Frederick Douglass Autobiographies

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in Talbot County, Maryland in 1818 to a slave, Harriet Bailey, and a white slave master. During his time as a slave, the white slave masters deprived Frederick Douglass of all his inalienable rights and dignity. Douglass did not even know his own age or birthday because “it was the wish of most masters within [his] knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant”. Furthermore, as an infant, Douglass’ masters separated him from his mother, which was very common during the 1800s in order to “destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child”. Moreover, while he was a slave, Douglass “was exposed to the degradations of slavery, witnessing firsthand brutal whippings and spending much time cold and hungry”. Thus, at about the age of twenty, Douglass

escaped from slavery and traveled to New York City, where he later created his own newspaper the North Star, wrote three amazing autobiographies, and became a very important abolitionist.

Through Frederick Douglass’ well crafted autobiographies, he was able to convince many people that slavery was awful and promote the abolishment of slavery.

In the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass and the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the narrator displayed how slaves were deprived of their inalienable rights in order to exhibit the injustices of slavery. Specifically, In the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Douglass was denied the right to learn how to read or write. While living with his master, Mr. Alud, the master's wife taught Frederick Douglass his ABCs. However, when Mr. Alud discovered this, he said “if you give a ni**er an inch, he will take an will. A ni**er should know nothing but obey his master--to do as he is told to do”. This scene caused the reader to be disgusted by the fact that a person was not even allowed to learn how to read, even worse their ABCs. Through these disturbing images Douglass appealed to the reader’s humanity and provides a notable justification for abolition. Douglas emphasized that slave lives

were very valuable. Furthermore, in Chapter five of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the narrator explained his harsh treatment by his white master, Master Daniel Lloyd. For example, Douglass described how he “suffered much from hunger, but much more from cold. In hottest summer and coldest winter, [he] was kept almost naked--no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no trousers, nothing on but a coarse tow linen shirt”. As a result, Douglass challenged the reader to place themselves in his shoes; if they had to suffer for long periods of time (many months) with little to no food and no clothes. Additionally, this horrific scene caused the reader to think about how they would feel, if their kid was stripped from the ability to stay healthy and loved. Ironically, the white slave masters did not care about keeping their slaves in top conditions, their slaves had to do many hours of strenuous work, however; the masters were able to do this because slaves were not valued to the slightest, and slaves could be easily replaced. Frederick Douglass intended for this image to display to his audience the damage slavery inflicted on slaves.