Frederick Douglass And The Slavery Of Slavery

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Being born into slavery in the early nineteenth century, Fredrick Douglass experienced many hardships; from physical torture to mental torture. “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.” It was not only the physical damage in which the southerner slave owners inflicted pain onto the slaves, but the mere fact that the slaves weren’t able to know their own birthday. Taking every last measure to keep the slaves uneducated, the slave owners went as far as to keep the identities (their birthdays) of the slaves hidden. “if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.” It was this statement that Fredrick Douglass heard from his master which changed the course of his life. “From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.” Fredrick Douglass’s strive for education would eventually result in knowledge of how slavery affected the south and play a key role in liberating the slaves. Because of his education, Fredrick Douglass says he “…better understood the moral, religious, and political character of the nation,-than nine tenths of the slaveholders in Talbot county, Maryland.” One of the reasons why Fredrick Douglass thought slavery hurt the south was all the suffering it caused to the slave population. “My mother and I were separated when I was an infant-before I knew her as my mother.” Just like the case of Fredrick Douglass, most of the enslaved families were separated. Many slave owners took advantage of the female slaves sexually. This would result in many slaves being part white. Since many slav... ... middle of paper ... ...lation in the south, Douglass says, “I knew they were exceedingly poor, and I had bee accustomed to regard their poverty as the necessary consequence of their being non-slaveholders.” After his difficult but victorious journey through southern slavery, Fredrick Douglass begins his narrative by a letter sent out to Wendell Phillips. He proudly says “the time has come when lions wrote history”. In his narrative he mentions many different negative affects slavery had on the south. He talks about the poor conditions of the slaves. The slaves were constantly tortured. They were deprived from a relationship with family. They were inevitably treated unjustly wherever they were. Fredrick Douglass also mentions the affects slavery had on the non-slaveholding southerners; how it was very difficult for them get jobs. Douglass concludes by “pleading the cause of his brethren”.

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