Narrativetive: A Summary Of Frederick Douglass's Narrative

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Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass 's Narrative is basically an autobiography. It’s a story of his life, from the time he was born a slave to the time of his escape, to freedom in the North. But, it 's also a piece with a strong political message. When Douglass wrote this book in 1845, slavery was still legal in much of the United States. He became a public speaker and writer to try to stop it. He believed that if he showed people what slavery485 was really like, they would understand why it needed to be abolished. Douglass 's Narrative was an instant success, selling over 35 thousand copies in the U.S. and Europe, and was quickly translated into both French and German. Throughout his life, Douglass continued to revise and expand his autobiography, …show more content…

So the next time Covey tries to whip him, he stands up to him, and after a two-hour fight, Covey leaves him alone. Douglass vows never to be whipped again. And he never is. After this, Douglass bounces from master to master, but he 's always on the lookout for a way to escape to freedom. And after one failed attempt, he finally succeeds and makes his way first to New York, then to Massachusetts. But even after he 's free, he discovers that his journey isn 't over…
This is his final epiphany: even after he acquires his own freedom, he realizes he can 't rest until all slavery is abolished. He, not only becomes, an abolitionist activist himself; he writes the narrative of his life to teaching others, white and black, how to follow in his footsteps.
With a single bold stroke, Douglass deconstructs one of the myths of slavery. In the nineteenth century, Southerners believed that God cursed Ham, the son of Noah, by turning his skin black and his descendants into slaves. For Southerners, therefore, the descendants of Ham were predestined by the scriptures to be slaves. However, Douglass asks, if only blacks are "scripturally enslaved," why should mixed-race children be also destined for slavery? Douglass wonders if it 's possible that this class of mulatto slaves might someday become so large that their population will exceed that of the whites. Beneath his bitterness is a belief that time is on his side; the natural laws of population expansion will allow his people to

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