In the autobiography written by Frederick Douglass, it gives the reader details on the everyday life of past American slaves from both his eyes and from others that kept detailed record that they either witnessed or lived. Douglass describes firsthand of what he witnessed as well as his insight to personal experiences from being a slave to becoming a free man. Only when it came down to it he was never truly a free man, he was a runaway that risked everything he had worked for and if ever caught could be forced to return to his master or be killed for his action. Douglass gave many important details on how slaves were treated in the early United States. He gives in depth insight on the brutality of how a master treated slaves, “for a slave with knowledge.” Douglass explains in his autobiography how he was unaware of his position as a slave when he was a child but learned quickly from experience around the plantation he was reared. He wrote about how he didn’t know much about his mother, masters thought it was ideal to remove the mother from the child as soon as a year of the child being born in order to remove any attachment from each other in order for them to serve as better slaves. He also illustrates how he and other slaves living conditions with a monthly allowance of eight pounds of pork or its equivalent in fish as well as one bushel of corn meal. For the adults where given basically one outfit that would serve its purpose for one year, if not they would go without for the rest of the year. As for the children they were given only two coarse lien shirts and if not they would be naked for all that year as well. Douglas described that he and the other slaves all had something in common the hard dirt floor on which they al... ... middle of paper ... ...es as they did seemed to be hypocrites. They practice of Christianity was talk to be kind but at the end they went against this and treated people of a different color like crap. Those who believed in the idea that they were given certain rights over others which gave them the right to enslave those who were less fortunate. This seemed to be the major cause of conflict in which many would suffer for these ideas but because of people like Fredrick Douglas and other who were not afraid to stand up for what they believe, and would cause much confrontation between slave owners and free men which would set the foundation of one day ending slavery and allowing those who were called slaves to join the title of free. Only this would not happen overnight and would not be a taken lightly. Even now there are still places in America that segregate people based on skin color.
Frederick Douglass, an African American social reformer who escaped from slavery, in his autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself,” denotes the perilous life of a slave in the South. Through syntax, Douglass is able to persuade his readers to support the abolitionist movement as his writing transitions from shifting sentence lengths to parallel structure and finally to varying uses of punctuation. Douglass begins his memoir with a combination of long and short sentences that serve to effectively depict life his life as a slave. This depiction is significant because it illustrates the treatment of slaves in the south allows his audience to despise the horrors of slavery. In addition, this
Frederick Douglass emphasizes the dehumanization aspect of slavery throughout his narrative. As is the general custom in slavery, Douglass is separated from his mother early in infancy and put under the care of his grandmother. He recalls having met his mother several times, but only during the night. She would make the trip from her farm twelve miles away just to spend a little time with her child. She dies when Douglass is about seven years old. He is withheld from seeing her in her illness, death, and burial. Having limited contact with her, the news of her death, at the time, is like a death of a stranger. Douglass also never really knew the identity of his father and conveys a feeling of emptiness and disgust when he writes, "the whisper that my master was my father, may or may not be true; and, true or false, it is of but little consequence to my purpose" (Douglass, 40). Douglass points out that many slave children have their masters as their father. In these times, frequently the master would take advantage of female slaves and the children born to the slave w...
In the fashion of the Realism period, Douglass decides to instead focus on a realistic depiction of the life he and millions of other child slaves had to go through. He states that most slave children had to go many cold nights without anything to wear because they were too young to work (240). This is a rare image that shows what some slave children had to where while they were working on the plantation (. Anyone reading Fredrick’s narrative during his time, their views on slavery aside, should have felt sorry for the many children who had to go nights wondering if they would live to see the next day. When it was time to eat, children were called in such a fashion “like so many pigs” and would eat the boiled corn mush given to them in a trough “like so many pigs” (248). Since so many of the children, including Douglass, were separated from their mothers, the dehumazation of children at a young age made them oblivious to the treatment they were being exposed to. Douglass expressing the gritty realism of what slave children had to go through is what made his narrative a perfect epitome of slave
From before the country’s conception to the war that divided it and the fallout that abolished it, slavery has been heavily engrained in the American society. From poor white yeoman farmers, to Northern abolitionist, to Southern gentry, and apathetic northerners slavery transformed the way people viewed both their life and liberty. To truly understand the impact that slavery has had on American society one has to look no further than those who have experienced them firsthand. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and advocate for the abolitionist, is on such person. Douglass was a living contradiction to American society during his time. He was an African-American man, self-taught, knowledgeable, well-spoken, and a robust writer. Douglass displayed a level of skill that few of his people at the time could acquire. With his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, Douglass captivated the people of his time with his firsthand accounts into the horror and brutality that is the institution of slavery.
When first introduced to Douglass and his story, we find him to be a young slave boy filled with information about those around him. Not only does he speak from the view point of an observer, but he speaks of many typical stereotypes in the slave life. At this point in his life, Frederick is inexperienced and knows nothing of the pleasures of things such as reading, writing, or even the rights everyone should be entitled to. Douglass knowing hardly anything of his family, their whereabouts, or his background, seems to be equivalent to the many other slaves at the time. As a child Frederick Douglass sees the injustices around him and observes them, yet as the story continues we begin to see a change.
Frederick Douglass did a great job explaining the harsh conditions of being a slave. In his narrative he spoke of the cruel things he saw and underwent while being a slave. Also, in doing this he shows the readers how his location(south) and dismemberment was a big deal growing up as a slave. He starts us off with a little background knowledge about himself .From the very beginning of his novel he made it clear that he didn't know his age, and that he was separated from his mother.1 This was something slaveholders did you separate families, regardless of their social status. He then goes on to say that the only time he saw his mother was at night, after she walked miles to get to him.2 To brake the bond between them two, the separation was necessary between slaves. He also believed that his father might be his master because slaveholders often impregnate their female slaves. Even though he was the son of a white man, there was a lot of distaste the children take after the status of their mother and his case is a slave. Which effect was great for the master because it increased his number of slaves, and the more slaves one man owned the more money he brought in.
Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, is a powerful narrative and written journey of the deliverance to the struggles and impacts of slavery.
As both the narrator and author of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself” Frederick Douglass writes about his transition from a slave to a well educated and empowered colored young man. As a skilled and spirited man, he served as both an orator and writer for the abolitionist movement, which was a movement to the abolishment of slavery. At the time of his narrative’s publication, Douglass’s sole goal of his writings was to essentially prove to those in disbelief that an articulate and intelligent man, such as himself, could have,in fact, been enslaved at one point in time. While, Douglass’ narrative was and arguably still is very influential, there are some controversial aspects of of this piece, of which Deborah McDowell mentions in her criticism.
Throughout the novel, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass provides a powerful insight to the world of slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries. After Douglass escaped the reigns of slavery, he became an anti-slavery advocate, educator, politician, and renowned public speaker, traveling abroad and sharing his story, eventually publishing an autobiography in 1845. Douglass makes a firm argument against slavery, emotionally affecting the reader while presenting himself as an ethical, compassionate, and resourceful individual.
Douglass’s work revealed how the slaves were treated as though they had neither value nor rights as human beings. Many times throughout Douglass’s life he witnessed the cruel beatings of his fellow slaves. One such example was when Douglass’s aunt Hester was whipped and beaten until she bled profusely (Douglass, 1845/1995, p. 4-5). The cruelty displayed through this occurrence was not uncommon in the slave-holding world. Although it seemed inhumane, the slaveholders of the South held no value in the lives of their numerous slaves. While it is not possible to know the actual feelings of these men, it is possible to speculate about the motivation behind their actions. What the Southern plantation owners knew was that their profitability and income fully depended on the productivity of their slaves. Therefore, strict guidelines and harsh punishment for not following them was imperative to keep their operations successful. What the slave holders failed to consider however, was the well-being and feelings of the workers. This greed for money was quite possibly what hardened their hearts against believing their slaves had actual feelings and needs. Consequently, some of...
In his narrative, Douglass layers the many brutal, cruel, inhumane, and true components of slavery in his life, underlying each story with a political motive and relation. This method of writing was for his audience removed from slavery, those ignorant of slavery, uninformed, misunderstood, and those who were fortunate to have freedom. Douglass illustrates living conditions, experiences, tragedies, and struggles to great depths. Everywhere, African Americans escaped the binds of slavery due to Frederick Douglass' determination. He revolutionized America, being one of the greatest leaders of the abolition, being the reason for so many freed lives, and leading to the complete abolition and illegality of slavery in America.
One of the key arguments in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” as well as in other narratives about slaves is inequality. Douglass attempts to show us how African American slaves were still human beings like their white counterparts, there have been numerous instances where it is shown that many whites did not want to accept slaves as true humans. Frederick Douglass also perceived racial inequalities at a very young age and notes “I do not remember ever met a slave who could tell his or her birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest-time, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time. A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege” (13). Douglass also takes the argument of inequality one step further by making remarks upon the difference between the white and black children. Instead of accepting the difference that he is aware of even the minor details of inequalities. These descriptions of inequality are stated in the first half of the book and help us as readers realize the true “worth” of a slave. Frederick Douglass states “We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young, married and single, were ranked with horses, sheep and swine. There w...
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass is written to have people place their feet in the shoes of Frederick Douglass and try to understand the experience he went through as a slave. Douglass writes this piece of literature with strong wording to get his point across. He is not trying to point out the unpleasant parts of history, but to make people face the truth. He wants readers to realize that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that some slaves, like himself, have intellectual ability. These points are commonly presented through the words of Douglass because of his diction.
Within the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave” Douglass discusses the deplorable conditions in which he and his fellow slaves suffered from. While on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, slaves were given a “monthly allowance of eight pounds of pork and one bushel of corn” (Douglass 224). Their annual clothing rations weren’t any better; considering the type of field work they did, what little clothing they were given quickly deteriorated. The lack of food and clothing matched the terrible living conditions. After working on the field all day, with very little rest the night before, they must sleep on the hard uncomfortably cramped floor with only a single blanket as protection from the cold. Coupled with the overseer’s irresponsible and abusive use of power, it is astonishing how three to four hundred slaves did not rebel. Slave-owners recognized that in able to restrict and control slaves more than physical violence was needed. Therefore in able to mold slaves into the submissive and subservient property they desired, slave-owners manipulated them by twisting religion, instilling fear, breaking familial ties, making them dependent, providing them with an incorrect view of freedom, as well as refusing them education.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, brings to light many of the social injustices that colored men, women, and children all were forced to endure throughout the nineteenth century under Southern slavery laws. Douglass's life-story is presented in a way that creates a compelling argument against the justification of slavery. His argument is reinforced though a variety of anecdotes, many of which detailed strikingly bloody, horrific scenes and inhumane cruelty on the part of the slaveholders. Yet, while Douglas’s narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of life as a slave, what Douglass intends for his readers to grasp after reading his narrative is something much more profound. Aside from all the physical burdens of slavery that he faced on a daily basis, it was the psychological effects that caused him the greatest amount of detriment during his twenty-year enslavement. In the same regard, Douglass is able to profess that it was not only the slaves who incurred the damaging effects of slavery, but also the slaveholders. Slavery, in essence, is a destructive force that collectively corrupts the minds of slaveholders and weakens slaves’ intellects.