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How The Life Of Frederick Douglass Affect Both Slaves And Slaveholders

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Frederick Douglass Essay In the book, “ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” Douglass introduces the powerful impact on the American abolitionist movement. Frederick took readers on a voyage throughout his life explaining the hardships and several different lessons he learned. According to the book one lesson Douglass learned was slavery is not only negative for slaves but also for slaveholders. Can this negativity affect both slaves and slaveholders? Although slaveholders would beg to differ, you should keep in mind the cruelty slaves experienced by slaves. One should consider the moral , social, and religious ways. First, Douglass says the slaveholders believed what they were doing was right; however, morally they were changed by slaveholding. Douglass supports this by explains how his mistress was majorly affected. “ She has bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach. Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under influence the tender heart became stone.” Before slavery Douglass’s mistress was kind-hearted; however, post slaveholder she was heartless. Another example of morally hurting slaves his …show more content…

This idea holds because Douglass was denied further education with learning to read which can a burden in social skills. “Nothing seemed to make her more angry than to see me with a newspaper. She seemed to think that here lay the danger… I used to carry bread with me… this bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge.” Owners despised their slaves having social skills as they wanted to keep them ignorant, or in the dark. Frederick didn’t let anyone stop him from what he enjoyed doing, reading, he always found time to get a lesson in. Douglass was determined to have knowledge in his

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