When authors write about their lives, many do so to chronicle their achievements and leave a legacy that lasts forever. When Frederick Douglass wrote about his life, he seemed to have different purposes in mind for his writing, to inform the uninformed of the horror that was slavery and to show everyone that skin color was irrelevant in determining the intelligence and capability of any person.
When Douglass writes, his style is descriptive and analytical. For example, when Douglass’ brother is killed, he writes, “A man who, but a few days before, to give me a sample of his bloody disposition, took my little brother by the throat, threw him on the ground, and with the heel of his boot stamped upon his head till the blood gushed from his nose and ears—was well calculated enough to make me anxious as to my fate” (256). At the same time, Douglass can put himself in the perspective of the slaveholders themselves when he writes, “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” (237). By doing so, Douglass appears less biased and can relate to even his enemies, thus appearing more humane and believable, especially to citizens in the North who had no knowledge of the horrible conditions in the South. At the same time, the ability to write this way belied a well-educated, open-minded man, a shock to stereotypes of the time and compounded with the fact that he was a former slave.
A big concern that Douglass raised, was the valuation of slaves and how information was twisted. In a vivid comparison, he writes, “There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and all were subjected to the same narrow examination” (256). With the Three-Fifths Compromise, slaves were to represent a part of a person, yet had no rights. When asked about a slave’s master, fear makes them say, “They are contented, and that their masters are kind” (244). Since even the oppressed are not voicing their agony, many believed that slave owners were benevolent to their slaves. Also, being considered property meant that slaves were tools to their owners, needing no education and largely looked down upon.
Information was also manipulated by slave owners so as to purposefully leave the slaves complacent and ignorant. Mr. Auld, who Douglass worked for as a child asserted that by teaching him, “There would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave” (254), meaning Douglass would be self-sufficient and question his servitude which would jeopardize the owner’s control. To flip that around, by learning to read and write by himself, Douglass was able to obtain knowledge and that made him thirst for freedom, as “Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever” (254).