Fredrick Douglass

In the autobiographical Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass; Douglass describes his experiences while growing up in slavery. He begins with the circumstances of his birth and ends with his life as a free man. This piece of literature has key elements such as, King James Bible influence, hypocrisy of slave owners, quest for literacy, quest for freedom, and physical and emotional abuse, that categorize it as a slave narrative. Religion is mentioned directly throughout the book several times, but indirectly the entire narrative is influenced by biblical allusions. Douglass’ early childhood was spent away from planation life where he was blissfully unaware of the horrors that took place. He was brought abruptly from the Eden-like setting

With education comes power and Douglass grasped the full meaning of this after hearing his master argue with his wife about the adverse effects that could come from her teachings. The ability to read and write was precious to a lot of slaves as it gave them a sense of power and could possibly provide opportunities to them. As a result, many slave narratives feature the narrator’s quest for literacy while they were enslaved. Douglass speaks in detail about the hard work he out forth in order to master the skills and the amount of importance he placed on acquiring the knowledge. “Through conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.” The process took months and he faced consequences if caught but he valued literacy as worth the risk and

Many slaves felt this restlessness and injustice in their situation leading to them seeking freedom. In result of this importance it becomes a reoccurring theme in slave narratives. Runaway slaves escaping to the north was a common worry in the southern states as many tried and some succeeded in reaching freedom. Douglass explains how he was always formulating a plan of how to break his bondage in the slave system, “Every man stood firm . . . we pledged ourselves in the most solemn manner . . . would certainly start in the pursuit of freedom.” The quest for freedom was a long and extremely dangerous process that was took on in despite of that due to the possible great reward. Various narratives use the journey to independence as a pivotal point in the