Fredrick Douglass

Fredrick Augustus Washington Bailey, known today as Fredrick Douglass, recorded the story of his life to give the public an unedited version of his experience of being a slave (Douglass 66). Douglass had the narrative of his life paired with a preface from William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison believed that slavery should end abruptly rather than gradually. Having Douglass’ experience to back up Garrisons proposal lead the country to understand Garrisons point of view. Slavery allowed land owners to make a large revenue during the 1800’s, so the wealthy were able to purchase slaves to make them even more wealthy. Living life to serve someone who doesn’t treat them like humans would persuade many to run away, but the owners had various techniques …show more content…
Slave owners did this by raping female slaves and raising the child as a slave. Fredrick Douglass was one of these children, as his mother was Harriet Bailey, a slave, and his father was her master (Douglass 1). Douglass was separated from his mother before the age of one. She died when he was seven years old, which he had only remembered seeing her around five times since their separation (Douglass 2). This means that he saw her less than one time per year and he was also not permitted to attend her funeral (Douglass 2). Family bonds were not allowed to form between slaves and their family to give a sense of dehumanization. Slaves were typically used to grow crops just as a cow is bought to produce milk. This means that slaves were treated more like farm animals rather than humans, as they were only there to provide for their masters. Slaves were offered a break between Christmas and New Years in which the slaves could do what they pleased, including visiting family. The slaves were expected and encouraged to get drunk during this time (Douglass 44). This was done to make slaves have a massive hangover, therefore making slaves associate family and freedom with …show more content…
While Douglass lived with Master Hughes, his mistress taught him how to read and write (Douglass 22). She was not aware that teaching slaves these abilities was dangerous until her husband caught her teaching Douglass and scolded her (Douglass 22). At times Douglass felt that learning how to read was a curse, since he then knew how cruel slavery was and how life could be if he was no longer a slave (Douglass 24). Despite this feeling, Douglass went on to teach other slaves how to read on Sundays at school, then eventually in his home (Douglass 48). If a slave was caught trying to learn, the punishment would consist of thirty-nine lashes (Douglass 48). This would force slaves to associate learning with physical pain, therefore persuading many to stay uneducated. Later in his life, Douglass was taught how to calk when he was under the supervision of William Gardner. This was done so that Douglass would earn his master more money than he did originally (Douglass 55). Douglass went back to Master Hugh, after his training, and earned one of the highest wage of all calkers (Douglass 58). Hugh allowed him some freedom and gave him a small portion of his wages in return for being loyal to him and to encourage him to work harder (Douglass 61). Giving Douglass freedom and wages made him want to escape even more, just as the slave owners predicted. Douglass' experience

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