Why Things Were the Way They Were.

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Mark Klinker

10/06/04

GHIST 225

Section 3

Why Things Were the Way They Were

One of the darkest times in American history was that of the three to four hundred year timeframe of slavery. This unlawful enslaving of millions of African Americans has caused a tragic bitterness between blacks and whites that will never cease to exist. Everyone has there own interpretation of what slavery really entailed, but the typical situation thought of when thinking of slavery is that of a black person picking the cotton fields in the Southern American Colonies. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, by Frederick Douglass, shows us that there was much more to colonial slavery than that which is characteristically portrayed. Frederick Douglass shows us throughout his narrative that life experiences of a slave were all dependent on the mentalities of the masters, the location of enslaving, and the mentalities of the slaves. Not only did this narrative give a first-hand account of what it was like to be a slave, it also showed the world the cruelties and hardships of being a black in colonial America. The three examples discussed above were