Frederick Douglass Thesis

Did you know that Frederick Douglass was never whipped after he overpowered his slave masters? Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland, in 1818, there he lived a life of deprivation. Since he was born, Douglass did not know how to read, write, or even be aware of his own age; yet he would face these adversities through food exchanges with the white kids and taking advantage of their stupidity. As he grew older, Douglass was cursed with his new treasure of knowledge, he was more aware of his circumstances and often found himself longing for freedom. When Douglass escaped the chains of slavery, he deserted his original name, Frederick Bailey, to not be trapped once again. Later on in his life, he began writing Narrative of the Life

According to the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, on page 11, it states,”...Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her that it was unlawful as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read…” Slaveholders would put the blame on slaves for not knowing how to read, when it was actually them who forbid slaves from learning the ability at all. Reading was against the white people’s advantage because a slave could overpower them with such knowledge, which is a factor that brought Douglass to success. In addition to the text, on page 28 it states,”By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slave thus ignorant.” Knowledge was a huge threat to slave owners, even if it was as small as knowing your own age. The more slaves knew, the more it would make them ask for more, and start rebelling. To conclude, in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass exposes that slaves were not allowed any

On page 46 it says,”Mr. Severe was rightly named: he was a cruel man. I have seen him whip a woman. Causing the blood to run half an hour at the time…Scarce a sentence escaped him but that was commenced or concluded by some horrid oath.” The Bible says to be good to people and love them as you would love yourself. Slave masters claimed to be Christian and know God, yet they were torturing people for absolutely no reason at all. Ultimately these liars were doing the Devil’s work. Additionally on page 51 it says,”Bill answered that I was sick.. He came to the spot and asked me what was the matter. I told him as well as I could, for I scarce had strength to speak. He then gave me a savage kick in the side and told me to get up.” Even though Douglass was deathly ill, he was forced to continue work by his merciless master, he was even beaten again. In the Bible it preaches to show mercy to others or God will not show mercy to you. These monsters claimed to be men of God, yet went against his word. The second aspect Douglass highlights in his narrative is the physical abuse slaves