Frederick Douglass Unfair

Brutally beaten and wronged, Frederick Douglass overcame the challenges of being a slave. He lived most of his life as a slave until one day he was freed. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass tells of his life as a slave, and the challenges he faced to be freed. On the road to freedom, Douglass was not treated anywhere near equal. In fact, equality was a big problem during the time of slavery.
Today, every child has the opportunity to go to school and learn to read and write. We even know our exact age and most of us know who our mother and father are. In the 1800’s, during the time of slavery, slave children and children from African descendant did not have the privilege. By not allowing slaves to learn, slave owners

were taking that right away from people. Douglass learned to read when he was seven years old. He is one of only a handful of slaves that learned to read. If an enslaved was caught learning how to read, he or she could be whipped 25-35 times. If a freeman or slave owner was caught teaching a slave how to read, they could be thrown in prison or fined. A quote from the book tells about Douglass’s experience, “Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read.” (Pg. 29) Mr. Auld also says, “Learning would spoil the best n***** in the world.” (Pg.29) As can be seen, slaves had the right of education taken from them and were treated very unequal. Also, Frederick Douglass did not even know his exact age or when he was born. He thinks he was born in about 1818. Also Douglass never knew who his father was. He assumed it was probably his first slave owner but there is no way of knowing. He did know his mother but he only got to see her five times between when she was sold and when she died. She died when Douglass was about seven years old. Slaves were not treated equal whatsoever, most knew nothing about themselves or their families.
Another way slaves were treated unfairly is by the way the lived on the plantations.

Their sleeping arrangements, first of all, were awful. During any time of the year, they had to sleep in poorly build wood cabins with floors made of dirt. They had to sleep on the dirt or occasionally they could sleep on straw. Once Douglass was able to sleep in a bag to try to keep warm. He says, “I would crawl into this bag, and there sleep on the cold, damp, clay floor, with my head in and feet out. My feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the pen with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes.”(Pg.23) They also were given very little time to sleep, only between sunrise and sunset. That time changed throughout the year depending on the season. Secondly, the clothes they were given were not suitable. Douglass talks about what the men were given to wear in a year. He says, “Their yearly clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts, one pair of linen trousers, like the shirts, one jacket, one pair of trousers for winter, made of coarse negro cloth, one pair of stockings, and one pair of shoes; the whole of which could not have cost more than seven dollars.” (Pg. 8) In my opinion, children had it worse, though. He states, “The children unable to work in the field had neither shoes, stockings, jackets, nor trousers, given to them; their clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts per year. When these failed them, they went naked until the next allowance-day. Children from seven to ten years old, of both sexes, almost naked, might be seen at all seasons of the year.” (Pg. 8) I can’t even begin to imagine how cold those children must have gotten in the winter. Finally, the food they were given was poor. Douglass says, “The men and women slaves received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork, or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal.” (Pg.8) This food had to last them a whole month of breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food they were

given was not even merely good quality food. If they ran out, they would have to go try to find more food. Along with the horrible food, they were given very little time to eat. The children would eat from a trough like animals. The strongest children would get more food. They would either eat their food with their hands, an old shell or even a rough shingle.