Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Thesis

Whippings, beatings and lynchings were all too common during the era of slavery.However, not only were their bodies treated so harshly, but their minds and souls were as well.

[tags: Narrative Life Frederick Douglass Essays] - In her 1987 novel Beloved, Toni Morrison explores the complexity of slave life and its influence on motherhood and family interaction.

Morrison utilizes the some aspects of Frederick Douglass’s 1845 Autobiography to create her account of slavery but that is where the similarity ends.

[tags: Narrative Life Frederick Douglass] - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass The tone established in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is unusual in that from the beginning to the end the focus has been shifted.

In the beginning of the narrative Douglass seems to fulfill every stereotypical slavery theme.

He was born into slavery in Tuckahoe, Maryland in approximately 1817.

He has, "…no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it" (47).Frederick Douglass has woven many themes into his narrative, all being tied with a common thread of man's inhumanity towards man.As depicted in America's History, "white masters had virtually unlimited power, both legal and physical, over their slaves" (p. A slaves relationship with his or her master usually went no further than the master thinking of that slave as no more than an animal that worked in the field, and that is what slaves did. Children were uprooted from the arms of their mothers, "before the child has reached it's twelfth month, it's mother is taken from it and sold to other slave holders" (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave p. Brutal whippings occurred for even the smallest imagined offense, "a mere look, word, or motion" (Douglass p. The slaves were not allowed even the most meager portion of food, "eight pounds of pork and one bushel of corn meal" (Douglass p. Clothes were scarce and illness was never tolerated.118), women were treated as no better than common concubines and the slaves were forced into living quarters, "on one common bed… - The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass gives a first person perspective on the life of a slave laborer in both the rural south and the city.He is a young black slave who at first cannot read and is very naïve in understanding his situation.As a child put into slavery Douglass does not have the knowledge to know about his surroundings and the world outside of slavery....However, one may suggest a reader elects to read an autobiography because there is an interest.This interest allows the reader to draw from the narrator's experience and to gain understanding from the experience....The narrative functions as a persuasive essay, written in the hopes that it would successfully lead to “hastening the glad day of deliverance to the millions of [his] brethren in bonds” (Douglass 331).As an institution, slavery endeavored to reduce the men, women, and children “in bonds” to a state less than human.