Frederick Douglass Essay

Do you really know what it was like to be a slave in the 1800’s? Frederick Douglass was an African American man who was born in February of 1818 around the time of slavery. He himself was a slave working on multiple different plantations. He escaped away from his slave owners, and went to live in freedom until 1895 when he passed away from a heart attack. While he was alive Douglass wrote an autobiography called, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” This book was a bestseller and this book changed a lot of peoples view on slavery. Douglass in the “Narrative of the The LIfe on Frederick Douglass” tries to change what it means to be dedicated to the American idea of “all men are created equal.” Douglass was treated very poorly as a slave.

Auld, and when his slaveholder Mr. Auld found out he was very upset and took his newspaper and punished him. Some evidence that proves this is “Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs Auld to instruct me further.” Another example could be “that sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord, and that anderic face gave place to that of a demon. If Douglass were to learn how to read his master, though, he would be useless on the plantation. One more piece of evidence for this is, “he will once become unmanageable and of no value to his master.” This shows Mr. Auld telling his wife that if she taught him how to read and write he wouldn't work as well. The health of the slaves was very bad. His slaves were not treated like normal people, more like animals. The slaves were fed poorly, dressed poorly, whipped and beaten over almost nothing. A piece of evidence on the conditions is, “Colonel Lloyd kept from three to four hundred slaves on his home plantation.” This shows how cramped it would be on his