...The purpose of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is for the author to expose the evil doings behind slavery. In the nove,l Douglass plays the role of the narrator and the main character. Douglass chooses to have both roles so that he can add his own personal account as well as make his own public claims about slavery. In chapter one, Douglass takes the time to write about the relationship between the master and his slaves. For my response I want to focus on the Douglass’s portrayal of slave women. In Chapter 1 Douglass describes the relationship between his mother and himself. He states that “it was a common custom, in the part of Maryland… to part children from their mothers at a very early age” (1) and as a result of this many...
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...Frederick Douglass Narrative Have you ever wondered what life was like for slaves in America during the 1800s and what cruelties they had to endure every day? Frederick Douglass was an African-American orator, writer, and abolitionist who had witnessed and experienced the effects of slavery first-hand. Douglass wrote the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” to show the public the horrible depths of slavery. Since he was an abolitionist, he wished to abolish slavery completely and permanently. Slavery was still alive and well when his narrative was written. You can trust what Frederick Douglass wrote about his life and his surroundings because he had no reason to lie or make up any stories. As an abolitionist, he wanted to make known...
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...Frederick Douglass said, “I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do things I wanted.” He was trying to say he didn’t know what was going on in the beginning of his life. After his experience as a slave, he made a slave narrative. A slave narrative is a type of literacy work that is made up of written accounts of enslaved Africans. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery around 1818. He escaped when he was in his 20s and after going to a black church he became an abolitionist. He was asked to tell his story at the abolitionist meetings and he became an anti-slavery lecturer. Frederick Douglass is first person point of view in his novel Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave. Frederick Douglass uses a lot of literary terms such as ethos, pathos, and logos for his slave narrative to be a strong and persuasive piece....
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...A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave The title alone speaks to the dichotomy of the life of the man we know as Frederick Douglass. Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born a slave, but Frederick Douglass was a free man. The path he took from slavery to freedom was long, difficult, and like that of many blacks in the pre-Abolition era. Through a series of events, Douglass was able to first free his mind and eventually his body from the shackles of slavery. His story still stands as a startling first-hand account of the life of an American Slave. Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland. Like many slaves, the exact year or day was unknown to him. He knew his mother, Harriet Bailey, but his father’s identity was a secret. It was rumored that this master was actually his father, though he was unable to confirm the whispers. He was separated from his mother, as was custom, at a young age. He knew very little of Harriet and when he was about 7 years old, she died. Douglass noted, “She was gone long before I knew any thing about it. Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger.” After the death of his mother, Douglass was moved around and kept as the live property of various families. With stark details, he describes the conditions of slave life. Slaves received...
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...Although Frederick Douglass wrote several autobiographies during his lifetime, none continues to have the lasting literary impact of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. From its publication in 1845 to its present status in the American literary canon, the Narrative has become one of the most highly acclaimed American autobiographies ever written. Published seven years after Douglass' escape from his life as a slave in Maryland, the Narrative put into print circulation a critique of slavery that Douglass had been lecturing on around the country for many years. Yet while the Narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of being a slave, it also reveals his psychological insights into the slave/master relationship. What Douglass realizes that day is that literacy is equated with not only individual consciousness but also freedom. From that day, Douglass makes it his goal to learn as much as he can, eventually learning how to write, a skill that would provide him with his passport to freedom. What gives the book its complexity is Douglass' ability to incorporate a number of sophisticated literary devices...
