Life of Frederick Douglass analysis

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Life of Frederick Douglass analysis

Frederick Douglass explains how his life was like in a slavery setting, which forms most of his morals and what kind of person he becomes at the end of the day. He is very observant, self-confident and makes sure that whatever he does, he does it with all his determination. All this is displayed in his book titled “narrative of Frederick Douglass’s life, an American slave”, which he wrote. He is the person who wrote this book also gives us a profound insight into the happenings of his life and what it means to be free, and what it means to be held up in slavery for long as he was.

It talks of the real experiences and struggles in an American slavery system and tries to explain how he could get out of this system at the end of the day. Even though there are many struggles, especially for the black slaves who were not just used as sex objects, the white slave owners also had sex with them to ensure that the number of slaves remained high. Therefore this paper discusses difficult times and experiences faced by the black slaves in the hands of their white owners and how this translates into the understanding of the whites and contemporary society in the face of the past and hope of a better future.

Religion comes up as a different theme that acts to diminish the efforts and the will of the slaves to be better. Therefore, in this context, we can say that religion has been used in the wrong manner to destroy the meaning of life to the slaves. This is by being selective on what matters to them and making sure that they do not view religion as a set of principles and rules that favor them but rather as a set of rules set by the creator that they should suffer and never have a good life. This is one of the greatest deceptions used by the white slave owners, and it holds grounds in different places and among different people in the united states of America at different times of the slavery period (Douglass, 47). Here Douglass talks of how his master changes into even a more cruel person upon his conversion and learning of a new religion. Therefore instead of using what he was using before to lead and command the slaves, he now gets another authority to treat them in a bad manner.

Captain Anthony and Colonel Lloyd own Douglass. He survives in difficult situations and with little amounts of food. His experience is a very difficult and traumatic one as well. Apart from the normal life of hardship he is used to, he gets to experience the beatings and the murder of a slave, which goes on silently and is never recognized by most people (Douglass, 21). This death was one of the cruelest and for the smallest mistakes performed by a girl looking after a child. The girl had not got sleep for the previous nights and was given the duty to look after the kid. As she looked after the kid, she slept, and the baby cried. Upon hearing her cry, the servant’s owners, who were the wife to Mr. Giles Hicks, go to check and, finding the baby slave asleep, go ahead to beat her and struggles her to death at the end of it all. This is not only cruel but also inhumane.

Douglass tries to inform our society how allegiances to the slave master were more important than consideration of a fellow slave through his work. This was difficult for the slaves, and therefore they had to sacrifice a lot of things that they valued for the sake of choosing life and not death. Due to fear of death and the fear of the master of a slave, there was a development of a new wave of a false system of beliefs. This was whereby the slaves only wanted to please the master in anything they did, and this happened not because they willed so but because there was a lot of pressure and death risk to do so.

However, even though Douglass knew how bad it was for him to risk some things, he still risked being taught how to read and write by Mrs. Auld (Douglass, 47). This was happening when Mr auld was not around the home because they knew that risking to that extent of being taught when he was there could have brought his life to an end. Therefore they had to live like they both did not know each other when Mr. Auld was around in the house. Even though this looks strange, it was the nature of the lives of the slaves, and it meant a lot to survive than to find good life for oneself. Therefore here, Douglass survived and had an added advantage which is rare for slaves to get. That is a home or a family that likes a slave not for what he does for them but likes him or her as a normal human being who deserves love and respect as they got it from everyone else around them. (Preston, xvii)

Freedom sounds very sweet for slaves, and therefore this is what Douglass tries to get every time he gets a small chance of being free. When he is taken to live with William Freeland, he finds himself as a Sunday school teacher, and in this position, he was the happiest since it was the only good position he had ever had since the time he became a slave (Douglass, 71). Even though he does a lot of work for the people and the community around him, at the end of it all, he realizes that he is almost free and tries to escape (Douglass, 74). In here, he also shows his intelligence by cheating and writing in the writing of his master and the masters of his fellow friends they were escaping with that they had given them the freedom to go to Baltimore and spend the holidays there. With all these efforts to be free, he is not successful, and he is caught at the end of it all, whereby he is taken back to Baltimore, where he finds himself working again (Martin, 131). This is a portrayal of how freedom is expensive and almost impossible to get for the black slaves when he lived.

At Baltimore, he is given the responsibility of running errands for shipyard workers. Here he fits in well; however, he experiences challenges when some of the workers heckle and strike at him, then he fights back. With him fighting back, he is almost beaten to death, and this makes him afraid. This displays a situation whereby it does not matter if people are of the same color. What matters is if a person tries to destroy the peace or add to a person’s stress, then they are dealt with most cruelly as a manner of anger displacement, as seen in this situation(Douglass, 81).

Douglass continues working and talks with Mrs auld about the possibility of hiring himself out. Even though this seems difficult, he still proceeds with it, and at the end of it, he hires himself out as a free person. He moves to Massachusetts, and he settles there with his wife, Anna Murray. At this place, he does odd jobs to earn his living even though this is not satisfactory. Therefore, when he hears of an anti-slavery convention, he gets interested in joining, and it is through this, he gets into his next career as a slavery abolitionist (Douglass, 437).

From his life, we can see and learn many things that help us focus our minds on the role of slavery in the formation of the current American society. The question here is; if the majority of the black people in the united states had to go through such difficult experiences to experience their freedom and rights, then should that mentality of racism still exist? How should we live in a society whereby every person is seen as equal and as human beings and not as people to be used to benefit others?

Therefore, in conclusion, we can say that going back to Douglass’s life, the answers to these questions are depicted. Through his story, we realize that human life is sacred and important and that we are all human beings with no one superior to the other. Therefore we ought to find balance in society and live better lives than living the lives of looking down upon some people or living a fake life of trying to be better than others by oppressing those under us either physically, economically, and academically.

Works cited

Douglass, Frederick, and Harriet Jacobs. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Modern Library Classics, 2000.

Douglass, Frederick. The life and times of Frederick Douglass: From 1817-1882. Christian Age Office, 1882.

Martin Jr, Waldo E. The Mind of Frederick Douglass. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Preston, Dickson J. Young Frederick Douglass. JHU Press, 2018.