Frederick Douglass Analysis

All the years of slavery (1776-1865) affected both the whites and the blacks in many different ways. Although the blacks were the main ones that suffered, many of the slave owners suffered from the struggles of owning slaves. The whites were affected mentally while the blacks were affected physically, mentally, and emotionally.The blacks weren’t thought of as human; they were thought of as animals but treated worse. The blacks worked hard but weren’t given enough food or clothing to last them. In chapter 1 “Aunt Hester not only had disobeyed his orders….leaving her neck, shoulders and back, entirely naked.” her master caught her with another man. He beat her and tied her up because he was so furious with her.
In chapter 7 “I often found myself regretting…..eager to hear any one speak of slavery.” Not only did the white’s torture the slave but they made them regret being born. Not wanting to be alive and to think the only reason that they are alive is to be a slave destroyed them. They didn’t have their identity like everyone else did; they were identified by who their master was. They didn’t know how old they were or who their family was. Not knowing who your family is, means you can’t create the closeness with that person to gain their trust and have that bond of feeling like someone is there that cares and loves you that will also give you the support you need to accomplish your goals. In this case accomplishing your goals means to escape and be free. Even though they knew they could possibly achieve their goals they hardly ever tried because no one was there to give them the support and also they knew the consequences. They didn’t want to risk getting beaten or possibly killed because they wanted to escape from slavery but some of the slaves did risk it.