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...Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass condemns slavery so well because of who wrote it, and there is no anger just fact. Douglass tells his story with such grace that the reader can almost picture themselves in his place. The person who wrote The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was a slave, Frederick Douglass himself. Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland “near Hillsborough” (Douglass 1521). No one knows what year he was born even he says he has no “accurate knowledge of my age” (Douglass 1521) and he was no allowed to ask. His mother was Harriet Bailey, “darker” (Douglass 1521) than his grandmother or grandfather and his father an unnamed “white man” (Douglass 1521), although some think it was his first master. He never saw his mother more than “four or five times in his life” (Douglass 1521) as it was custom to take the infant away from the mother before its twelfth month. Frederick Douglass finally decided that “upon the third day of September” he was going to make a break for his freedom at which he succeeded as he reaches New York “without the slightest interruption of any kind” (Douglass 1571). Frederick Douglass goes about writing about horrific things in such a manner that you don’t get a sense that he is angry. One of the first of such things he talks about is what was done to an aunt of his by a Mr. Plummer where he would “tie up to a joist and whip upon her naked back till she...
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...The Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass Essay Published in 1845, The Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass himself, attests how life of slave really was. Douglass “debunks the mythology of slavery” by rebuking its romantic image, proving that black are not intellectually inferior and showing that slavery promotes disloyalty among the slaves. Douglass rebukes the romantic image of slavery in his novel by writing about the brutal reality slaves faced. When slaves sing, white people think they are singing because they are “[content] and [happy],” when they are really “[the] most unhappy”(26). Douglass directly criticizes the white men, who wrongly believe slaves are happy with their lives. Douglass goes on to describe the brutality slaves face throughout his novel. Slavery consists of beatings that “[cause] the blood to run,” leading to the “[breaking] of body, soul, and spirit”(59, 63). Douglass censors nothing in his novel, and describes every beating to help the reader imagine how bad the slave’s lives were. This helps to destroy the romantic image of slavery, because the sorrowful songs, excessive beatings, and mental toll prove the slaves are not treated humanely, and are mentally and physically not treated...
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...In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass was an African American slave. He eventually starts his own abolitionist movement. His mission was to gain freedom for himself and other slaves as he was an abolitionist. Douglass being a slave had a slave owner, but the thing is that Douglass has had multiple slave owners not just one or two. Mrs. Thomas Auld, the wife of Master Thomas Auld was a owner of Douglass for a while and is the first person that begins to teach Douglass. At first Douglass did not want to learn but as Douglass starts to think of how he can become a free man. He realizes learning to read and write is important, as the key for a slave to become a free man is education. Unfortunately Mrs. Thomas Auld is not able to continue teaching Douglass how to read and write. One day while Master Thomas Auld was coming back from work in the city he sees his wife teaching Douglass the ABC’s. He says “If you give a n--------- he’ll take an ell (unit of measure). A n--------- should know nothing but to obey his master – do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best n------- in the world . . . .if you teach that n--------- . . . how to...
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...Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass The horrible things that slaves went from their masters and from all slavery caused slaves to be denied their rights. In the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," Douglass has the ability to show the psychological battle between the white slave holders and their black slaves, which is shown by Douglass' own intellectual struggles against his white slave holders. I will focus on how education allowed Douglass to understand how slavery was wrong, and how the Americans saw the blacks as not equal, and only suitable for slave work. I will also say what is different on how Douglass' view was very similar the women’s in America, and the role that Christianity played in his life as a slave and then as a free man. The novel clearly shows the children's bad behavior when they were not regularly allowanced. Douglass says, "Our food was coarse corn meal boiled, which was called mush. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the ground. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none with spoons. He that ate fastest got most; he that was strongest secured the best place; and few left the trough satisfied" (Douglass 41-42). This clearly shows how children where treated like animals and their inability to act in the manner of a normal educated child. Slave children...
