StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The writer of the current essay would summarize the autobiographical book "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave". Moreover, the essay analyzes the story of Douglass life and raise the issue of social suppression by superior groups towards immigrants…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.1% of users find it useful
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave"

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American SlaveFredrick Douglas was an American slave just as the title of the book indicates and he lived in Maryland (different parts of it though most of his slave life he spent in Baltimore). He was born as a slave and lived most of his adolescent years and part of young adulthood as a slave undergoing the sufferings that the slaves did undergo under their masters. Later on however, he was able to leave the life of slavery, marry and even start his own business as a free man.

After obtaining his emancipation, he started campaigning for the end of slavery and abolition of slavery through different abolition movements. The book is a detailed account of his life as a slave until he was emancipated.As with every other race story and accounts in the different literature books such as Handlin’s or even Daniel’s, the minority race (in this case the blacks) were always on the receiving end of every evil their white masters and even the rest of the white people subjected them to.

Fredrick’s case is not different, in chapter 10 when he was working in Mr. Covey’s plantation, he was constantly thoroughly whipped and mercilessly for that matter until he ran away because he thought he was going to die after collapsing one day from the beating (Douglass 77). He is also abused by other white men when he goes to work in the shipyard and he has to leave there too. This is an indication of how one race considered them so superior over the other that even people on the same job category still treated the blacks as slaves and with disdain.

The worst part is that even with evidence of physical abuse, the police and lawyers cannot come to the rescue of the blacks simply because even the system is wretched and corrupt with racism.Fredrick may have managed to get slavery abolished but that does not mean that other forms of modern day slavery do not exist. Issues such as racism as explained by Fredrick are still in existence even to date with some white still feeling superior to the blacks and even people of law (such as police, lawyers, advocates and some judges) still separates these two races to date.

Even though the slavery may not be as intense as it used to be when Fredrick was growing up where even the food provided by the master was little and children were separated from their parents at a very tender age so that they cannot know love (Douglass 20), there is still the lack of complete freedom for the immigrants and people of minority race and ethnicity not only in the United States but in other nations of the world as well. The planning of escape from slavery by Fredrick and his determination at becoming his own successful and free man should act as an encouragement to all people who want to be emancipated in one way or another.

This is so especially for the immigrants and other minority groups whose freedom is still being held by other superior groups. The other lesson we learn from Fredrick’s narrative is that freedom is not acquired on a silver platter but the fruits of freedom are sweet all the way as is evidenced on the last chapter of the book (Douglass 117).Work CitedDouglass, Fredrick. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1851.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Essay - 5”, n.d.)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Essay - 5. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/people/1623128-essay-4
(Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Essay - 5)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Essay - 5. https://studentshare.org/people/1623128-essay-4.
“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Essay - 5”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/people/1623128-essay-4.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

View's of Education in Voltaire's Candide and Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

This paper represents Francois-Marie Voltaire's Candide, or Optimism and Frederick Douglass' narrative of the life of frederick douglass, an American Slave.... Doe English 344 8 May 2000 Views of Education in Voltaire's Candide and Douglass' narrative of the life of frederick douglass, an American Slave Though Francois-Marie Voltaire's Candide, or Optimism and Frederick Douglass' narrative of the life of frederick douglass, an American Slave come from two different genres of literature, fiction and nonfiction respectively, both works make extensively developed statements about societal issues....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Conflict of Slavery and Religion

This paper argues that religion and slavery are in conflict based on Frederick Douglass' narrative of the life of frederick douglass, An American Slave.... CONFLICT OF SLAVERY AND RELIGION Conflict of Slavery and Religion [Insert Your First and s] [Insert of CONFLICT OF SLAVERY AND RELIGION 2AbstractThis paper argues that religion and slavery are in conflict based on Frederick Douglass' narrative of the life of frederick douglass, An American Slave.... In his narrative of the life of frederick douglass, An American Slave, Douglass employs a set of rhetorical as well as narrative strategies by which he not only dispels slavery as an antithesis to religion but also reclaims slavery discourse as an African American meaning-making universe par excellence....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Slave ownership in America

The narrative of the life of frederick douglass, an American Slave presents the importance of education by showing how one slave got an education and helped bring about abolition.... Reading the narrative of the life of frederick douglass, an American Slave we realize how a whole race was subjugated for so long.... They forced them to give up their religion, their culture and their social behavior and made them into a slave.... From the first line of the book we realize that slave owners thought of slaves as animals....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Douglass, Frederick, 1817-1895. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

The frederick douglass Encyclopedia.... One of his… In the course of experiencing servitude, Douglass moves from one slave master to another and in between these traversals, he tries to obtain some form of knowledge in the form of knowing Instruction: Task: Fredrick Douglass.... In the 1800s and early 1900s, slavery was booming in the southern part of the Americas and slave trade was an active form of economic activity.... In the course of experiencing servitude, Douglass moves from one slave master to another and in between these traversals, he tries to obtain some form of knowledge in the form of knowing how to read and write....
1 Pages (250 words) Assignment

THE QUEST FOR FREEDOM

Being considered the “most famous African American of the nineteenth century”, Frederick Douglass was born a slave and rose to fame not only as “one of America's best orators, but also as a prominent writer, intellectual and an abolitionist leader (Sundstrom 1; Stauffer… The first of his three autobiographies, narrative of the life of frederick douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, in which he expounded on the vicissitudes of his life, is widely regarded as the epitome of American slave narrative (Sundstrom 1). On the hand, Douglass's narrative presents a vivid account of one of the darkest periods in American history, marked with “lawful” violence and suppression, outrageous cruelty to, and disregard for the human nature of millions of people, whose only fault was the color of their skin....
4 Pages (1000 words) Thesis

American Literature

ith reference to “Uncle Tom's Cabin” done by Stowe Harriet Beecher and “narrative of the life of frederick douglass, An American Slave” done by Douglass Frederick this paper aims at how civil war and slavery were of influence to writings by these writers.... Some slave hunters are on their pursuit and thus they have to always be on the run.... Douglass having had an experience about living as a slave had nothing positive to say about the manner in which slaves were treated....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

What was the main theme of chapter six in the Douglas narrative Why was it important

narrative of the life of frederick douglass: An American Slave.... Considering this, Douglas discovers that education is the only avenue that will The Main Theme in Douglas' chapter 6 “The narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglas” The main theme of chapter 6 in the Douglas' narrative is the power of knowledge and empowerment.... Auld had not owned a slave and so she thinks that it is bad not to educate them on the basics.... The chapter ends with Douglas illustrating the fury over the mistreatment of Mary, who is a slave in the neighboring house....
1 Pages (250 words) Assignment

Poems around Fires across America

Uncle Tom's Cabin and narrative of the life of frederick douglass are two books that captured the world's imaginations by bringing out the true picture of what transpired in the days of slavery in America.... narrative of the life of frederick douglass: An American Slave.... Part II: Rebecca Harding Davis is an american writer who employs lots of literary realism in her works; literary realism is a term used to mean the moment in history when writers came out of their shells to write more about stories of human interest....
2 Pages (500 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us