Thomas Jang
Usso 101
Professor …
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The narrative of Fredrick Douglass is both powerful and pitiful. It gives a first-person perspective on the life of a slave laborer in both the rural south and the urban. Despite the horrible treatment, he was able to give himself an education with the help of those around him. By doing so he is able to read and think about the evils of slavery. Douglass’s narrative consists of the many difficulties a slave must endure, and reasons as to why slavery must be abolished. Fredrick Douglass was born in Talbot County, Maryland. Like most other slaves, Douglass does not know his birth year, but estimates it to be 1818 based on an overheard comment from is master. Growing up, Douglass was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, and knows only that his father is a white man. His mother passes when Douglass is about seven years old, but is hardly affected by the news. It is a common practice for slave children to be separated from their mothers to eliminate the affection
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Douglass’s master, Captain Anthony, has two sons, Andrew and Richard, and a daughter Lucretia who is married to Captain Thomas Auld. They all live together in the same house on a plantation that is owned by Colonel Lloyd. Anthony is employed by Colonel Lloyd as his superintendent, meaning he looks over all his overseers. Lloyd’s plantations raise tobacco, corn, and wheat. Captain Anthony and his son in law take the goods to sell in Baltimore by ship. Lloyd owns about three to four hundred slaves all together, and they all report to him on the central plantation for their monthly payment of pork or fish, and corn meals. Every year all the slaves receive one set of linen clothing for the whole year. The adult slaves receive one blanket, but no bed. Although the floors are uncomfortable, the slaves hardly notice due to their exhaustion from hard