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Frederick Douglass Negative Effects Essay

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Frederick Douglass The point that is created by the institution of slavery can not only be negative to slaves in such a cruel and unjust system, but it can also have a negative effect on the slaveholders. In Frederick Douglass’ book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, he is able to display the negative effect of slavery not only on the slaves but also on the slaveholders. Douglass and his owners feel these effects throughout the narrative of his life as a slave who achieves freedom from slavery.
Throughout Fredericks childhood, there were a lot of examples where he was put into terrible abuse and terrible behavior involving him. As a young boy he learned the first lesson about slavery …show more content…

This was the start of what came throughout the beginning of his life. As he continued his journey as a slave he had more horrific experiences that are intended to breakdown the slaves mentally and physically. One main example that Frederick Douglass used to show the negative effects of slavery on people were with Mrs. Sophia Auld and her change in attitude towards Douglass before and after her inception into the world of slavery. When Douglass first is sent to Baltimore to work for the family of Hugh and Sophia Auld, he is wildly excited and impressed at how well they both treated him. Neither of them had ever owned any slaves and treated him way better than he had ever been treated before. Sophia was so nice to Frederick that she even began to teach him the alphabet and also was teaching him how to read. Douglass described Sophia as “a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings.” . This quickly came to an end when her husband demanded that she stop teaching the slave to read. From this moment on Sophia turned into a very different woman than she was before she became a slave owner. Her thoughts changed and she became horrific towards Frederick than she had ever been. After this he described her in a whole different way, “That cheerful

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