Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Essay

In Frederick Douglass’s narrative, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he tells his story of what it was like to be a slave. Douglass was born into slavery. He spent his childhood and and some of his adulthood as a slave, and after many years was ready to be free. He tells us of how slavery is terrible for slaves, and how slavery corrupts slaveholders. With this, he decides that after years of not knowing what slavery was, and years of having to hide in the shadows, Douglass was ready to shine light on the American Slave System.

Frederick Douglass believes that slavery is terrible for slaves. In the narrative, Douglass tells the story of his early life as a slave. Douglass knew nothing much about himself. He did not know his own age, or who his father was. He was deprived of any opportunity where he would get to learn more about the outside world or himself. In Excerpt 1, Paragraph 1, we see an example of how little Douglass knew of himself. It states, “I have

Douglass tells us of the experience of when he tried to escape to freedom. He had everything laid out from when they were going to escape to the protections for when a white man saw them. But that all changed when someone ratted them out. In Excerpt 5, Paragraph 6, Frederick tells us what happened. “Just as I got to the house, in looking out at the lane gate, I saw four white men, with two colored men. Mr. Freeland put his head in at the door, and called me by name, saying, there were some gentlemen at the door who wished to see me.” People who defend slavery, most likely have never experienced it first hand. This quote shows that no matter how hard you try, you will always be caught. Douglass had made a plan that may or may not have worked. But, he never would think some of his fellow slaves would be the ones to rat him out. As you can see slavery is terrible for slaves so much they take large sacrifices just to attempt to