The conclusion of “Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass” focuses on the hardships of Douglass’ life as he enters adulthood, and his eventual escape from slavery as he heads north. The final two chapters and the appendix show a huge difference when compared to the first few chapters of the story. In Chapter X, we see Douglass go from a passive observer of violence to experiencing the violence first hand. Mr. Covey’s actions of whipping and kicking Douglass are one of the first instances where Douglass is the subject of violence directly to himself. This is a change from the beginning of the story where in the first chapter, Douglass witnessed his aunt being subjected to the violence at the hands of a slave owner. This incident opens Douglass’ eyes even more to the hardships that the slaves had to endure. This situation leads to the start of a plan to escape slavery and head to the north. Ultimately, the original plan doesn’t work out but eventually Douglass is able to reach the freedom that he desires.

Religion plays a huge role in this story, and Douglass addresses it in the appendix. One question that should be asked is why does Douglass feel the need to bring up the topic of religion? Religion was a huge part of the story in the beginning, but in the final few chapters Douglass didn’t speak about it as much and it didn’t play an important role in the conclusion of this story. In the appendix, Douglass explains his reasoning for speaking about religion. He talks about he was talking about “slaveholding religion” and that he was not making references to Christianity. However, after saying this, Douglass makes comparisons between slaveholders and the Christian religion. For example, Douglass says “We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle- plunderers for church members.” Douglass makes these references to religion to show that the slavery culture in the south is similar to the idea of a religion. One other comparison that Douglass makes is, “The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other.” Douglass makes the notion to show two specific parts of slavery and religion and how they can be in conjunction with each other. Douglass brings up the topic of religion to show how they are similar. Religion and slavery are very different, especially regarding violence. However, Douglass makes comparisons between religion and slavery to show that the slavery culture in the south is like a religion to the slave owners.