Frederick Douglass Hardships Essay

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by himself in 1845, Frederick Douglass experienced many hardships. Throughout his life as a slave, Douglass experiences many emotional, physical, and social hardships. In his book, Douglass describes the unfair treatment of blacks during the time of slavery. In chapter one of his book, Frederick Douglass experiences an emotional hardship that had an effect on him. “My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant- before I knew her as my mother.” In this quotation, Douglass explain how he was separated from his mother as an infant, which resulted in a hindrance of his affection towards her. “For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it is to be to hinder the development of the child’s affection towards its mother...This is the inevitable result.” As a result of his relationship with his mother, when she died it did not affect him as much because he barely knew her; the only time he saw his mother is when she would walk twelve miles after dark to lie next to him. Secondly, he experienced many physical hardships throughout his life as a slave. An example of this is when he got

An example of a social hardship is when Master Andrew beat his brother. “...Master Andrew...took my little brother by the throat, threw him on the ground, and with the heel of his boot stamped upon his head ‘till the blood gushed from his nose and ear…” This is a social hardship for Douglass because he couldn’t stand up for his brother not only because he was a slave, but because he didn’t have a close relationship with his brother, just like his mother in the beginning of the book. This event was unfortunate, but it was lucky for Douglass because Master Andrew had threatened to do him the same way “After he had committed this savage upon my brother, he turned to me, and said that was the way he meant to serve me one of these