Fred Douglas Paper

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Words: 722
Pages: 3

Daniel O’Donnell
HIS 215
4-18-15

The Narrative if the Life of Frederick Douglass

In the Narrative if the Life of Frederick Douglas, Frederick Douglass argues that slavery is wrong and uses his experiences to justify this accusation against an institution that is vital to the southern way of life and economy. He uses vivid depiction of many experiences during his time as a slave to bring even the coldest of hearts a feeling of sadness. He depicts the cold he must endure without proper clothes and the malnutrition he suffers due to his neglectful master. He tells of horrible punishments he has witnessed and experienced. The depiction of these events makes even one reading such an account by a warm fire in soft and cozy clothes to feel a shiver of pain and agony cross their spine. It is effective means of getting his point across by using brute honesty and descriptive depictions of horrible conditions and treatment.
In his autobiography, Frederick Douglass tells the story of his life; the slave life. He doesn’t begin to know or truly feel the perils of slavery until Sofia Auld educates him. Her husband tells her the stop for it will make him unmanageable and make him restless. After she stops he proceeds to find another way to learn to read and write. In his determinations he sees Sofia’s husband’s warning come to fruition as he becomes restless and develops thoughts of liberty. These thoughts constantly travel through his mind and make him unhappy just as his master said it would. This truly makes him unmanageable and his master send him to be broken by Mr. Edward Covey. In his first six months with Covey he is brutally worked and treated to poor conditions of life. He eventually breaks due to the hardship placed upon him. Then one day he builds up the courage to fight and no longer lay down and “take it”. He wills himself to fight Mr. Edward Covey and gains a sort of freedom from Covey’s wrath. This scenario is one of a few key situations where Frederick Douglass fights slavery and the notion that white men are meant to rule over black men. In another instance he starts a Sabbath School and teaches his fellow slaves about God. He tries to also teach them how to read and write. These are all things that can be used to fight slavery because slavery is an institution that survives off of the slaves ignorance and obedience, Teaching slaves to thing on their own and to learn to read and understand things with their own will is liberty a slave is not supposed to have. His strongest act of fight slavery occurs when he decides to actually run away. He defies his master and all those whom hold slaves and takes his own freedom with his own free will. He stands up to the goliath