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The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass

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The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave is an autobiography written in the first person. The book was published by the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1845. Douglass was born in Tuckahoe Maryland sometime around 1818 and was named Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. He was born enslaved, his mother a slave and his father a white man and possibly his master. Frederick lived his life as a slave before escaping to New York in 1838. Changing his name to Douglass, he would become one of the most important figures in the abolitionist movement. Douglass’s memoir revolves around themes of slavery and education.
Narrative is Douglass’s early life story, a story of a man born into slavery who finally escapes to
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He brings home a respectable income with this trade but is required to hand over all of his money to Hugh. He discusses a for hire plan with Hugh to pay him board and a portion of his pay if he is able to keep a portion of his money. He is content with this relationship but Hugh quickly squashes the arrangement. When Auld takes away his for hire status Frederick decides he will escape. He is able to fool Auld be making himself seem especially loyal and finds passage to New York. There he is helped by the abolitionist network. The people in this network give him money and boarding until he is able to find a job and make his own income for the first time keeping every cent he has earned.
In his autobiography Douglass tells of his life as a slave, of other slaves around him and his masters and their families. He tells these stories to open eyes and let others have an insider’s view to the inequality and cruelness of slavery. He can tell you the relationships and lineage of each one of his masters but is more unclear of his own including his parentage. His mother was sent away after he was born and he has only a few memories of her, his father could be his master but he has no firm knowledge of this information or his own birthday. He emphasizes that this is the lives of all slaves, their owners want to keep them ignorant of anything that would give them a true identity. Douglass’s earliest memories are watching his aunt being beaten routinely and being
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