“We are born sensitive and from our birth onwards we are affected in various ways by our environment. As soon as we become conscious of our sensations we tend to seek or shun the things that cause them, at first because they are pleasant or unpleasant, then because they suit us or not, and at last because of judgments formed by means of the ideas of happiness and goodness which reason gives us. These tendencies gain strength and permanence with the growth of reason, but hindered by our habits they are more or less warped by our prejudices. Before this change they are what I call Nature within us.” (Rousseau 2)  Jean Jacques Rousseau is talking about how children absorb everything surrounding them. Everything they encounter effects their point of view and feelings. I believe this theory resonates with Fredrick Douglas’ childhood.

It starts with him being raised by his grandma. Young Fredrick was raised to fear the “Master”.  “… whose huge image on so many occasions haunted my childhood’s imagination.”(Fredrick 16)  Because of his big fear his grandma kept the date of his departure a secret.    He never met his mother so the only love he  knows is from his grandmother. Now, when he was sent away he was heart broken because his grandmother had tricked him and left. His mother would visit from time to time around the night. Of course, he was not deeply attached to his own mother but he noticed that even though she was going to get in trouble every time she visited, to her it didn’t matter because “That a true mother’s heart was hers and slavery had difficulty in paralyzing it with unmotherly difference.”(Fredrick 18) When she passed away he didn’t feel anything because those feelings never developed. He even says “I had to learn the value of my mother long after her death, and by witnessing the devotion of other mothers to their children.” By observing other mothers he ends up learning what he should have felt for his own. Rousseau would agree that he didn’t seek his mother because she wasn’t their to care for him when he was a baby.

One of the first observations Douglas made when he was little ,that opened his eyes to the cruelty of slavery and the heartlessness of his Master, was when a young slave woman came to ask for help. She was beaten up pretty bad, her face was covered in blood and all the Master said was that he ” believed she deserved every bit of it”. (Fredrick 27) Fredrick took the master’s actions as “stern, unnatural, violent.”(Fredrick 27) There were many other mistreated slaves that Fredrick witnessed. He observed, listened, and hated whippings. Some of his nights consisted of screams and shrieks from slaves being punished.  “Why am I a slave? Why are some people slaves, and others masters?  Was there ever a time this was not so? How did the relation commence?” ( Fredrick 29) All of his observations led him to question and hate slavery. Also when God, who supposedly made black people slaves and was a good man,  became involved he claims that  point blank it was against all his notions of goodness. (Fredrick 29) He was told many contradictions that did not satisfy his questions of why he was in this situation. All of these people and observations made a huge impact on his feelings as a child, which led him to develop a certain point of view and curiousity.