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...Frederick Douglass was born into the cruel world of slavery sometime in-between 1817 or 1818. I say ‘sometime in-between’ due to the fact that Douglass had no accurate information about his birth date. Douglass was separated from his mother and family not much longer after his birth and as for his father was believed to be his plantation owner at the time. As Douglass got older he worked for a man by the name of Colonel Lloyd, Lloyd owned hundreds and hundreds of slaves that all worked for him on his “Great House Farm”. Slaves that worked for Lloyd were overworked and treated brutally and received very little food and very little items of clothing, and absolutely no beds. Many of those who disobeyed or resisted were often whipped and beaten, and there was even a man shot by the overseers, the meanest overseers were Mr. Severe and Mr. Gore. Douglass’s life on his plantation although was not as hard as most plantation slaves. When he was 7, he was traded to a man named Hugh Auld, who lived in Baltimore. There, Douglass had a much easier and freer life. For the most part, city-slaves were treated much better. Sophia Auld, Hugh’s wife, began to teach Douglass how to read, until Hugh demanded her to stop. Eventually, Sophia understands how slaves were supposed to be treated and became as bad as most. Douglass met some younger boys who then taught him how to read and write and soon learned about the abolotion movements that was starting to gain attention. He resolves to escape to...
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...I’ve grown a lot in ELA. Reading and writing takes second place to my skills in math, and even then, my math abilities are pretty average. I’ve never liked writing, in fact I frequently take shortcuts so that I can avoid it. Luckily, my reading comprehension has improved by quite a bit. I’m able to analyze quotes more accurately. So, let’s see my work examples. Oh boy. I was in the advanced ELA group, and I had a slave narrative to write. I chose Frederick Douglass, because I recognised him the most. I decided to detail his escape. Sounds harmless, right? Wrong. I don’t know what happened, but my story turned out horribly. I remember not wanting to read it and almost dying when I had to. It’s horrible. I found out that Frederick Douglass tried...
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...Bargardi Mr. Wilkins AP US History September 8, 2015 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave In the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave a young African American slave talks about his life growing up. He first explains that he does not know his age. Slaves back in the day were not allowed to know their own age. The slaver owners believed that the less the slaves knew the better. Along with not knowing his age, Douglass was also unaware of who his father was. Douglass knows that his father was white and some believe it was his slave owner, Mr. Anthony. His mom was named Harriet Bailey. He was separated from her as an infant and is the main reason he had little emotional connection with her....
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...The book I read was The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. It’s a bibliography about a slave who learned on his own how to read and write. He escaped the plantation and became a slavery activist. I used the idea of Frederick Douglass to embark on my own journey. I looked at photos in the period that Frederick Douglass was alive and analysed them. These photos ranged from the beginning of slavery to the end of the civil war where the Confederates lost. Knowing the history of our nation and viewing it from the eyes of someone who has seen oppression and fought against it help us so we don’t make the same mistake as before. The very first part of my journey I looked at the eyes of people who were slaves to the plantation workers. These people ranged from field workers to people doing simple chores in a household. These people wouldn’t be making anything since they were enslaved and were forced to be put into systems that kept them in place. From this I learned that people under slavery should be free since no one should have to go through with what Frederick Douglass seen in his eyes. I also view some photos on Jim Crow laws since they are similar to slavery except that people still had rights, but their rights were limited due to the Jim Crow Laws....
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...Every time an author writes a book, they have some sort of purpose. Whether it is to tell the reader about an experience or inform the reader about a situation. In Narrative of Frederick Douglass his goal in the story is to not only to show/inform the reader the cruelty of slavery but to persuade the reader of the evils of slavery to the slaveholder and the slave. He uses many devices to portray his thinking, and to persuade the reader that not only are slaves affected by slavery, but the slaveholders too. He uses literary devices to show slavery in a different light such irony, anecdotes, and imagery. • Throughout the book Douglass uses many rhetoric and arguementive strategies to persuade the reader. He often uses irony to show the reality...
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...Frederick Douglass's Narrative is an autobiography and it's the story of his life from the time he was born to the time he ran away to freedom in the North. But it's also a good book with a political message. When Douglass wrote his autobiography in 1845, slavery was legal in a great range of the United States. Douglass was a public speaker and writer to try to stop slavery. He believed that if he showed people what slavery was really like behind the scenes, they would understand why it needed to be taken away and made illegal, and who better than an experienced slave to tell everything about slavery and the ins and outs? (Douglass) Frederick Douglass's Narrative is not just about slavery. It paints a picture of what it was like to be a slave,...
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