Frederick Douglass Autobiography

Clifton A. Wohlgemuth

Dr. John Walter Biles

U.S. History 1301

24 February 2014

Accounts of Frederick Douglass Leading to his Self-Liberation

Learning to read lead to Frederick Douglass seeking the life of a free man and becoming an influential supporter of the anti-slavery movement. One man stated that if a slave learned to read that he would no longer be fit to be a slave. This intrigued Frederick, leading him to advance his pursuit to learn and ultimately to his escape from the physical and emotional abuse of slavery, as well as the harsh, inhumane conditions that accompanied it.

The most known fact of slavery was that a slave would endure extreme physical cruelty in their lifetime. In describing his first Master, Captain Anthony, Frederick gives us our first glimpse of what a southern slave-owner was like; “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder… He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. 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. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cow skin.” (Narrative Chapter 1) Captain Anthony made a habit of whipping Frederick’s aunt Hester and Frederick was no stranger to the abuse she received. At a very young age, Frederick was present on one occasion, where Captain Anthony whipp...

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...oop with a load of oil, but he was willing to do anything to make a living as a free man. “There was no work too hard, none too dirty. I was ready to saw wood, shovel coal, carry wood, sweep the chimney, or roll oil casks, all of which I did for nearly three years in New Bedford, before I became known to the anti-slavery world.” (Narrative Chapter 11)

On August 11, 1841, Frederick spoke at anti-slavery convention in Nantucket. Frederick found it hard at first to talk to the whites as he still considered himself a slave, but began to speak with ease upon the realization and clarity of his own newfound freedom, and began pleading his cause to society. Frederick grew into a strong affiliate of the anti-slavery movement, and without being able to read and write to put words on paper, he never would have developed into the influential liberator the world knows today.