From very early on in life, Frederick Douglass witnessed the atrocities of slavery and the effects it had on all parties involved: both slave and slaveholder. Throughout Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass not only tells about his experiences as a slave, but uses these accounts to make arguments against slavery despite being encouraged by white abolitionists to “stick to the facts”. Douglass argues in his narrative that slavery caused good people to do awful things; slavery forced families to separate which had detrimental effects on children; and the simple fact that slaves were treated objects with the sole purpose to work and follow orders rather than human beings. These arguments combined with Douglass’s real life experiences proved incredibly effective in his arguing against the institution of slavery.
During his time as a slave, Douglass encountered very few truly kind people. The one person he wrote about being Mrs. Auld, the wife of his Baltimore slave owner Mr. Auld. When…show more content… He gives details about his mother and his white father. Continuing, he writes “My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant-before I knew her as a mother” (ch. I). In the time of slavery, this was not an uncommon practice. Families were separated, especially at slave auctions, and children were forced out of their mothers’ arms and given no time to build a relationship with them ultimately destroying their connection with them. Upon hearing about his mother’s death, Douglass recounts his emotions, saying “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 the death of a stranger” (ch. I). Due to the strict confinements of slavery, Douglass and many other children never had chances to form connections with their
