The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass perfectly depicts the dreadful experience of living in slavery. From being unsure of the day he was born, to his first beating from a master, to the brutal and exhausting work, and to the joyous day he was freed. Besides describing his experience as a slave, he describes the toll slavery had on the masters and families of slaves. Frederick Douglass also includes his view of education in relation to freedom. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a good excerpt from The Classic Slave Narratives that can be considered a good historical resource due to the historical content it provides about slavery. Frederick Douglass gave countless examples of the effect that slavery had on the slaves, as well as on the masters. One specific example of how slavery has an effect on the masters is Sophia Auld. Sophia had never owned a slave before Frederick . Douglass described Sophia as “a woman with the kindest heart and finest feelings.” Before owning a slave, she was the nicest person he had ever come across. She began to teach him the alphabet and how to read. Eventually, Mr. Auld found out and forbade her to teach him.
Unfortunately, the concept of slavery changed Sophia. Instead of being the nicest woman, she began watching Frederick closer and treating him worse. She would watch him to make sure he did not have anything in his possession to aid him in learning to read; it outraged her when she would see Douglass with a
Even though the words of his master degrade Douglass, they also inspire him to pursue reading and freedom more passionately. When Douglass sees how intimidated his master, Hugh Auld, is at the idea of his wife, Sophia Auld, teaching young Frederick to read, he realizes that knowledge is truly power. He feels the constraint his master imposed on him his entire life, and he begins to understand how to free himself. Douglass writes that, “From that moment I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom…I was gladdened by the invaluable
Mrs. Auld now realized that education and slavery were incompatible. The once, kind Mrs. Auld, now turned her back on Frederick Douglass. She stopped teaching Frederick Douglass to read, nor, would not let him look at the newspaper. However, all of her evil intentions to abandon him in mental darkness just motivated him to further his reading abilities to the next level
The power that they have over their slaves has a damaging effect on their moral health because they are careless. Douglass describes adultery and rape as typical behavior patterns of slaveholders which damage their families. Sophia Auld is Douglass's main illustration of the corruption of slave owners. The power of slaveholding changes Sophia from a nice woman to a demon. She went from a kind, caring and loving person into a typical mean slave master. She was no longer able to teach Douglass how to read because her husband disapproved it. Slaveholders gain and keep power over blacks from their birth onward by keeping them ignorant of basic facts about themselves. For example slaves didn't know their birth date or who their parents were. They didn't want slaves to have a natural sense of identity. Slave children were not allowed to learn to read or write because this would lead slaves to question their rights.
The one instance that Douglass brings up is the best slave owner that he had, other than himself, was William Freeland. Douglass states, “ I will give Mr. Freeland the credit of being the best master I ever had, till I became my own master.” This statement made by Douglass shows that not everyone who was a slaveholder was an evil and corrupt man and that Mr. Freeland was one of those people. Also in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, we see that Douglass was able to hold a sabbath school and was able to teach other slaves how to read and write which helped his self-esteem and eventually helped him be able to get free and live his own
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
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.
Douglass' thesis mostly focuses on slavery and how it destroys the humanity of all those involved. He also takes time to speak of the unthinkable deeds which took place between the masters and the slaves.In many cases, slave holders commit adultery and rape with their female slaves in order to produce more slave. “He can be father without being husband, and may sell his child without incurring reproach.”[3] “A master fathering a slave child destroys the very concept of fatherhood and of family. Family is antagonistic to slavery. He made a personal argument later in that same paragraph "My father was a white man, or nearly white. It was sometimes whispered that my master was my father." The very existence of such a slave threatens the sanctity of the slaveholder's family. “Genealogical trees do not flourish among slaves”[4] The father must either sell his own child, or raise him as a slave with all the abuse that comes with such a life.”[5] He writes in vivid detail about the common cruelties slaveholders inflict against their slaves, making it a point to show how dehumanizing slavery is not just to the slave, but to anyone who supports it. Douglass uses the character of Sophia[6] as a prime example of a person corrupted by slavery in order to depict a much broader sense of the evil powers slavery possess. "Her face was lightened with the
In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the dehumanization of slaves often occurs, as white plantation owners view slaves as objects undeserving of humane treatment in order to uphold power and warrant their unjust practices. Limiting knowledge and prohibiting education for African Americans was one strategy common among slave owners, as “it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant” (17). Due to their lack of intellect, slaves could not recognize the injustices of the slavery system and had little chances of escaping. When Mrs. Auld attempts to teach Frederick Douglass how to read and write, Mr. Auld claims, “A n***** should know nothing but to obey
By making this comment, Douglass points out the corruption of slavery itself as it demonstrates the evilness of slavery when touched. He uses Sophia’s character, a white woman that is a victim of slavery, as a process showing the negative effect slavery has on slaveholders. Women are portrayed as loving, innocent, delicate and sympathetic. However, corruption and power can change even the nicest person into the cruelest person. Slave owners become more brutal as they receive more power. Douglass uses woman to show this corruption that nobody can be safe from the damaging impacts of slavery. Therefore, it just shows the evilness of slavery and how inhumane it can be.
