The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass - 1485 Words

Jonquell Connors Professor Ewing History 2010 7 November 2015 Slaves Breaking The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was an autobiography written by Fredrick Douglass himself. There are tons of books written about slavery, but this narrative is one of the first accounts written by an actual slave. Douglass talks about the horror stories behind the lives of many slaves. Douglas’s father was a slave owner and his mother was a slave named Harriet Bailey, which means Douglass was born biracial. Within the autobiography he talks about life as a slave on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Baltimore throughout the younger years of his life. He also discusses how slave owners would rape their slave women to satisfy both their sexual†¦show more content†¦They seldom knew what it was to eat a full meal (Douglass 21)†. Starvation of the slaves was another form of torture practiced by many of the slave owners in America. Starving the slaves showed them that they had zero control. By Starving the slaves it deprived them of their dignity and br oke them down mentally causing them to bow down to their slave owners. In chapter five Douglas discusses how children were forced to eat corn mush out of a communal trenches, usually only the strongest children were able to eat leaving the weakest to starve and go malnourished. Douglass talks about the beatings and murders of slaves, which is turned by a blind eye from the authorities. Douglass compares several killings to Mr. Gore, Mr. Hopkins overseer, killing Demby, a slave, he talks about how Mr. Thomas Landman killed a slave with a hatchet and received no chastisement for his actions. Douglas also discussed how he watched his Aunt Hester get beaten as a young boy by her slave owner and how if frightened him so much, towards the end of chapter one Douglass says, â€Å"I was so terrified and horror-stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet, and dared not venture out till long after the bloody transaction was over. I expected it would be my turn next. It was all new to me. I had never seen any thing like it before (Douglass 5)†. The slaveholders attempted to put in as