated has been around since colonial days but it didn't cause a major a divide of the nation until 1850.