Frederick Douglass Self-Made Man

Pinal Depani

Sam Zahran

Eng 231

April 26, 2011

Frederick Douglass self-made man

Frederick Douglass autobiography revel his struggle throughout his life from slavery till freedom. Douglass wrote two books" Narrative to the life" and "From my Bondage and My freedom" which explains his life as a slave, how he was treated, the hardship and cruelty slaves had to face from their masters. From the three qualities the most prominent in Douglass's narrative is description of his life of an individual. Douglass articulates his life from childhood as a slave, cruelty from his masters, he self-educated and taught his friends, his emotion when he was separated from his friends, his view about religion practiced by slaveholder and his steps towards finding freedom.

Frederick Douglass was born to a slave mother and his father was assumed to be white man. In his book Narrative to the life he illustrates stages of his life from his birth until his freedom from slavery. He had little knowledge about his age and the reason he states that it was his masters wish to keep the slaves unaware about their ages. He was separated from his mother at an age of seven months and was raised by his old grandmother; he only met his mother four or five times in his life. Douglass mother died when he was seven years old but he express his feeling by saying that he did not feel any emotions but instead he felt like it was death of a stranger. He recalls from his childhood the cruel behavior and severe whipping masters gave to their slaves on smallest mistake so it will not be repeated in future or other slaves try to repeat it. It was at a very young age Douglass was made aware of his rights as a slave and it was must to follow his master's command to avoid from their cruel and merciless behavior.

Douglass also expresses his moments of joy from his painful life being a slave. When he was sent to Baltimore to take care of a new master's child, he saw that as a new opportunity to escape from the plantation and from the merciless behavior of his master. "So strong was my desire that I thought a gratification of it would fully compensate for whatever loss of comforts I should sustain by the exchange. I left without regret, and with the highest hopes of future happiness." (Douglass 2084). He was introduced to Mrs. Auld which he described to be the nicest mistress he had met, she did not treat him like a slave but instead she taught him how to read and took good care of him. Her behavior changed when her husband "found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read." (Douglass 2086). The master thought that if slaves learned how to read than they will be of no use and will be of no value and they will not bare the pain of being slave. At this point Douglass set his mind and a fixed purpose that he will learn how to read by himself. He said "I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing" (Douglass 2089). This was his first step toward his fight for antislavery. He learned how to read and also from the help of his white friends that he made on streets learned how to write. He felt strong attachment with the white friends and when he expressed the separation to be the most painful one because he had received valuable lesson from them.

After death of his Master he was sent back to the plantation to work with his old master. When he started working with other slaves, he realized how other slaves had seen nothing of the outside world and they do not know how to be treated kindly. He saw how his brother and other family members were rudely treated and had to take severe pain from Masters because of small mistakes which could have been forgiven by warning. Douglass grandmother was put her in woods and built her a hut to live and was left to support herself in loneliness and severe hot, cold weather she dies and he Douglass express his sorrow by saying that she was left a slave for life. The master started to dislike Douglass for his behavior and gave him number severe whipping but it had no affect on Douglass. This is when he decided to put him out to Mr. Covey who is also known as "nigger-breaker", he worked there for a year and during this time he had experienced cruel behavior of the master. He was constantly given whipping for not completing his task and once he unable to work because of his sickness and still was kicked on his head by the master. Douglass ran away from the plantation to the other master in hope of getting some help and he did not want to work for such a cruel man.

Douglass was