Tag Archives: history

Narrative of Frederick Douglass Life

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Frederick Douglass presents us with details of the way life was as a slave, the way society worked in that time era and his train of thought. By reading his story we could create an understanding what it was to be a slave and feel what he felt. We never think or remember the ways we are expose to certain situations because they are not dramatic or have no impact in out life. In the first chapter Frederick Douglass describe a dramatic scene that was welcoming him to a horrible life where his aunt was whipped when she disobey her master, “I was quite child, but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I remember anything…. It was the blood- stained gate, the entrance to the hell slavery”. When he noticed that this was the way life was going be, I was question him. Did he just find out he was a slave? How come he not knows much about it? I figure that no one is really going to tell a kid the awful things and unjust they suffer. As he explains further on he was never expose to anything at this magnitude because he was placed in a come or less peaceful location where the elderlies and kid were.

Later on I found my self-angry at the way of thinking slaveholders had. They were not satisfied that they controlled the freedom of people but they needed to control their way of thinking. Slaves no longer or probably never had the right to speak freely after Colonel Lloyd notice that one of his slave was talking bad about his master to s stranger, “In pursuing this course, consider myself as uttering what was absolutely false”. Slaves were force to make their master seem kind and the best master a slave can have but here he says that he felt that he had no voice. We also see how he had to hide his knowledge after he learns to read and gain more information in his situation because he cannot trust anyone. “I fear they might be treacherous” after the accident of the slave who spoke the truth by he already understood that people were not trustworthy if they were not yet untried.

The life changing scenario for Douglass in my opinion was when master Auld prohibited his wife to instruct him any further because he could become a threat to everyone. He figures that knowledge was something every master fear. As he said the mistake was already done by teaching him the A, B, C from there he thought himself and trick kids on teaching him and trick them in a way he can practice. Here we can see his intelligence. Even though he founded knowledge a curse it was the best thing he could of done.

An American Slave

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In this narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, the readers are exposed to the vast experiences that Douglass encountered when he was a slave. Douglass believed that by writing this narrative, many readers would understand the pain and suffering not only himself, but the entire community of slaves endured during that time period. And for an African American person such as Douglass, it was a surprise to a majority of the community as they questioned themselves: “Where was he able to obtain this knowledge to read and write?”

Douglass’s concerns were to address the lifestyles that the slaves had to endure. As slaves are working for their masters or slaveholders, the degree of freedom and rights is what the slaves long desired for in their daily lives. With the scarce resources, the yearly amount of clothing  and monthly allowance of food they received put them in an appalling living conditions. If a slave defies the master, this could put their lives in jeopardy. As the slaves had no rights whatsoever, if they do not obey the rules then they will be punished with excessive abuse. These hardships and sufferings from the text hope to bright light into the reader’s eyes on the abhor lifestyle the slaves endured and even the smallest detail should not be overlooked.

Despite these conditions, they are able to seek a way to express these dreadful feelings through singing a song. “. . .reverberate with their wild songs, revealing at once the highest joy and the deepest sadness.” (Douglass 241). Although the slaves work until they exhausted all their energies, they can still bring this sort of entertainment upon them. This showed that African Americans are not to be belittled and they should be treated equally despite the color of their skin; they should have that privilege of freedom at birth. This reading provided us with the insight of the lives of the slaves and allowed us to understand the tragic history of their lives. As it is imperative to understand that African Americans came a lengthy exhausting journey til this day, it showed that they never gave up on the freedom they so longed for.

There is also one most important point that must be addressed, which is the education for the slaves. The whites are highly oppressive on the idea for slaves to learn how to read and write. The question, “Are slaveholders fearful of educated slaves?”, came across my mind as I was reading this text. If the slaves begin to learn how to read and write, they would be enriched with knowledge and the possibility of blacks fighting for equal rights and freedom could occur. Since the slaveholders want to maintain this order where they are always superior to the blacks, they reject the idea of allowing slaves to even go near a book because they definitely do not want such a situation to occur where their power could be taken away.