Frederick Douglass Mentally Free Essay

Frederick Douglass, author of the narrative by the same name, was a slave that was not physically free, but he was mentally. While other slaves did not realize that what was going on was wrong, Douglass did. He used his mentally freedom to become free physically free as well. Douglass’ hardships started the day he was born. He was born into slavery, like other African-Americans, and was constantly treated like dirt. He had a slaveholder who was always “cursing, raving, cutting, and slashing among the slaves of the field, in the most frightful manner” (29). Although he was rarely beat, he constantly have to go without food and be in the cold. There was also Mr. Covey, who was a notorious “slave breaker” who gave Douglass “ a very severe whipping,

Thanks to this, he was able to look at slaveholders’ papers and get a better understanding of what was going on and he started to realize that what was going on was wrong. This realization helped him be mentally free for a time and he even attempted to escape, but another slave ratted him out. He went to Covey, and after a while of being with there, they got into a fight that “rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within [him] a sense of [his] own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired [him] again with a determination to be free’ (82-83). After the battle, he knows that he can still have a chance at freedom as long as he is not thoughtless and has the power of reason. After some time, Douglass escapes from his last master and goes to New York where he gets a fresh start in life. Frederick Douglass was a slave that was physically bound. At the beginning he did not think that it was possible for him to gain freedom from his life of slavery. It was during a battle that he got the determination to fight for his freedom and after several months, he was finally able to attain the same physical freedom that he had in his heart and