Frederick Douglass Reflection

“I have observed this in my experience of slavery, – that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom.” Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, this autobiography was published in 1845. Frederick a prominent abolitionist figure was the first black “public intellectual.” At a time where many slaves were illiterate and prohibited to learn how to read and write, Douglass, despite being forbidden to do so by his master (Hugh Auld), managed to learn to read and write. His narrative has very astounding vocabulary which impressed many people. To Douglass, literacy was “a most perplexing difficulty –

His high level vocabulary made the book challenging, but it helped me understand and vividly imagine what the slaves went through during this time. Personally, the idea of reading about someone’s life was intimidating. I’ve never been the type of person to like autobiographies, and when I obtained the book I adjourned reading it because my mind set toward this book was that it was going to be tedious, and time consuming. As I started reading the book I became more enthralled in it, the way Douglas writes captures your attention. The part that made me want to keep reading was at the beginning when he intensely explains how his aunt had been whipped in front of him. It was such a vulgar scene, and I tried putting myself in his position, but I could not fathom the pain and the fear that he might have felt in that moment. I’ve read about white slave holders being brutal to their slaves, but the way Douglas tells it is so intense. For example, Douglas writes about Demby, “He had given Demby but few stripes, when, to get rid of the scourging, he ran and plunged himself into a creek, and stood here at the depth of his shoulders, refusing to come out, Mr. Gore told him that he would give him three calls, and that, if he did not come out at the third call, he would shoot him. The first call was given. Demby made no response, but stood his ground. The second and third calls were given with the same result. Mr. Gore then, without consultation or deliberation with anyone, not even giving Demby an additional call, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more. His mangled body sank out of sight, and blood and brains marked the water where he stood.” This like many more of the experience’s that he writes about, made me more interested in the book. This was such a gruesome scene. The worst part of this was that Mr. Gore “seemed cool and collected.”