Examples Of Growing Up In Slavery

There is countless evidence confirming the oppression of African Americans, beginning with Atlantic Slave Trade continuing to present times. In “Growing Up in Slavery”, former slaves such as Frederick Douglass, Thomas Jones, and Harriet Jacobs share their personal encounters during the most extreme period of oppression of African Americans: slavery. The narratives of Douglass and Jones, along with many others, that are combined in “Growing Up in Slavery”, which is edited by Yuval Taylor, accurately portrays the injustices that African Americans faced during this period of drastic racism in America. Yuval Taylor, an author and editor, wrote and edited multiple books on the topic of slavery. According to Encyclopedia.com, Taylor supports “Left

This argument is strongly valid because telling their stories gave these people who were once restricted an opportunity to have a voice and to utilize their 1st amendment. Frederick Douglass, a former slave, believed that education was very important in a person’s life and vital to develop. In the bondage of slavery, the captives were denied the right to their 1st amendment, thus following their freedom, or escape, these former slaves communicated their message to the world and told their story. By informing the world of their experiences as slaves, former slaves validated their freedom as actual people rather than, another man’s property. Taylor’s quote about these freed women and men performing an act of liberation by telling their story is agreeable because though technically they were already free, giving themselves a voice was their way of enforcing and exercising that newfound

Douglass’ claim is based on his own experiences and observations from being a slave. To justify his claim, Frederick Douglass uses a recollection of his childhood experiences as a slave in comparison to what he observed regarding the upbringing of the children of his master. Douglass states, “[t]he slave-boy escapes many troubles which befall and vex his white brother” (Taylor 49). Even though the said ‘slave-boy’ is in fact, a slave, and is not legally free in the way that the slaveholder’s children are, the slave child does not experience the same moral expectations as the slaveholder’s child. Douglass states, “[h]e is never expected to act like a nice little gentleman, for he is only a rude little slave” (Taylor 50). Slaveholder’s children are educated and expected to practice their manners and skills; however, slave children are only expected to obey their master and work, that’s it. Slave children weren’t physically or legally free, but they were free mentally which doesn’t pertain to the children of slaveholders who were legally free. Harriet Jacobs, a former slave whose narrative also appears in “Growing Up in Slavery”, similarly claims to have had a relatively “happy” childhood, even in being a slave (Taylor 119). According to PBS.org, Jacobs said, “I was so