Summary Of Narrative Of The Life Of Fredrick Douglass

442 Words2 Pages

Imagine that you were born as a slave and you constantly suffered or saw someone you love suffer. Fredrick Douglass wrote a book called Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, which was about his experience with slavery. In the Narrative of the Life of Fedrick Douglass, Fedrick Douglass wants to change his reader's beliefs about what it means to be dedicated to the American idea that "All men are created equal" by telling about physical abuse and awful living conditions of slavery.
To begin with, Douglass writes about when physical abuse is involved is when he witnesses his aunt gets whipped. In the text, it states, "He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush...", (Douglass, Chapter 1, Paragraph 8) This can change the thought of saying that all men are created equal because Douglass showed that slave owners never showed mercy to their slaves. Another piece of evidence to prove that Douglass tries to change his reader's beliefs about equality is when he writes about when Mr. Covey beats and whips him. Douglass explains," Mr. Covey gave me a severe whipping cutting my back, causing the blood to run, and …show more content…

One thing that he wrote was about the lack of food that they received. According to the text it states, "The men and women slaves received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork... and one bushel of corn meal.", (Douglass, Chapter 2, Paragraph 3). So, just imagine eating less than ten pounds of food each month, and if you finished it all before you would have nothing to eat until the next months. Another piece of evidence that he uses to change the reader's beliefs on equality is no bed to sleep. Douglass stated, "There were no beds given to the slaves, unless one coarse blanket be considered such.", (Douglass, Chapter 2, Paragraph 4). This connects to awful living conditions because they couldn't complain that they had no bed or they'd get