“They are, in the first place, a constant offense to their mistress. She is ever disposed to find fault with them; they can seldom do any thing to please her; she is never better pleased than when sees them under the lash, especially when she suspects her husband of showing to his mulatto children favors which he withholds from his black slaves. The master is frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves, out of deference to the feelings of his white wife; and, cruel as the deed may strike any one to be, for a man to sell his own children to human flesh-mongers, it is often the dictate of humanity for him to do so; for, unless he does this, he must not only whip them himself, but must stand by and see one white son tie up his brother, of but few shades darker complexion than himself, and ply the gory lash to his naked back; and if he lisps one word of disapproval, it is set down to his parental partiality, and only makes bad matter worse, both for himself and the slave whom he would protect and defend.”(pg 237)

In chapter one of the narrative we are being introduced to Frederick Douglas up bringing and the memories he has of when he was a child. In the passage it describes the life of a young slave, which just happens to have the misfortune of being a mulatto child. This means a child that is of mixed race. In this specific section of chapter one, it illustrates how a child in this circumstance would suffer and struggle in his life if he were to stay living the plantation from which his mother (the slave) and his father (the master) were both originally from.

I would like to agree with the analysis that my fellow classmate Mikayla made and add a surprising choice of words that are were used to describe this horrible situation. Although understandable the feeling of disdain that the mistress feels towards the mulatto child, it is surprising how much empathy is felt when Fredrick is describing how the father is “compelled to sell his slave”. This is quite important because the specific word used is “compelled”  which gives the slave master a more human side to what initially thought to be soulless. He even goes as far as justifying the masters actions stating that it is a “dictate of humanity” to get ride of the child in order to save him from what would be his impending torture if he were to stay. This is a astonishing way to describe his capturer predicament in which he choose to sympathize with the master rather then condemning him for sending him away. This passage in particular moved me because from all the atrocities that he has suffered in such a short time to be able to say that he understands why such horrible choice were made in order to protect him, is a great sign of character.