Frederick Douglass’ Narrative in 1845

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Frederick Douglass Narrative
Frederick’s narrative portrays the suffering slaves went through and how their masters treated them badly. Most of the slaves don’t know when and where they were born, but Douglass thinks that he was born to a slave mother Harriet Bailey in 1817. The mother worked in the field as hands woman and was not allowed to see him often. The mother died when he was seven years old. His father was a slave master, Captain Anthony. Douglass narrates that most of the slaves were of mixed race as result of raping of black women slaves by the white masters. The slaves were not allowed to admire one another, and they would face brutal beating if found by the masters who wanted to own all the women. This behavior brings the thought that these masters move to rape the women was a strategy to increase the number of slaves in their fields. The slaves were also not told their ages and parentage so that they were kept ignorant of their identities. This could reduce the slaves to a level that they did not know themselves and could not even think of escaping. The master also prevented the slaves from developing family bonds by separating the children from their mothers.
According to Douglass, slavery was more of torture to the blacks, in most fields the whites were the masters. The slaves were expected to be disciplined, breaking the rules of the plantation, being unruly or being caught trying to escape would lead to being whipped and sold to the slave traders in Baltimore.

They worked for long hours and did not even get enough sleep. Douglass links his childhood with witnessing the brutal treatment offered to the slaves. He claims that there was a hierarchy in the slave business and different states had various levels of treatment. The conditions in some plantations were worse than in others. The northern whites believed that the sounds of slaves singing were as a result of happiness.
When Douglass went to live Colonel Llyod’s plantations, he confirmed the allegations he had always heard about the firm. The plantation had over thousand slaves who worked tirelessly on the beautiful gardens which had abundant fruits. The irony Douglass depicts irony in the gardens in that the slaves were not allowed to eat the fruits yet they are the people who worked on them. Llyod regularly surveyed his firm; he poured tar around the garden to prevent the slaves from stealing the fruit; anyone caught was thoroughly whipped. Some of the slaves did know who their master was, he could approach them secretly and ask how life was on the plantation. Whoever talked bad about the life in the farm was marked and later sold to the Georgian slave traders. The slaves were given less food, yet the garden was full of ripe fruits. The slaves were brainwashed to the extent that they fight among themselves over arguments about whose master was greater than the other though in a real sense all masters were bad.
Douglass witnesses the killing of one of the slaves while in Llyod’s plantation. This happened when one of the overseers Hopkins was replaced by Gore. Gore was so cruel; he punished one of the slaves Demby who ran for his life. Gore threatened to kill him if he did not come out of hiding, he counted one to three, corked his gun and shot Demby. He then told his master that the killing would serve as an example to other slaves who were disobedient. This scene brings the thought that there were a lot of extrajudicial killings during slavery. The owners and overseers had a lot of murder cases but never received any punishment from the courts.
Douglass moved to Baltimore to live with Captain Anthony son in law’s brother Auld when he was eight. His job at Auld’s home was to look after their child. For the first time, he came in touch with a white person who could treat him with kindness. The fear of the white man in him was slowly fading away; he realized not all white people were bad. He was shown how to read and write by Mrs. Hughs, however; her husband told her that teaching him will open his mind and he will no longer be a slave. Mrs. Auld changed his attitude towards Douglass after her husband’s influence. This shows how slavery corrupted the mind of the whites because initially Mrs. Auld was kind to him and treated him well because she had never owned a slave before. Despite changing her attitude towards him, Douglass continued to learn how to read and write secretly. He read about the North, and later met Irish workers who persuaded to move to the north. At the age of twelve Douglass moved to the North and for once appreciated that he could make his own decisions. He realizes that the power of the whites to enslave is all in mind, they achieve it by keeping the slaves ignorant and uneducated.
Douglass wants to convince the readers of the North and South that slavery is immoral and non-religious. In 1832 Douglass returned to Thomas Auld in Maryland who was now his new master. During that time Thomas became religious, he could be heard quoting bible verses while punishing his slaves. This was clearly not true Christianity according to Douglass. Thomas could not manage Douglass, and therefore, he sent him Covey. Covey was harsh and cruel; Douglass frequently received beatings. He escaped back to Thomas but was sent back the same day. When Covey came to beat him up again but Douglass decided to retaliate, and they fought until Covey gave up. In 1834 Covey sent him Freeland who was good and never beat him. He stayed with Freeland and made friends with other slaves for one year.
In 1935 he started thinking about how he would escape, he stole a canoe together with slaves but they caught and taken to jail. Auld came to prison and organized his release. He convinced Auld to pay him a few bucks so that he could make money to escape. Finally, in 1838, Douglass saved enough money and managed to escape to New York. In the same year, Douglass married his wife Murray who was a freed lady he met in the South. Douglass found that in the North people were wealthy and there were no signs of poverty. While at the North he learned more about anti-slavery. In August 1841 he found an opportunity to attend an anti-slavery convention where he addressed a crowd of white men for the first time.
Douglass addresses very many issues in his narrative, the freedom he finds in the North is overwhelming. Though there is still racism in North, it cannot be compared with what is existing in the South. The South is full of racism and discrimination towards the blacks. There are very many unreligious acts happening in the South, extrajudicial killings that go unpunished and torture of the slaves. The slaves are rarely allowed to go to church, and some masters quote religious verses while whipping the slaves. This experience makes Douglass an anti-slavery activist and is set to campaign against slavery in the South.