Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Narrative Essay

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In addition, Frederick Douglass exemplifies the terrors of slavery in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass’s narrative is not just an autobiography that seeks to only tell his life story, instead Douglass's reason also being to educate individuals concerning the terrors of slavery and what occurred. During this time in Talbot County, Maryland, killing a slave was not considered a crime. This meant that Slaveholders did not value the life of a slave and Douglass describes numerous killings where the offender receives little to no punishment. According to the narrative there are a lot of murders that go scot-free. This was so common that the little white boys had a saying, “it is worth a half-cent to kill a slave and a half-cent …show more content…
This law gives them the freedom to act upon their lusts for slave women. These women cannot help but to be submissive in the worst way possible; they are made into a sex object for their slave masters without any consequences. The narrative discuss about how the mulatto children were harshly victimized, particularly by their white mistresses because they were a representation of their husband's unfaithfulness to them. Another example that Douglass utilize to demonstrate the dehumanization of slaves is when he describes how they fed slaves: “It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the ground. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none with spoons. He that ate fastest got most; he that was strongest secured the best place; and few left the trough satisfied (Douglass 21, 5). I think that Douglass uses the word “pigs,” because the slave masters did not find it essential to allow their slaves to use proper eating utensils, because they did not perceive slaves as being humans like them. By the slave owners comparing slaves to the likes of pigs rather than actual human beings,