Douglass' cousin told him the city was beautiful and Douglass knew it couldn't be any worse than the plantation. When Douglass meets his new owners, he described Hugh Auld's wife, Sophia Auld, as having a kindly face. Douglass learned what might have been one of his biggest lessons as a slave from these overseers. Sophia, the wife of Hugh Auld, had never owned a slave before, therefore she treated him almost as if he were a child of hers. She taught him the alphabet and some other minor words before Hugh took notice of what she was doing. Mr. Auld told his wife " it is unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read." (Douglass, p.78) Hugh goes on to say "A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master 'if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever make him unfit to be a slave.'" (Douglass, p.78) Douglass overheard every word that hissed out of Hugh Auld's mouth. Sophia Auld had been lessoned in the ways of slave managing now. She discontinued her teaching to Frederick and began to treat him as the property they considered him to be. Douglass' mind frame changed completely after hearing Auld's words. He realized that education was the key in order to obtain his freedom, " to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man." (Douglass, p.78) Douglass continued to pursue his education on his own. He would trade
Sophia and Hugh Auld become crueler toward him, but Douglass still prefers Baltimore and teaches himself to read with the help of local boys. Douglass becomes more aware of the evils of slavery and of the existence of the abolitionist, or antislavery, movement and resolves to eventually escape to the North.
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.
Yet another example shown by Frederick of slaves being able to resist their masters is by the sacrifices of his mother to come and see him. Because a method often used by slaveholders of keeping the slaves weak is to keep their families and loved ones separated. By coming to see him as a boy in the night Frederick's mother resisted those methods.
Frederick Douglass was beaten, whipped and forced to do the work of people who saw him as a tool instead of a person. Like horses need to be broken before they can be ridden, black men need to be "broken" to be good slaves(80). Slave owners pushed false religious ideas and hoped to keep Douglass and others in ignorance. Hypocrisy burned at Douglass. People nearly killed slaves and then they proclaimed the "meek and lowly Jesus" (120). Slave owners believed that if slaves were ignorant of their condition, they would never rebel. Douglass knew that
In Douglass’ narrative, one of the morally questionable things he mentioned was how slavery had poisoned a person’s moral compass, depicted in Sophia Auld’s transformation. At the beginning of the meeting he briefly described her eyes as warm and undiscriminating. Having owned no slaves before, he described his mistress as a sincere and kind woman; all of this changed when Capt. Auld ordered Sophia to stop teaching Douglass how to read as “Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world” (32). Upon hearing this, Sophia consequently drowned in the power of authority, while at the same time Douglass had a revelation to a key point towards his freedom. Slaves were made to believe that this is their destiny and their ethical obligation to the white, and that the refusal to teach slaves and the extended holidays were ploys to keep the slaves from thinking about any uprising against the masters (58). In this strategic point, Douglass argued that the state of mental health digress for both the slaves who are left in the dark: illiterate and unable to fend for themselves so they wouldn’t catch on to their corrupt and unnatural predicament, and for the masters; whose power has blinded and force them to become malicious and aggressive, and made them become the person they are not to conform to society’s slave-holding