Preview

Frederick Douglass's Journey From Slavery To Freedom

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
117 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Frederick Douglass's Journey From Slavery To Freedom
Douglass’s autobiography is one of a personal fate and the other a documentation of the horrors of slavery. With his first recollection of his childhood, being the relentless whipping of his aunt Hester and the horrified of shrieks he heard with every blow of the whip. Living in Baltimore for about seven years he went with no hunger, then only to return to a plantation as an adult to suffer the gnawing pain of hunger. He knew the difference of what it was like to be treated with kindness and to live in the callous bondage of slavery. Douglass sought to bring a sense of order to his life by writing his journey from slavery to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Fredrick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818, he spent his youth being sold from plantation to city, then all over again. At a point during his youth, he realized that slavery was wrong, and eventually once becoming aware of the north, he planned to one day escape captivity and be free. His determination was strong, so strong that he would one day escape captivity and establish a legacy of work in the North, that made him one of the core members in the fight to abolish slavery in the middle of the 1800’s. He is know historically for his publications and speeches in the fight for abolition, being a convincing and proactive voice which comes from first hand experiences in what life is like for slaves and slave owners. The purpose of publishing the text, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, an American Slave, was to put into context the details of Douglass’ life, which include his feelings and tribulations, during his journey as a slave and escape to freedom. His conviction to reveal this story, was not hindered or halted by the fact that he would be exposing himself to the public, which often for an escaped slave would be a dangerous situation. The book was first published in 1845 when Douglass was twenty-seven, at this time slavery was legal, and the book that he had just published was incriminating evidence full of names, dates, and times, which make it very easy for someone to find him and return him to captivity by law.…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    My Escape from Slavery Summary Fredrick Douglass published My Escape from Slavery an article about his journey of escaping slavery with help from people along the way and becoming a free man. Douglass was fearful of disclosing how he escaped in the beginning if the master learned the escape plan they could have stopped slaves from escaping and the persons that aided and abetted the author could have faced murder. When Douglass started his escape, he used a sailor’s free papers, that state he is a free American sailor. Many escaped slaves used sailor’s protection papers or free papers. Douglass escaped Maryland by train that headed to Philadelphia.…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the narrative of Frederick Douglass, during the 19th Century, the conditions slaves experienced were not only cruel, but inhumane. It is a common perception that “cruelty” refers to the physical violence and torture that slaves endure. However, in this passage, Douglass conveys the degrading treatment towards young slaves in the plantation, as if they were domesticated animals. The slaves were deprived of freedom and basic human rights. They were not only denied of racial equality, they weren’t even recognized as actual human beings.…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Frederick Douglass felt so strongly about abolishing slavery that he went to talk to the then president (Abraham Lincoln), and he also wrote a book about being a slave. He wrote the book in an effort to make people realized the torture, endless work hours, the abuse, everything a slave went through, in a hope to make people realize how awful slavery was. However when he wrote this book, it became very popular almost immediately, so he was forced to flee to Europe before he could be arrested and put in jail. Frederick Douglass also had a close relationship with Abraham Lincoln which he used to his advantage, so he went and talked to Abe Lincoln and persuaded him to let African American’s fight in the Civil War. If this had not happened we (Northerners)…

    • 171 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    to the naked eye, this passage may look like just a detailed essay about slavery in America. But really, this passage is to show and describe how slaves were mistreated in the states. Douglas describes his perspective of slavery, and his experience being a slave. he argues that america claims that the people are free and it is a free country but it can't really be free of millions are being enslaved.…

    • 106 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    What would it be like if you did not know how to read or write in today’s world? You would be looked down upon, tormented, treated as if you were far less than the peers around you that know how to read. In the days of slavery, the slaves were illiterate and the slave owners wanted to keep it that way. In Frederick Douglass’ autobiographical slave narrative the “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,” Douglass explains that knowledge was the best next thing to freedom and that he, as well as the slave owners, saw that. To Douglass, literacy was freedom or means to gain freedom; yet for the slave owners also saw that keeping the slaves illiterate kept them manageable. I believe that in any instance, in any given period of history, education and the ability to read and write gives a person social freedom, meaning the ability to communicate in a more understanding way.…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey (later known as Frederick Douglass) was born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland around the year 1818. He was an African American reformer, writer, and orator. Douglass was one of the few noteworthy heroes who arose from the evils of slavery and impacted the United States and the world in significant ways. After escaping from slavery, he became known for his astounding oratory skills and remarkable antislavery writing. He became an important leader of the abolitionist movement. Northerners found it hard to believe that such an incredible orator had once been a slave. To verify this, Douglass described the events of his life as a slave and his ambition to be a free man in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.…

