In “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson” and “Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass”, Rowlandson and Douglass tell the story of their captivity and slavery; with their patience, faith and determination they each fought for their freedom. Although the stories take place at least 100 years apart, they both exemplify the harsh reality of being captive. Mary Rowlandson and Fredrick Douglass are two writers who had entirely different experiences but in both of their narratives it becomes clear that they each went through a long journey to obtain freedom. Some of the hardship that they both had to overcome included not only being whipped, restrained and beaten, but also being overworked and undernourished, lacking …show more content…
Mary Rowlandson,” the story of the town of Lancaster being under attack by the Native Americans during the King Philip war is told. The Native Americans were burning the citizens’ houses down and opening fire on them, killing and injuring hundreds of them. Some of those who were not killed were taken captive. Amongst those who were captured were Mary Rowlandson and her youngest child. The Native Americans took the captured survivors from their town into the wilderness. Mary and her youngest daughter Sarah was allowed to stay together, but her two oldest children Joseph and Mary were separated from her. Later on, Sarah died due to her injuries and after a few weeks of being captive, the Native Americans took her to King Philip and let her …show more content…
When Mrs. Auld stopped teaching him, he took it upon himself to get an education. At the end of the story, when Douglass finally made it to New York, he met a man that took him in and allowed him to stay at his home until Douglass was able to get on his feet.
There were many similarities between Douglass’ and Rowlandson’s stories. Both Fredrick Douglass and Mary Rowlandson underwent the hardships of being held captive as slaves. Although the authors were of different racial backgrounds, were held by captors of different races, and were slaves in a completely different time periods and geographic locations, their stories were very alike. Both were starved, abused, and were kept captive against their own free wills. Mary and Fredrick were each put into extremely violent and severe conditions, and were alike because they fought against the enemies that held them captive. Neither of these two historical figures allowed themselves to give up on their hope of eventually becoming free. In addition, they each used their faith and knowledge of God to allow themselves with their strength and strength of mind to proceed though the difficult time of being held in slavery. Mary and Fredrick fought slavery in a very similar way and were successful in freeing themselves without significantly affecting their morals or their outlook and perspective on