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In this essay I will be talking about the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and how his life was representative towards the telling about slavery. First I will talk about what the difference between urban and plantation slavery. Then I will talk about each type of slavery through events that Frederick Douglass lived through. In the end I will describe how slavery impacted race relations. Numerous people have a diverse way of thinking towards the Narrative of Fredrick Douglass, so some people may think that his description on slavery was adequate while others may think that his narrative was not fair.
Several people say that the story was an autobiography of his life and others say that the story was written to reveal the brutal acts of slavery and the hardship one went through as a slave. During most of Douglass’s childhood he did not have it as hard as other slaves, but as the years passed by and the older he became, the harder it become for him as a slave. He did not just live as an urban slave during his childhood but also lived as a plantation slave during his older years. The life of an urban slave was not like the life of a plantation slave.
Fredrick Douglass gave a good description of events that took place in his life, but you cannot just go off of just his stories because his life of a slave is differed from a plantation slave. So the book is how he saw things and what he felt. The things he experienced in his life was the same and different in many ways that of another slave. The great Fredrick Douglass tries to describe in the best way he can the life of a slave. He does this because he could only talk about slavery through events that he lived through because slavery was different for other people and different things happened to those people.
His experience as a slave was somewhat representative. During his years he was urban and a plantation slave, which are to different kinds of slaves. An urban slave is a slave who is more of a person around the household or farm, while a plantation slave is a slave who works mostly in the fields of the plantations. See an urban slave, I think received less whippings then a slave on the plantation, received enough food to eat a place to sleep and clothes. While the plantation slaves received less food, children only wore shorts while the adults received pants and a shirt, and they slept on the cold floor.
The first time Frederick Douglass witnessed slavery was when his Aunt Hester was being whipped. As he described in his narrative “After crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong rope, and led her to a stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose. ” Then Mr. Plummer the slave owner told aunt Hester “I’ll learn you how to disobey my orders! ” after this he began to whip her. It was so horrifying for Frederick to witness that he hid himself in the closet. After reading this it most likely made readers see how horrible slavery was and the pain aunt Hester and other slaves must feel when being whipped.
He then states in a chapter further on in the narrative that, “A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation. He is much better fed and clothed, and enjoys privileges altogether unknown to the slave on the plantation. ” In urban societies, slaves rarely go hungry because their masters fed them well. The masters of the urban slaves also tried not to beat their slaves as much as the slaveholders owning the plantations to have good slaves that won’t rebel. Now plantation slaves had it worse than urban slaves.
Frederick Douglass was sent by his master to live with Mr. Covey whose reputation named him the nigger breaker, so for the first time Frederick Douglass was sent to work from an urban slave to a plantation slave. On January, 1833 Frederick Douglass for the first time in his life was a field hand. As Frederick describes” I found myself even more awkward than a country boy appeared to be in a large city” . Not even living at the plantation for a week, Frederick Douglass was severely whipped by Mr. Covey. The excuse that Mr.
Covey almost always gave Frederick Douglass for whipping him was that he was too awkward for him. Another event that happened in Frederick Douglass’s life is when Master Hugh hired him to Mr. William Gardner. (a ship-builder). One day while Frederick was working some of the white apprentices thought that more black people will learn the trade and poor white men would be put in the unemployment. They became frustrated just of the thought of this happening and began to attack him. They began to beat him with anything they had in hand.
While beating him the white men taunted “Kill that damned nigger! Kill him! Kill him! He struck a white person” After the fight Frederick went back and told his Master what happened to him. (Master Hugh) Mr. Hugh tried to sort it out but after talking to Esquire Watson Mr. Hugh came to the conclusion that nothing can be done unless a white person came out and told the authorities what happened but because no man was brave enough to do so, the incident never really happened. But in the end Frederick Douglass did receive his freedom.
Both ways of slavery had a big impact on race relations. In the south slaves were not treated as people but just a piece of property and that they could do what they pleased with them. They did not care if the well-being of the slave. They looked at slaves not as people but looked them as a profit to be made. Unlike the south the north had a somewhat different point of view. They still treated African Americans as an inferior race but some of the northerners at least treated them as a somewhat kind of human way.
I think slavery was wrong in the first place but if it wasn’t for slavery many of the things that happened might have happened. ____________________________________________________ Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass chapter 1 page 24 Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass chapter 1 page 24 Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass page 49 Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass page 70 Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass page 102