Essay Database

Frederick Douglass himself wrote the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. 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). Having himself been kept as a slave until he escaped from Maryland in 1838, he was able to deliver very impassioned speeches about the role of the slave holders and the slaves. Many Northerners tried …

…were expected to work alongside the men doing the same hard, dirty labor or they were used to watch the children when they become. The book was easily digested and powerful yet Douglass softened the tone by not becoming graphic when he had every right to do so. Douglass' words sum it up the best, "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man." (107)