Comparing The Experiences Of Slaves Vs. Frederick Douglass

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The history of slavery dates back to the dawn of time, pre-dating any written records. We study our history and learn from our mistakes, this is how we grow as human beings. This essay is the comparison of two slaves who were able to write about their experiences and have their story heard. There are similarities in their retellings, but there are also many significant differences in the outcome of their time as slaves. Millie Evans tells of her life in a very upbeat and positive way, while Frederick Douglass endured and witnessed some very horrible things. While there does seem to be a “typical” slave experience, there are also certain factors that occurred in each authors life that made it anything but typical. Those bought, sold and born …show more content…

In certain localities, there were different levels of psychological and physical abuses that took place, so their experiences could have been different depending on if the slave was male or female. If they had so called caring masters or masters who were depraved. The fact that these slaves came to a point that they could even tolerate the person who owned them, or come to love them is a testimony to the depths of the justification of a heinous practice that had occurred in this era. The Evans documents discuss how much the slaves loved their masters, seeing them move to another state so that they could remain with them. …show more content…

No education, nowhere to live, who would hire them? They had been a lot of times forcibly removed from any family they knew, if they ever knew any of their family. So most could not even count on family to fall back on. While slaves, everything they had was provided, and some felt that having the little they had was better than having nothing at all. (Evans/Kennedy) In the Evans document the operative word is positive. She was asked to tell what she remembered about her life as a slave to show a positive remembrance. It might well have been that she had fond memories of those times. She never really discussed anything that was negative, and I can only conclude that her experiences were in some ways just as horrific as Frederick Douglass experienced, because she was in fact a slave. She spent her life on one farm and her owners did appear to be more lenient and good people. But it does not excuse the fact that they were still

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