Frederick Douglass Attitude

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Recommended: Analyse the narrative of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass, someone who died as a free man, but was born as a slave. In his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass recalls his time as a slave and his journey to freedom. Frederick Douglass expresses the attitudes he felt like fear, sympathy, and gratefulness, but most importantly disgust. His disgust came from the whites continuously making immoral decisions while consciously knowing it was wrong, also by separating the blacks from their families and friends, and finally, harshly abusing the African American slaves. Frederick Douglass’s perception of the white race was disgust because they continuously made wrongful decisions while knowing they were inhumane. The author mentions that as he learned to read, he also began to realize just how horrible the whites were. Frederick Douglass says, “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers” (334). In that time of realization the author refers to the whites as the “meanest” and …show more content…

For instance, Douglass mentions he observed Master Andrews grab his little brother by the throat and throw him to the ground while he then advanced to stomp upon his head until blood gushed (337). He also recognizes that two black women belonging to the Hamiltons looked “mangled” (331). He indicates that Mrs. Hamilton would sit in the center of the room with a cowskin in her hand and would hit her enslaved women as they walked in front of her (331-332). Douglass remarks the “festering sores” spread all over the women. These occurrences show the hatred the whites had towards the blacks. Both white men and women would punish the slaves without any justification. The whites took advantage of the power they acquired and tortured innocent people daily. This is the biggest reason of why Frederick Douglass demonstrated disgust towards

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