Frederick Douglass Treatment Of Women Essay

In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass, all of the various women who appeared in Douglass’ life were reduced to little more than caricatures of the violence that could be inflicted upon slaves. This is not necessarily the fault of the author, but of the institution of slavery, layered with the historical inequality of men and women of all races and classes. The victimization of female slaves was a horrible issue in history, and it is illuminated in the pages of the Narrative. However, the issues specifically pertaining to female slaves are too often glossed over in favor of the much broader topic of abolition.

The first woman mentioned in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is his Harriet Bailey, his mother.

“I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart‐rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose,” writes the author (Douglass 3,4). Hester was prohibited from speaking to another slave nearby, Ned Robert. This restriction was set in place for no other reason than a perverted sense of jealousy felt by her and Douglass’ master. He would prohibit Hester from seeing this man, and then, when she inevitably rebelled and broke his ruling, would violently whip her to the point of the quote at the beginning of the

First there was the city slaves who lived across the street from Douglass when he was in Baltimore, Henrietta and Mary. Douglass describes them, specifically Mary, as being suspect to the worst kind of physical torture and abuse, as the most “mangled and emaciated creatures” that he has ever seen (Douglass 15). He also describes his wife’s cousin, who was murdered by a slaveowner in the town where he lived. He says that the female slaveowner “seized an oak stick of wood by the fireplace, and with it broke the girlʹs nose and breastbone, and thus ended her life” (Douglass 10). In addition to these two, there is also Henny, a fellow slave of Douglass’ during his second stretch living in Baltimore. She was disabled, and because of that, her master found her an easy target for physical abuse. “I have seen him tie up a lame young woman, and whip her with a heavy cowskin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of Scripture‐‐ʺHe that knoweth his masterʹs will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.ʺ Master would keep this lacerated young woman tied up in this horrid situation four or five hours at a time. I have known him to tie her up early in the morning, and