Frederick Douglass: Differences Between Plantation And City Life

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Differences Between Plantation and City Life Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an excellent work of American literature that emphasizes slavery in the United States of America. As a slave, life in the city was extremely different than life on the plantation. In the city, slaves were fed much better than slaves on the plantation. The majority of slaves in the city were also given a larger amount clothing than slaves on the plantation. In addition, slave masters in the city were not as harsh as the slave masters on the plantation. All in all, if one was a slave, it would be a privilege to live in the city.
Slaves in the city were fed more often and were commonly given larger portions of food than slaves were
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Douglass describes his experiences with slaveholders in the city. “He is a desperate slaveholder, who will shock the humanity of his non slaveholding neighbors with the cries of his lacerated slave” (Douglass 49). In the city, people lived closer together resulting in news being spread more quickly. Because news would spread rapidly, many city slaveholders wanted to be known for treating and feeding their slaves well. Although slaveholders were generally more genuine in the city, it was opposite on the plantation. “The work itself was hard enough, but the brutality of owners and overseers caused even more misery” (Hopkinson 22). This piece of evidence concludes that the masters on the plantations truly did not care about their slaves whatsoever. In essence, the slaveholders in the city cared for their slaves more than slaveholders on the plantation by giving them a sufficient amount of necessities.
When slavery existed in the United States of America, slave conditions varied throughout the nation, but city slaves lived in better conditions than slaves that lived on plantations. First, slaves that lived in the city were fed better than slaves that lived on the plantation. City slaves were also given more adequate and appropriate clothing than slaves on the plantation. Lastly, slaveholders that controlled slaves in the city were not as cruel as most of the slaveholders on the plantation. Overall,