Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • Free Essays • My Term Papers • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - History Other Frederick Douglas Frederick Douglas Slavery & The Narrative of Frederick Douglass In 1845, Frederick Douglass told his compelling story of life as slave and as a free man. Through the words of somebody who endured slavery, we can only get a taste of what it was like, for we will never truly know the feeling of the severe physical punishment and the cruelty the slaves endured. Whippings, beatings and lynchings were all too common during the era of slavery. However, not only were their bodies treated so harshly, but their minds and souls were as well. These slaves went through a tremendous amount of mental and physical abuse. The slaves were deprived of what the common man takes for granted. They were forbidden to educate themselves. They were separated from their families. They were not allowed to reason for themselves. They were in fact not treated as human beings, but as objects with no feelings. Using Frederick Douglass's narrative I will discuss the oppression and survival of slave life and show how the analysis of America‘s History supported Dougalss’ interpretation of slave society. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, is a first hand account of what slavery was like. It depicts actual events in history based on one mans experience. That man is Frederick Douglass. He was born into slavery and was a slave for much of his life. His accounts of what happened to him show that slavery in the old south was an evil institution that turned humans into animals and an institution that dehumanized people to keep them ignorant. African Americans suffered tremendously during the appalling years of slavery. They were beaten, overworked, and mistreated by their oppressors. In many cases, slaves would rather have died than to have been used in such inhumane ways. However, whites spread myths that African Americans were happy to be enslaved. This has been proven false as many former slaves, although forbidden, wrote books to give their accounts of slavery. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, depict many memorable incidents that led to the opposition of slavery. Frederick Douglass has woven many themes into his narrative, all being tied with a common thread of man’s inhumanity towards man. As depicted in America’s History, “white masters had virtually unlimited power, both legal and physical, over their slaves” (p. 297). A slaves relationship with his or her master usually went no further than the master thinking of that slave as no more than an animal that worked in the field, and that is what slaves did. They worked in the fields like animals. Children were uprooted from the arms of their mothers, "before the child has reached it’s twelfth month, it’s mother is taken from it and sold to other slave holders" (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave p. 48). Brutal whippings occurred for even the smallest imagined offense, "a mere look, word, or motion" (Douglass p. 118), women were treated as no better than common concubines and the slaves were forced into living quarters, "on one common bed… cold, damp floor" (Douglass p. 55) worse than some of the farm animals. The slaves were not allowed even the most meager portion of food, "eight pounds of pork and one bushel of corn meal" (Douglass p. 54) to last a month. Clothes were scarce and illness was never tolerated. It was unthinkable for the slaves to practice any type of religion, hold any gatherings, become literate to any degree, "unlawful… unsafe, to teach a slave to read" (78) or even make the simple decision of when to eat and sleep. Usually masters would try to find the slightest wrongdoing in order to punish the slave with a whipping. They enjoyed whipping people for two main reasons. The first reason was to punish a slave, and the second reason was to use the slave being whipped as an example to the other slaves. Whipping them and making other slaves watch was one way that slave owners attempted to control their slaves. They would set examples with these whippings. It was important to keep the slaves fearful of their masters or they would rebel. That is exactly what they did. “To resist the innovations of gang labor and forced separations... by plotting mass uprisings and murders” (America’s History p. 298). Bibliography: Douglass, Frederick, Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass. New York: W.W Norton & Company, 1997. Henretta, James A., Brody, David, Ware, Susan, Johnson, Marilyn S., America’s History Volume 1: To 1877. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2000 Word Count: 719
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