Fredrick Douglass Narrative

Savannah R. | Core 1 

ASPECTS OF SLAVERY

Fredrick Douglass's narrative brings to light how the beatings of slaves affects and shapes them, as well as the slaveholder.

Fredrick Douglass's

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Slaveholder's 

Fredrick Douglass believed that slavery negatively affected both the slave and the slaveholder. He shows this in his narrative through examples of slave families being torn apart and masters  taught to show no humanity. He also writes, "..slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me" (Douglass, pg. #15), when talking about his Mistress, Mrs. Auld, in Baltimore. When Douglass first arrived at her home he describes her as a warm, giving woman, but later says, "..under the influence of slavery...that voice...changed to one of harsh and horrid discord, and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon" (Douglass, pg. #10). This means that Mrs. Auld was pressured into treating slaves cruelly. While Douglass was living there, she would teach him the alphabet and how to read, but when Mr. Auld found out, he lectured his wife and turned her into a cruel owner. This shows how owners had to morph into something else. Something where treating a human being with no mercy but cruelty was okay. Unfortunately, slaves were at the receiving end of this. They had to endure the pain, suffering, and treatment that came with a white supremacist, self-benefiting system. 

Unfortunately, others had different ideas of slavery. Most slaveholders believed "it was unlawful, as well, as unsafe, to teach a slave to read...He would...become unmanageable, and of no value to his master" (Douglass, pg. #11). Owners thought it would give slaves an opportunity to regain a higher position in life, outsmart his or hers master, and destroy a long appreciated system of racism and social classes if educated. Teaching a slave would threaten everything they hold dear, everything slaveholders thought made them superior to others. Additionally, people believed singing among slaves was a show of joy. Fredrick Douglass disagreed and says, "I have often been utterly astonished...to find persons who could speak of, the singing among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness" (Douglass, pg. #52). While slaveholders and outsiders interpret slaves' singing as a way of expressing their enjoyment, singing was actually used as a way of coping with their lives and hardships.

POSITION

POSITION