Narrative Of The Life Of Fredrick Douglas, American Slave

Pg 1 Frederick Douglass was born in 1818 as a slave on the Baltimore Plantation. He was a slave. In the mid-1800’s he worked as a field laborer. Frederick Douglass didn't get to see his parents a lot his mom would work all day and in the night time his mom would come walking miles to see him. Frederick Douglass’ dad was a white man and Douglass was black man and Douglass didn't know anything about him.

Fredrick was eventually sent to live with Hugh Auld. It was Auld’s wife Sophia that thought Douglass the alphabet. Douglass was a main cause why slaves could read, defying the ban. It was through reading that Douglass’s fight against slavery started. Fredrick Douglass, funny enough, learned to read from the whites. Douglass took interest in

Because the father was so involved with himself, he did not make the time or put the effort to develop a proper relationship with his son.

“You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man” (Douglass 57). Frederick Douglass was born a slave but grew to escape and oppose slavery with a vengeance. Douglass was overwhelmed with the knowledge that slavery was not just when he first learned about it.

Therefore, Douglass appeals to ethos in the beginning of chapter one. He then explains that he does not know his own birth date and or his age, "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having

Therefore, Douglass appeals to ethos in the beginning of chapter one. He then explains that he does not know his own birth date and or his age, "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it" (Douglass 1). Why would the slaves, not be allowed to know the facts about their own life? The answer is simply that slaves weren't supposed to know the amount of things that white people had the privilege to know, only because the slave holders did not want them to have that sort of knowledge.

Fredrick was always troubled by the lack of information slaves knew about themselves. He didn’t have an identity beyond knowing he was born a slave. “By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.” (217) Although, this information was not peeve to slaves nevertheless, it was a source of unhappiness for Douglass. In addition, Fredrick like most slaves never developed a relationship with his mother. He was certain it was deliberate on the part of the master, “to hinder the development of the child’s affection to mother, and to blunt and destroy the

Failure to obtain the knowledge of his paternity and separation from his mother prevents a familial connection. William McFreely's

Throughout the book, it was also emphasized many times that he felt separated from his parents because of the difference in their education level. “I was

In February of 1818, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in Talbot County, Maryland. He was born in his grandmother’s cabin, along Tuckahoe creek, to his mother Harriet Bailey. 1.B Harriet Bailey was a slave therefore when she gave birth to her child he also became a slave. Frederick’s mother was an African American while his father’s name was never known it was a known fact that he was a white man. Due to his 2. white father, black mother, and the American Indian he had from his grandmother, he was in fact a mulatto. As a child it was rumored that Frederick’s master was also his father. This was very common back then for the masters to satisfy themselves through their slaves. Children that were fathered by their owner were

“Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read. The very decided manner with which he spoke, and strove to impress his wife with the evil consequences of giving me instruction, served to convince me that he was deeply sensible of the truths he was uttering. It gave me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost confidence on the results which, he said, would flow from teaching me to read.” (Douglass, 29-30).

While on one end slave-owners did their best to deprive slaves of education, on the other side, Douglass constantly stresses the importance of slaves acquiring knowledge and education in any way possible. While in Baltimore, Douglass comes to the realization of just how important education is. His master, Mr. Auld, becomes angry with his wife when he discovers she is trying to teach Douglass how to write. This is a life changing moment for Douglass and from then on, he understood that education was linked with freedom. He would go to extremes to educated himself. Douglass would walk the streets of Baltimore with a book, and a piece of bread. He describes how he would meet up with young white boys and trade his loaf of bread for tips on how to read (Douglass

“My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather. My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage.”

Patrick Henry once said, “give me liberty, or give me death.” In the eyes of Frederick Douglass and countless others enslaved, this took on a much deeper meaning to them. “It was doubtful liberty at most, and almost certain death is we failed.” [51] Frederick Douglass was one of the most commonly known slaves to have existed. Slavery has been around since the 1700s, but the subject of slavery is controversial because it not only includes information written from former slaves, but information acquired from historians. The question that has with stood the test of time is, “are these encounters that have been written out, exaggerated or the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” In the early 1800’s Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland, and grew up on Colonial Edward Lloyd’s plantation. Children would be separated from their mothers before they were twelve months in age-Frederick too was separated from his mother. As a result of entering slave-hood at an early age, he did not know his birthdate (like most slaves). Frederick Douglass’s account on slavery could be seen as biased as a result of first hand experiences with being held as a slave. Although, Douglass is able to be direct our thoughts to these experiences in such a light, you feel as if you are witnessing it happen right before you. Because of Douglass’s quest for freedom, his daring attitude, and determination to learn, he shows us the way through American Slavery in his eyes. Douglass provides

He was so thrilled to leave the life of the field work behind him. “I had been treated as a pig on the plantation: I was treated as a child now”, he says that “troops of hostile boys” he would wish that he could be back on “the home plantation”. Auld’s wife Sophia was teaching Douglass how to read, when all of a sudden, Auld walks in and he insisted that she stop immediately, he said “a slave, should know nothing but the will of his mater”, “would forever unfit him for the duties of a slave”. Douglass heard and was able to understand the message, but he got so much out of his crucial statement. “In learning to read, therefore, I… owe quite as much to the opposition of my master, as to kindly assistance of my amiable mistress”. Douglass was to determined to learn so he would exchanging bread for reading lessons, from hungry white children from the streets of Baltimore. “For a single biscuit” he states, “any of my hungry little comrades would give me a lesson more valuable to me than bread”. One of many instances where Douglass own audacity when he was still young, was when he was sent by Master Auld to the planation, as Covey aka The Negro Breaker. Auld’s objective was that the Willy and resentfulness of Covey would break Douglass’s unconquerable emotions. Auld almost achieved that. Douglass would sometimes defend himself to one of his temporary master’s. His temporary master would brutally