Frederick Douglass Slave Narrative Essay

Fredrick Douglass’s slave narrative purpose

Fredrick Douglass was born into slavery. He went through many hardships and challenges before finally gaining freedom, and writing his slave narrative, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass. William L. Andrew, a professor of English, said that the purpose of a slave narrative is “to enlighten white readers about both the realities of slavery as an institution and the humanity of black people as individuals deserving of full human rights.” Douglass portrays this message well in his slave narrative.

Many people during slavery were unaware of the brutality and cruelty of it. Douglass brings some dehumanizing instances into the spotlight in his narrative. “I have known him to tie her up early in

One of the murders was that of a slave named Demby. Demby refused to get out of the river after being whipped, and after three calls, as promised by the overseer Mr. Gore, Demby was shot and killed. “Mr. Gore then, without consultation or deliberation with any one, 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” (Douglass 14). Douglass also states that a man named Mr. Thomas Lanman killed two slaves, and would “boast of the commission of the awful and bloody deed” (Douglass 14). Another of these murders was of Douglass’s wife’s cousin. She had been ordered to watch over Mrs Hick’s baby, and after falling asleep and not hearing the baby cry, Mrs. Hick beat her with a stick of wood. “Mrs. Hicks, finding the girl slow to move, jumped from her bed, seized an oak stick of wood by the fireplace, and with it broke the girl's nose and breastbone, and thus ended her life” (Douglass 15). None of these cases were tried, or even looked into. Douglass says that in Talbot County, Maryland, where Mr. Gore shot Demby, the killing of a slave was not treated as a crime by the courts or