Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass - 1126 Words

Abigail De Rousselle Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Critique Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845. Ibiblio.org. Elegant Ebooks. Web. 29 Nov. 2015. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an autobiography about Frederick Douglass a fugitive slave from Maryland. The book follows Douglass as he grows up under slavery and begins to recognize the cruel institution to which he is subject to, and ultimately leading to his escape to the North. Several things are attributed to making this autobiography special. Not considering that since it was illegal for slaves to be taught how to read and write; autobiographies by ex-slaves were unique for their time. As Douglass†¦show more content†¦In Chapter Three Douglass recounts a time when a slave from a large plantation, unbeknownst to him, passes his master who then proceeds to ask about how his master treats him. The slave answers truthfully that he is unhappy with his living conditions, then two or three weeks later the master has the slave sold off to a Georgian trader. The fear of experiencing a similar fate results not only in slaves lying about the ‘kindnessâ€⠄¢ of their masters, but they become so overzealous that they’ll fight other slaves to prove their master is ‘better. This was a common occurrence in the life of slaves, but had not become an issue to Douglass until after he learned to read and found the book, The Columbian Orator. In the book Douglass finds a speech encouraging Catholic emancipation, as well as an exchange between a master and slave. The slave, having been captured for the third time, explains to his master his sufferings while living under slavery, which unexpectedly leads to the voluntary emancipation of the slave. Obviously, the odds of this happening is very unlikely, but the thought of speaking out against slavery was desirable to Douglass. Where before, any desire for freedom would quickly die out after arising in his mind, now the thoughts remained and building up inside him and making him angry at his captors. An effect which his current captor, Master Auld, predicted would happen when