Fredrick Douglass is one of the most famous abolitionists the United States has ever seen. The events that led up to his freedom of slavery were very interesting. In his Narrative you not only get to see the worst of slavery, but you can also feel firsthand what Douglass went through to get his freedom. As we all know slavery was something you could not just walk out of. Some slaves that try to escape even end up getting punished or killed. Fredrick Douglass does not actually tell us exactly how he escaped in detail to the North from slavery because he does not want to give any slave masters information. Which makes sense because, he would not like to be giving slave owners an upper hand on slaves that do try to escape. One of the most important factors to Fredrick Douglass gaining his freedom is when he moved to Baltimore. I believe that is where his quest for freedom began. He was chosen to go to Baltimore to live with Hugh Auld. Before this Douglass was living on a plantation. This plantation was owned by Colonel Lloyd. Douglass was pretty excited to go to Baltimore because …show more content…
Fredrick Douglass meets Hugh Auld’s wife Sophia and he is surprised about how nice she is. She does not really know how to treat slaves because she has never had them. A slave with education is said to be a dangerous slave so they are not supposed to be taught. However it seems like Mrs. Auld did not know that, and she began to teach Douglass the Alphabet which is a big turning point in Douglass’s life as a slave. Mr. Auld figures out that his wife has been teaching Douglass, and he puts an end to it, and he tells her how dangerous it is to teach a slave. Fredrick Douglass overhears this, and realizes that getting an education can actually lead him to freedom, and leaving slaves uneducated is a strategy to enslave blacks. He is then determined to learn anything he
Fredrick Douglass was an african amaerican leader he was born into slaver by the name Fredrick Agustus Washington Bailey. Douglass fled slavery in 1838 and went to New Bedford Massichusetts, to escape capture he boarded a train and disquised him self. After Douglass had escaped slavery he got a newly wed bride who he had met in Baltimore and married in New York and he married her under his new name Fedrick Douglass. Douglass was always interested in eucating him self he attended several anti slavery groups and abolitionist groups. Douglass was inspired by William Garrison when he saw him speak at the bristol anti slavery meeting.
After two attempts to escape slavery, Douglass finally prospered. During the final effort, he thrived with help of Anna Murray, a free black woman in Baltimore. Douglass gained access to identification of an African American sailor; which he used for himself to pass off as the sailor. On September 3, 1838, Douglass embarked a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland.
Fredrick Douglass knew the South was a horrible place, but he that the North was place of beauty and it was a second chance at life for him. He thought of the North to be such of a wonderful place, he needed to clean himself up, to fit in Baltimore. Douglass says “I spent the most part of all these three days in the creek, washing off the plantation scurf, and preparing myself for my departure. ”(6.4), Douglass is washing off his old life into the creek, and getting prepared for his new life in Baltimore. Once Douglass arrived to Baltimore, it was better than what he expected, it was beautiful and he knew it was a new beginning of a great, new life.
To prove them wrong Douglass wrote his autobiography “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” in 1845 where he reveals everything about himself. With his identity known, and the world knowing he was a fugitive slave he was in danger, therefore he had to flee once again, this time to Scotland, Ireland, and England. In England he continued with his anti-slavery speeches, and such was the shock of the British that in December, 1846 a group of British man bought his freedom from Douglass’ former slave owner, and finally Douglass was able to return to the U.S legally a free
For Alexie, the connotation for superman breaking down the door would represent, his moment in life where everything would change. He broke down the wall that would limit his education and his ability to move up in this world. In comparison, Fredrick Douglas’s moment was not as glorious because he soon realized that he was a slave and that any hope of him being free where slim to none. Douglas lived in a different time where, even with the ability to read and write, a slave would still continue to struggle just because of the color of his skin. This is why he stated, “It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy” (Mcquade, Atwan, 109).
His mistress Sophia Auld, Hugh’s wife, was very kind with Douglass and even taught him to read and write because she has never had any slave before. However, Mr. Hugh then discovered this and ordered his wife to stop teaching Douglass. Not only Mr. Hugh but also other
What is courage? Many ask this question, but get various answers. Webster Dictionary states that courage is the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. Douglass is one of many people that are a living definition for this word. Douglas showed courage in many ways like by asking Mrs. Auld to teach him how to read, stealing Master Thomas’s notebook to help him learn how to write, and writing in his journal about the hardships of his life.
The legendary abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass was one of the most important social reformers of the nineteenth century. Being born into slavery on a Maryland Eastern Shore plantation to his mother, Harriet Bailey, and a white man, most likely Douglass’s first master was the starting point of his rise against the enslavement of African-Americans. Nearly 200 years after Douglass’s birth and 122 years after his death, The social activist’s name and accomplishments continue to inspire the progression of African-American youth in modern society. Through his ability to overcome obstacles, his strive for a better life through education, and his success despite humble beginnings, Frederick Douglass’s aspirations stretched his influence through
After he started educating himself he learnt how immoral slavery is; however, it did not give him any way to get out of that lifelong chain. Douglass has described this condition as a horrible pit, because there is no way to get out of slavery unless you can run
The Auld family was described in the next chapter. At first she was very kind to Douglass which threw him for a loop because normally he would’ve been punished for something as simple as looking her in the eye. However, not long after she too became cruel and completely changed as a person according to Douglass. Before turning cruel Mrs. Auld would teach Douglass some words as well as the alphabet. Nevertheless, this too was brought to a halt when Hugh Auld finds out.
Douglass belong to a well off family. The woman of the house thought him how to read and write some things. Until her husband found out that she was teaching him, then she suddenly stopped and was angry at Douglass, when he was reading. They felt like he would listen to the Irishman when he said “They both advised me to run away to the north; that I should find friends there, and that I should be free.” After losing his only source of teaching he resorted to the lest fortunate white kids for help.
After having read both Frederick Douglass’s Narrative and Harriet Jacobs’s Incident 1. How were Douglass and Jacobs similar and different in their complaints against slavery? What accounts for these differences? In both the inspiring narratives of Narrative in the Life of Fredrick Douglass by Frederick Douglass’s and in Incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs the respective authors demonstrate the horrors and disparity of slavery in there own ways.
Frederick Douglass was able to stand up for what he believed in because he did not focus on the negatives of slavery. He was not a so called “normal” slave because he focused on education, versus working, which is what most slaves were forced to focus on. Douglass even took his slave life to another level when he attacked his master, Mr. Covey , an act of defiance and standing up for himself. Douglass notes that “it was a glorious resurrection” that was from “the tomb of slavery” , and after hitting Mr. Covey he felt as if he were in “the heaven of freedom” (Douglass). Douglass beats up his master, a clear sign of rebelliousness as well as courageousness.
Douglass had been living under Master Hugh’s family, when he learned to read
With all the knowledge he was gaining, he began to comprehend everything around him. The things he was learning fascinated him, but the “more [he] read, the more [he] was led to abhor and detest [his] enslavers”(Douglass 35); however, that should not be viewed as a negative affect but a positive one. No one should want to be deceived for their entire life. This hatred that he built up motivated him to continue to further educate himself. As a result, he later motivated other slaves to earn an education by having “[availed] themselves to [an] opportunity to learn to read” (Douglass 69) by Douglass teaching them every Sunday.