Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Essay

Frederick Douglass was born as Frederick tremendousus Bailey, a buckle down in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, Maryland. His mother Harriet Bailey was a slave and Frederick also became a slave since truth required children to follow status of their mothers. He was degage from his mother at an early age and was raised with a separate of slave children. Driven by thirst for association and learning, he bought his scratch book, The Columbian Orator at the age of thirteen. The book made him perceive the miseries of enslaved people and to realize the necessity of universal freedom.This knowledge sowed a spill of revolt in Douglass that ultimately made him escape the slave cantonment in 1938. After his arrival in New York he diverged his invoke to Frederick Douglass and started working for abolitionist movement. After joining American Anti-Slavery Society, he came to be known as a famous orator, journalist, and slave leader of the nineteenth century. His autobiography, Narrative of the keep of Frederick Douglass was published in 1845, followed by My Bondage and My emancipation in 1855 and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass in 1881 respectively.In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he has provided a deep insight into a slaves life story working on the southerly plantations. At the age of eight, he was sent to the custody of Hugh and Sophia Auld at their farthestm house. The slaves were by law prohibited to scotch education and knowledge and those guilty of violation were outlet to heavy fines, whipping or imprisonment. Blacks and slave did not have admission charge to purchase books or even Bible. The plantation owners considered educated slaves as a threat to their authority and thus barred them of the privilege.Douglass faced same foeman from his master at his early age when his masters wife tried to teach him Bible and was stopped by her husband. Literacy therefore, became of primary immenseness for Douglass since he thought it to be the only means to freedom and emancipation. In the narrative he states, I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to change his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the place of reason. he must be made to feel that slavery is unspoiled and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man (99). Douglass was highly critical of the slaveholders religion as that added even more(prenominal) to their cruelty towards the colored labor on their plantations. He describes the conversion of his master, original Auld, in August, 1832 of which he thought to bring a positive change in his behavior towards slaves. Against his hopes, It neither made him to be humane to his slaves, nor to unloosen them. . . . it made him more cruel and hateful . . .a much worsened man afterward his conversion . . . he found religious self-confidence and support for his slaveholding cruelty (57). Regarding cruel ty of religious southerlyers, Douglass opines, For of all(a) slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst (80). At the Southern plantation, the conduct of know towards slaves was bad beyond imagination. They were deprived of basic and unsounded rights such as education and denied freedom on least degree. The slave-owners presumed that if slaves get education they would be of no use for their masters.The slaves were supposed to be yes-men to their masters and they did not require those who argued or questioned their authority. Any effort or exertion for freedom was crushed with an iron hand. Physical and intellectual oppression became connect during that period. Those who tried to seek mental freedom by acquiring knowledge were more exposed to physical penalties than others. The penalties were horrible including cutting of fingers and sometimes of hands, whipping and finally killing them.In such circumstances, Douglass developed a impregnable urge for emancipation supplemented further by the fair treatment he received from William Freeland as he craved to be his own master. Douglass witnessed a wide difference in slaves living conditions after he arrived in Baltimore. Life for slaves, he observed, in the northern cities was far easier than those at Southern plantations. He writes, A city slave is roughly a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation. He is much breach fed and clothed, and enjoys privileges altogether unknown to the slave on the plantation (38). want many other revolutionary slaves, Douglass planned to escape his masters brutalities and seek freedom body and mind. He was dissatisfied with almost everything in his slave life. Above all, he was discontented with the way slaves were robbed of their monetary gains. He started planning to flee in 1835 but stayed back due to a number of reservations. Primarily he was concerned with his fellow slaves and wanted them to imitate him in the attempt for independ ence. He convinced each of them personally and took long time to chalk out a feasible escape plan.The multiple fears of world caught and return to slavery were horrifying and difficulties numerous. Finally, a group of six frame for the Chesapeake Bay was constituted to flee on Saturday night. Douglass even managed to prepare impostor undertakings on behalf of their masters for all six. As the last moment, however, the mission failed and all of them were held due to the betrayal of one of the fellow slave. Finally when Douglass succeeded to escape towards northernmost in 1838, he found the region totally different from what he presumed.While living in abysmal depths of slavery at the Southern plantation, he thought of the Northern slaveholders having just a few console of life or rather they didnt own any slaves. In his simplicity, he thought the slaves a source of wealthiness and extravagant life that was supposedly inexistent in the North. He writes, . . . upon coming to the north, I expected to support with a rough, hard-handed, and uncultivated population, living in the most Spartan-like simplicity, knowing zero point of the ease, luxury, pomp, and grandeur of southern slaveholders (111).In contrast, he found himself surrounded with the strongest proofs of wealth (111). The blooming northern industry engaged numerous workers living in far better conditions (both physically and economically) than the pathetic southern slaves. In short, he found a new world, a world of hope where hereafter lies. Works Cited Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. Accessed August 20, 2008 http//etext. virginia. edu/toc/modeng/public/DouNarr. html