Essay on Douglass: Slavery in the United States and Slave Frederick Douglass

Submitted By Stakec
Words: 1429
Pages: 6
Open Document
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, American Slave Frederick Douglass was born in February 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. His exact date of birth is not known as he states “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs.(946)” He was well known as a great antislavery writer. After he escaped from slavery he became a well known abolitionist who fought hard to make slave masters believe that African Americans were smart enough, if taught properly, to function as independent American citizens. During his life he wrote many autobiographies describing his experiences in slavery and later times of his life. He also wrote newspaper articles. He was one of the first people who believed in the equality of everybody regardless of race or gender, as he was also a big supporter of women’s rights. In the following narrative Douglass describes the things he saw and went through as a young slave and makes arguments for what he felt was right or wrong. Based on what I read I can assume that the audience that Frederick Douglass is speaking to is people that have never experienced slavery first hand or was not living around those times. In the narrative he gets deep into detail about watching slaves being whipped and the looks on their faces. He describes how some slaves would try to hold their screams in to prevent the slave master from whipping them even more. He also describes seeing blood running down a slaves back and the slave master whipping the area that was bleeding the most to cause even more pain. He explains to people reading the narrative how the mother was separated from her children displaying how slave owners wanted to break up the family connection between African Americans. As he states “it is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age.(946)” The separation was so cruel that he could not even be around his mother while she was sick, when she died, or when she was buried. Reading the narrative its very easy to tell that he was writing out of frustration and from his heart to illustrate the things he had to go through coming up. He explains how the slaves were only given a certain amount of clothes for the whole year. When those clothes were torn and worn out they would have to walk around naked until the next set of clothes were given out which was not uncommon. He vividly describes only having enough of clothes to cover the top of his body and having to leave his feet hanging out while he slept on the ground in the cold. Just as bad as the clothes situation was the food situation. Slaves were barely fed any food certainly not enough to keep them full. Douglass recalls times when he had seen slaves fighting for food on the ground like pigs. Whoever was the strongest got the best position to get the most food. After everything was gone whoever did not eat was just out of luck. Some slaves would fight with slaves with different masters about who’s master was the best. This just illustrates how slaves were so used to their lifestyle that they would be fighting over who was being treated better. They never even imagined what it would be like to be free. According to Douglass being a slave was bad enough but being a slave to a poor man was even worse. I think the most damaging thing that Douglass wanted the audience to know about is how the lives of slaves meant so little to their slave owners. He describes an incident when a slave had accidentally trespassed into another slave owners property. When the slave owner caught him in the water he instructed him three times to get out and then shot him with a shotgun. When he went to the slaves owner to explain the situation there was very little said. Douglass states that “it was a common saying, even among little white boys, that it was worth half-cent to kill a nigger, and a half-cent to bury one.(957)” Douglass hated the fact of knowing that he was
Show More

Related Documents: Essay on Douglass: Slavery in the United States and Slave Frederick Douglass

How Did Frederick Douglass Impact Society

Frederick Douglass impacted our society by helping African slaves to freedom and help President Abraham Lincoln free the slaves. Despite Douglass being born into slavery he learned how to read and write. Later in Douglass’ life he escaped slavery with his wife and changed his name to “Frederick Douglass”. Finally, Douglass released his first autobiography Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. In the book it states the horrible conditions he lived through. One of Frederick Douglass’ famous quote…

Words 725 - Pages 3

Rhetorical Analysis Of What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July

the Americas, Frederick Douglass and the African slaves show their desires for freedom to the whole world. The War of 1812 serves as the catalyst for anti-slavery movements. The Americas were in chaos during the war when African slaves fought on both British and American sides; also, the British burned down the Capitol in Washington DC. Abolitionists such as Nat Turner became more vocal and lead rebellions that eventually ended with over fifty seven whites dead. Frederick Douglass wrote “What to…

Words 869 - Pages 4

Hahaha: Abolitionism and Frederick Douglass Teaching Essay

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass Copyright © 1999 by Prestwick House Inc., P.O. Box 658, Clayton, DE 19938. 1-800-932-4593. www.prestwickhouse.com Permission to copy this unit for classroom use is extended to purchaser for his or her personal use. This material, in whole or part, may not be copied for resale. Revised July, 2003. ISBN 978-1-58049-140-2 Item No. 300736 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass TEACHING UNIT…

Words 1131 - Pages 5

Essay on Frederick Douglass

Project Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass was one of the most prominent figures of the abolitionist movement, a movement that fought to end slavery. A brilliant speaker, Douglass engaged in a tour of lectures, and became recognized as one of America’s first great black speakers. Douglass also wrote a personal narrative in 1845 titled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Taylor 34). Through his book , Frederick Douglass aimed to educate the uninformed Northern…

Words 1340 - Pages 6

Narrative of Frederick Douglas Essay

Narrative of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, by Frederick Douglass Like many slaves, it is unsure about Frederick Douglass’s exact birthdate. “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. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday (Douglass, 1).” This was one of the ways that the slave owners mentally suppressed their slaves. Frederick…

Words 1299 - Pages 6

How Did Frederick Douglass End Slavery?

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) “was the most important black American leader of the nineteenth century” (Blight). In the beginning of the nineteenth century, some people started to go against slavery, but there was still a lot of it in the southern states. This led to slavery ending with the Civil War in the 1860’s. The Civil War was on whether there should be slavery or not with the southern states supporting it and the northerns states against it. The northern states won the war ending slavery…

Words 934 - Pages 4

William Lloyd Garrison Research Paper

1619 African slavery began in the United States. Slavery lasted for many years in the United States until people decided to make a movement against slavery. These people were abolitionists. During the effort to end slavery slave owners kept on disagreeing with this movement of demanding slavery to end. Slavery began in the United States in the year 1619 so that slave owners had people to work on tobacco and cotton crops. With some states banning slavery and the importing of slaves some people were…

Words 807 - Pages 4

Essay about Calhoun And Douglass

John Calhoun and Fredrick Douglass Slavery was an incredibly controversial topic throughout the many years it existed. Clearly, the southern mostly promoted slavery because agricultural and the need for human labor while the north was against it. As a result, everyone had different views on slavery and this was apparent with Frederick Douglass and John Calhoun. Frederick Douglass was a slave throughout his life and because of the personal experiences was very against it. While John Calhoun was…

Words 938 - Pages 4

What Are Frederick Douglass Contributions To Black History Month

Month: Frederick Douglass. Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave – this is one of many of Frederick Douglass Quotes he wrote. However, this quote back then would not have been taken seriously due to the conflict the US had with slavery and segregation. This is why Frederick Douglass tried hard to battle against slavery in 1843. But during his early life, it was hard growing up black because of all the laws of segregation and slavery, and to top it all off, Frederick was born a slave and was…

Words 435 - Pages 2

Frederick Douglass: The Meaning Of July Fourth For The Negro

THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS AFTER ESCAPING SLAVERY Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave that learned how to read and write, and Abraham Lincoln referred to him as the most meritorious man of the nineteenth century. Douglass is an amazing author, abolitionist, human rights and women's rights activist, orator, author, journalist, publisher, and social reformer writing two autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave and My Bondage and My Freedom…

Words 301 - Pages 2