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Recommended: Writing slave narratives

Born into slavery in February 1818, Frederick Douglass knew no other way until finally escaping in September 1838. In The Heroic Slave Douglass writes about the journey of a slave named Madison Washington and his fight against slavery. A white man named Mr. Listwell helps Madison throughout his fight and truly impacts his life for the greater good. Throughout The Heroic Slave Washington and Listwell express their dedication to fighting back against the oppression of Blacks, gaining freedom and proving that freedom is something everyone should have forever, and under no circumstances should never be taken from them. Both Madison Washington and Mr. Listwell think that everyone should have the right to freedom because in the big picture we are all only human.
Madison Washington is completely aware of his placement as a slave in this story, but is in no way letting that hold him back from obtaining his everlasting goal; freedom. He says “I am a slave,-- born a slave, an abject slave, -- even before I was made part of this breathing world, the scourge was plated for my back; the fetters we forged for my limbs. How mean a thing am I” (Part I). However, Douglass communicates Washington's inner feelings, by later writing “But here I am, a man,-- yes, a man!” (Part I). Here it is acknowledged that Washington knows he should be just as equal as everyone else, although the white slave owner is his “superior, and scorns to own him as his master” (Part I).
Washington thinks that freedom is something that he must have and he will achieve it one way or another, he is determined and will stop at nothing. With the help of Listwell, his wishes are granted in a sense that he finally stands up to always conforming to the ways of slavery. Dougla...

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...d announced the limit of human vision. ‘Farewell! farewell! brave and true man! God grant brighter skies may smile upon your future than have yet looked down upon your thorny pathway’ (Part Three). Mr.Listwell never gives up on Madison Washington because everyone should have the right to freedom and he knows that it will soon come close to that.
On the slave ship Madison Washington successfully “secures the confidence of every officer and the negroes fairly worship him” (Part IV). By doing this, he secures the bond between many other people with the same views of him and Listwell. All of the slaves on board manage to kill all of the white men and take over. Douglass writes “I am not a murderer. God is my witness that LIBERTY, not malice, is the motive for this night’s work” (Part IV). All plays out and they have finally overcome a step of redeeming their freedom.

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