Frederick Douglass Essay

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The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an autobiography of Frederick Douglass which depicts the hardships and abuse he witnessed and felt as a slave, gives the reader insight into what it was like to be a slave in America. The type of slavery Frederick Douglass endured as an in-house slave for many years in Maryland was not as harsh or difficult as being a slave in another state such as Tennessee which is farther away from the North, or on a different plantation being used as a field hand. Frederick Douglass had the luxury of living in the city for a while, where “a slave is almost a freeman, compared with those on a plantation” and where “there is a vestige of decency” and “a sense of shame” which makes the city slave owners kinder, since they do not want to seem like an unkind slave owner to their non-slave owner neighbors. Even with this fact in mind, the reader is still able to understand the types of punishments that occurred, how the slaves were treated, and what it was like to live life as a slave because of the detail that Frederick Douglass writes in his book about the experiences he went through all those years that he was a slave and what it was like to become a free man. Near the beginning of his book Frederick Douglas talks about how he was a slave in Baltimore for a Mr. Hugh Auld. At this house Douglass learns that even the nicest of people, such as Mr. Auld’s wife Sophia, turn into very different people due to slavery. When Douglass first meets Mrs. Auld, he describes her as “a woman of the kindliest heart and the finest feelings…none left without feeling better for having seen her.” However, once her husband tells her how to treat slaves and she feels what it is like to be in control of another human b... ... middle of paper ... ... book also shows how even a man who has been beaten, starved and “broken in body, mind and soul” can rise from slavery and fight back. Douglass goes through many awful events as a slave, but once he finds that reading is the way to freedom his life is changed forever. He continually is filled with the want to escape slavery and even goes as far as to fight one of his masters in an event Douglass calls “the turning point in (his) career as a slave” On September 3rd, 1838 Frederick Douglass was a free man. Although little is said about his escape from slavery, he tells us not only of how it felt to finally be free but also gives us some details on what it was like to be free for the first time, not trusting anyone and feeling paranoid that at any time he may be caught , and then slowly becoming accepting of the help offered to him and making a new life for himself.

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