Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass is one of the most important live testimonies about the slavery era in America.

October 22, 2003

Ido Ben-Ze’ev

Essay #2: “Interpretive Summary”

Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass is one of the most important live testimonies about the slavery era in America. The book is an autobiography of a slave who was born into slavery and struggled staunchly to find his way to freedom despite of the fact that his masters oppressed him cruelly. Because he was a slave, Frederick Douglass was a victim of the dehumanization that resulted from the white men's enslavement of the "colored" people. By being so cruel and brutal, Douglass' masters were trying to darken his moral and mental vision so that he would lose interest in obtaining freedom and serve them as an efficient mindless tool. But despite Douglass' master's efforts during his "career" as a slave, they didn't manage to destroy his power of reason.

Frederick Douglass was born in Maryland, to a slave mother that was raped by her white master, so he was a mulatto, which was considered at this time even worst than being a black. For his entire life he saw his mom for four times since she was hired to work in a distanced farm and he stayed with an old lady that raised him with other black children. His mother died when he was seven years old. We can see that even from the very beginning of a slave's life, any effort is taken to distinguish between a human being to a slave. This is why all the babies are being separated from their mother before they're twelve months old and delivers to a strange nanny. In addition, the children don't know the date they were born or their last name, just like animals. At a very young age, Douglass was the first witness to his aunt Hester being whipped terribly, by his first master, Colonel Lloyd after being absent from her regular scheduled rape.

The poor quality of life over the plantation had a quite big emotional effect on Douglass, as he was living among the slaves as a little child. The allowance of food and cloths was minimal and for certain not enough for their basic needs. Mattresses did not exist and the slaves had to sleep on the damped floor. In addition, the overseer at this time was ruthless and brutal. All these, had a tremendous impact on Douglass, as he writes about tears falling down his chick while mentioning these times. As a child, Frederick Douglass couldn't really commit an act ...

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Other events in Douglass life under the colonel's authority affected his life as well. Douglass dedicates a decent number of pages describing the cruelty of the overseer Gore and how without any hesitations he killed a slave who didn't obey to his commands. Another example that emphasizes how the slaves are like hunted animals and killing one of them will not cause any damage or put the killer to a trial. The colonel did not have any lack of cruelty himself. Douglass describes how the colonel commanded to smear his garden's fence with tar (the starving slaves used to steal fruits from the garden) so any slave who would be caught with tar on his hands will be punished severely. In a different case, the colonel questioned a young slave he owned about the conditions working for the colonel, when the slave didn't recognize the colonel's face. The poor slave told him that he’s been treated badly by his owner so the colonel sold this slave immediately to a Georgia trader and he was separated from his family and all his friends. When you're considered as calf, no one cares if you have family or friends.

Douglass himself knew miserable childhood as well. Growing up in the plantation, he got the same treatment as his slaves brothers. Sleeping with no bed or blanket, hanging around without trousers and being hungry wasn't something unfamiliar to him and when he moved to Baltimore, to live under urban conditions he was pretty pleased. There Douglass started to learn how to read English. Initially, his mistress helped him and gave him lessons, but when his master discovered this, he raged and forbade her of teaching him. Douglass at this time was old enough to realize that actually, by the way of preventing the slaves from getting education, the white men darken the slave's mental vision and "annihilate the power of reason". From this reason Douglass insisted of keep learning English. Although now both his master and mistress forbade him of learning English he secretly adapted unusual approaches in order to learn how to write and read the language. By the age of twelve Douglass' level of English allowed him to read some books which had a meaningful affect on him. Some dialogues in the book "The Columbian orator" made him loathe the idea and the people behind slavery, as he writes: "The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers".

After seven years living as a city slave in Baltimore, Douglass came back to experience the tough slavery on the plantation. Apparently, Master Thomas has found him inadequate to work under the plantation conditions and sent him for a year to live with Mr. Covey in order to harden him, as he had reputation of one who had the ability of "breaking young slaves". The time with Mr. Covey made the biggest wish of Douglass to get rid of the slavery bars and to run away to his freedom. Living with Mr. Covey was unbearable to Douglass; the allowance of basic needs as sleep, free time and cloths was the smallest so far and the cruelty of Mr. Covey was the strongest, he did all he could to break the slave's spirit. When Douglass collapsed from exhaustion while carrying wheat sacks, Covey beat him severely and almost caused to his death.

But the determination to run away and the recognition of Douglass' own abilities occurred after the famous battle against Covey. Covey was trying to tie up Douglass and to beat him again, but this time Douglass wouldn't let him and struggled to his victory. By that battle, Douglass earned his respect from Covey and was never beaten again until the end of year. From now on until his escape, Douglass had a pretty calm time at Mr. Freeland's house, and he even had time to open an English school and teaching other slaves. But still, he made up his mind that as soon as he can, he runs away to his freedom. And so he did, in the year of 1838, Frederick Douglass succeeded of running away to New-York and from there to New Bedford where he lived for a while and made his carrier as an abolitionist and active contributor to the anti slavery movement.

Although we can find overlapping aspects from the slavery time to ours, it will be inaccurate to say that slavery on a race basis is still exists nowadays. It is true that some countries have less conscious of human rights even today and people in some countries still work with no wages at all, but this slavery is different in the basis; while slavery in the old days was based on a race difference, the slavery nowadays is about class differences in some countries and the there is nothing in their constitution or their set of rules to prevent slavery.

I think that slavery as an established tendency is something that disappeared from the modern world but still, employers all over the world try to eliminate their worker's critical abilities, and by doing so they seek to destroy their worker's independent humanity. Nevertheless, the indentured worker's native endowment of intelligence and rationality gives them the potential to overcome the barrier that people with power force upon them.

We're fully committed to aspire to enlightened society that would uproot the slavery that still occurred.