Frederick Douglas a former slave and a passionate abolitionist
narrates his astounding life story. Douglas talks about the physical
abuse, deprivation and tragedy in his early years which helped him to
grow into someone who spoke for his people. In chapter 1 he talks about
being born as a slave , he had no accurate knowledge of his age. He,
including many other slaves in Talbot county Maryland were not allowed
to even make enquiries. His father was a white man which resulted to him
having a lighter complexion compared to other slaves. Douglas is very
sure that the father was his master Anthony. Furthermore, he also talks
about how slave women was physically and psychologically abused, and the
children they bore on the process were also enslaved and sold to other
slaveholders. He witnessed his aunt get beaten up by his master, until
warm blood trickled down her wounds. This bloody transaction was his
impression of slavery. In Chapter 2 the writer talks about the
plantation house of his second master Colonel Lloyd. Slaves of high
misdemeanor, becoming unmanageable or attempting to escape was brought
immediately, severely whipped and taken to Baltimore to other slave
traders. This was a threat and a warning to other slaves who would try
to do the same.
He describes overseer as another danger. The overseers are ruthless.
The success of the overseer’s career was considered upon how severely
he could punish slaves on the field. They were drunkards, swore
profanely, cutting, raving, cursing the slaves in the most frightful
manner. The hostility also included killing them. Chapter 3 describes an
incident in which Douglas uses his master colonel Lloyd as an example
of being honest slave was a potential threat. He would randomly ask his
slaves about their master, and if the slave spoke the truth about the
mistreatment, he will be severely punished. In Chapter 5 he expresses
the joy he felt after his old master Colonel Lloyd decided to let him go
to work for Hugh Auld brother of his son in law. He gives a vivid
description of his journey to a bigger city Baltimore. Chapter 6 was
about how he learnt to read. And he also described Sophia Auld (mistress
who taught him alphabets and how to spell words) as angelic figure.
When her husband found out, she had to stop immediately because it was
unlawful to teach a slave how to read, that inspired and determined
Douglas to learn. The following chapters tells us he took reading
lessons from the white children in the neighborhood and learned to read
from his master’s school book. The reading talks about his struggle to
get freedom. He also mentions that a lot of white people saw a lot of
potential in him and suggested that he should move to the north. And he
cleverly tackled the situation without being tricked. The book was
written on Fredericks Douglas’s perspective, so his voice was being
heard.
Throughout our class discussion we did a very interesting activity.
We had to pick 4 quotes from the 9 chapters. And we had to stick the
quotes under following categories (violence, family, resistance, work
and control). This activity has enhanced our learning as through group
discussion different people gave different examples of how the
situations were back in the days of slavery. We can picture the
situations more clearly. It reflects upon how white men felt threatened
by literacy of the slaves. They are petrified by the fact that slaves
are capable of rebelling against their masters and teach other slaves to
read and write. We also discussed in class the dehumanization of
enslaved people because the masters were ignorant not to record
birthdates. As a slave Frederick was treated differently. Moreover
words, talking and writing became his craft. We also concluded that
slavery is not monoethnic.
Although this class answered most of my question, I would still like
to know the perspective of Sophia Auld and the children who taught
Douglas to read. Sophia was described as a kind woman in the beginning, I
would like to know what were her other reasons to change her attitude
towards Douglas. And I also keep wondering how Frederick Douglas managed
to learn thing from children without getting told on by their parents.