    • 1302 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Maryland during the 1800’s, “Escape from Slavery” was written by Frederick Douglass, a man who successfully escaped slavery, in which he gives an explanation of how his definition of trust changed and the difference between the North and South. Having been owned by a master, Douglass,F. (n.d), “Escape from Slavery” (para.8). developed an aphorism of “Trust no Man!” However, his opinion changed as he arrived in New York as a free man. Frederick recounts his gratitude for all the kindness he was given as a refugee. By this, Frederick understood the North was not about extravagant living, or pageantry, rather it was about ease and comfort.…

    • 107 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    I am so glad that I finally have the chance to write you again. Unfortunately, I have been really busy with this new book I am reading. Well, calling it new may be a bit inaccurate. The book is called Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. It is an autobiography by Frederick Douglass that was published in 1845, which makes it over 170 years old. Going into reading this book, I expected it to narrate the atrocities that occurred in the Antebellum Period, but I could not prepare myself for the level of detail that Douglass used. He described rural slave culture on his former home in Talbot County, Maryland as cruel and ruthless, with detailed descriptions of beatings, murder, and even sexual abuse (Douglass 1). He recounts, for instance, how one overseer named Mr. Gore murdered a slave named Demby for not listening to his warning about getting out of a creek. Even after moving to Baltimore, Douglass still encountered abuse in the city. The only difference was that the cruelty was better hidden and rarer. The worst abuse that Douglass ever saw, in fact, victimized two slaves named Henrietta and Mary in Baltimore. Throughout the book, Douglass established a disparity between the treatment…

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery is an evil institution that, once established, robs not only the humanity of the enslaved, but also the morality of the slaveholder. It deprives the slave’s natural desire for knowledge, and hypocritically denies a man of his God given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, stated in the Declaration of Independence for the very country that enslaves him. Douglass uses specific examples, in the case of Hugh and Sophia Auld, Thomas Auld, Colonel Lloyd and Edward Covey, the slaveholders’ reliance on religion, and the harm caused to the slaves themselves, to show that although slavery is in itself a blatant disregard for human life, it also has drastic effects on the degradation of the slaveholder’s own morality.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “ Better to die fighting for freedom then to be a prisoner all the days of your life.” - Bob Marley There are many articles that can describe how many slaves felt during this time period. Some of the articles are “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American slave” by Frederick Douglass and “Speech to Ohio Women’s Conference: Ain’t I a Women” by Frances Dana Gage. Both of these articles have similar thoughts but they also have some differences. Some of the similarities are in both articles the talk about how they wanted to be free. The Civil War was a shift in American history and changed the future of slavery and freedom.…

    • 115 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anyone can be free there's just a means of how much you want it; knowledge and freedom coalesced with each other since they are both a state of mind. Frederick Douglass path to freedom was broadly helped by the knowledge he obtained throughout his life which lead him to his conclusion of their amalgamation. From the time he is old enough to comprehend where he stands in societies eyes he realized that knowledge is the only advantage he could possibly procure.…

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The State of Virginia embodies the Founding Fathers, the American Revolution and the nation by symbolically demonstrating the beauty of the union. But similarly to the State of Virginia, the sense of American Nationality is flawed because of the institution of slavery. Using Jeffersonian rhetoric, abolitionist Fredrick Douglass’ “Heroic Slave” transforms white attitudes through his promotion for solidarity, activism and resistance.…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This narrative begins with the childhood of Frederick Douglass and ends with his adventures as an abolitionist. He gives insight into his personal recollections of his first awareness of what it meant to be a slave, from his own experiences and his experience as a witness to the brutality of one human being upon another human being. He allows readers through his words to have a front row seat to the world of slavery and the main objective of slavery supporters to dehumanize and oppress another race and culture. The goal of his prose is to raise awareness of the cruelty of man upon the backs of blacks, which subsequently he hoped would end…

    • 115 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dehumanizing Slaves

    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Dehumanization of the Enslave: Frederick Douglass The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself…

    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays