In his narrative, Douglass recalls hearing his master state that he was seventeen in the year 1835. Consequently, that would make 1818 his approximate year of birth and Tuckahoe, Talbot County, in the State of Maryland his birthplace (Douglass 1). Subsequently, while informing readers that his mother’s name was Betsey Hailey, the man goes on to state his suspicions of having a white father. Apparently, while he never managed to discover whether rumors of his white master being his father were true, it remained evident that he was half Caucasian (Douglass 2). Now, the issue of Douglass’ parentage serves two purposes: reveals that it was normal to have whites impregnate black females and any child born to a female slave was automatically a slave. For that reason, women born into slavery doubled as sex captives for their white masters who remained free to exploit their numbers sexually without fear of any repercussions. Naturally, the white mistresses were unable to intervene and rather than exert their anger on the husbands; they turned to the fairer target that encompassed the slave women and their half-white sons and daughters (Douglass 4). From mistreating them to forcing their husbands to sell their slave begotten children, the mistresses always had the upper hand.
After acquisition, slave owners ensured that the maintenance for their human chattels was as cheap as possible with the purchase of clothes made from “Negro cloth” (Douglass 10). Accordingly, every year, each working slave received two shirts and trousers made of linen, a jacket and one blanket, a pair of winter pants, stockings, and shoes (Douglass 10). Meanwhile, the children of slaves only had two linen shirts each year. About food rations, every month the masters would provide eight pounds of either pork or fish and a single bushel of cornmeal (Douglass 10). However, while the mentioned clothes and food were incredibly cheap for the masters to provide, slaves worked remarkably hard and for long hours in the plantations. Every day, at the sound of the slave driver’s horn, black men and women held in bondage would hasten to wake up fast, lest they receive a lashing for slacking, and proceed to work all day toiling for the Caucasian master. At the end of each hard day, slaves would scarcely have time to sleep as, despite their exhaustion, they had much “washing, mending, and cooking” to do (Douglass 10). Naturally, every person of African descent living in bondage was miserable and as a result, most slaves regarded music as one would a prayer. Apparently, every song was one of agony as the men and women would sing unhappy and sorrowful tunes, contrary to the perceptions of Northern whites (Douglass 13-15).
Hungry slaves would opt to steal from their masters when hungry. Apparently, rather than starve, the black men and women would defy the desire of the owners to have absolute obedience by taking food without permission (Douglass 17). On that note, the ability of a slave to follow his or her master’s instructions perfectly without any complaints determined his or her experiences while in bondage.
As a slave of one Mr. Giles Hick, the fifteen-year-old girl was set to mind the baby at night but due to extreme exhaustion for lacking sleeping in the previous nights, the young slave failed to respond quickly when the infant cried. In a rage, Mrs. Hicks seized an “oak stick of wood” with which she proceeded to kill the cousin of Frederick Douglass’ wife (24-25).
As a young slave, Douglass remembers constant “hunger and cold”; after all, as mentioned before, slave children did not receive the same rations as the adults (Douglass 26-27). Still, his young age meant he rarely received punishments, and his tasks were minor, including having to keep the garden safe from the fowls. Nonetheless, even at his young age, Douglass was aware of Baltimore. According to the man, his cousin Tom had previously described the city in detail; hence, he had the “strongest desire” to see Baltimore (28-29). Additionally, there was little to nothing for him to miss in his old master’s home since while he had no sense of family ties, there was plenty of hunger and whippings.
Rather than conforming to the typical master/slave relationship dictated for whites and blacks, Mrs. Auld, and Douglass adopted a teacher/student relationship. According to Douglass, his new mistress taught him the “A, B, C” before proceeding to teach him how to spell words (33). However, Mr. Auld promptly changed that, and the mistress turned to the regular cruel nature that whites exercised when dealing with black slaves.
After Mr. Auld had reprimanded his wife, Douglass resorted to the white urchins of the city who, as per the dictations of white supremacy, had access to formal education despite their poor economic statuses (Douglass 38). To that end, while Douglass was a slave, he had access to the food that the poor white children lacked; the two sides quickly struck a deal. Douglass would supply them with bread in exchange for help in learning how to read and write.
The “valuation process” referred to the combination of all properties, black slaves, and domestic animals, to determine their combined worth. In the antebellum period, the assessment procedures were common when the rightful master or mistress died, and the properties went to their benefactors (Douglass 45-48). Expectedly, slaves feared such instances as none of them knew where they would land with the masters. For example, Douglass feared the possibility of falling into the portion meant for the cruel master Andrew, his old master’s son, and was glad when he became the property of Mrs. Lucretia instead (Douglass 47).
Apparently, the Caucasians used religion as the “sanction and support” of slave cruelty (Douglass 54). Rather than use the religious teachings to treat slaves kindly and even emancipate them, the whites supported their barbarity with the scriptures in which Biblical narrations depicted one character or another owning a slave. A favorite among the masters was the story of Noah and his sons in which, because the man declared one of his sons was to be a slave to the other two, Africans became the descendants of the cursed son, Ham (Douglass 5).
After residing in the city for most of his life, Douglass’ life under Mr. Covey was hard as his awkwardness in the rural areas warranted constant whippings. In a particular incident, Douglass’ inexperience with “unbroken oxen” cost him a considerate portion of the day while trying to get the situation under control, and in the process, destroyed Mr. Covey’s gate and wagon (59-60). Subsequently, his apparent lack of discipline placed Douglass at odds with Mr. Covey, who took it upon himself to live up to the title of “nigger-breaker” by making an example out of the former man (Douglass 57). Still, within the year from the time he came under Mr. Covey’s control, a fight between the slave driver and Douglass revived the latter man’s desire for freedom. For the first time, he not only stood up to a white man but also emerged victorious while doing so by fighting and defeating Mr. Covey (Douglass 71-72). However, religion no longer held the same thing for Douglass as it did before. After witnessing white reverends whipping slaves mercilessly and without cause, the black slave considered the whites’ understanding of Christianity a fraudulent form of religion (Douglass 78-79). Subsequently, plans of escape were finally underway when Douglass left Mr. Covey and, as per his master’s desires, went to work for one Mr. William Freeland. It was while in Freeland’s possession that Douglass and four other slaves began to plan their escape by first, forging “protections” that would aid them in leaving Maryland (Douglass 86). Unbeknownst to the group, someone already told the white authorities of their plans and as a result, the plans never materialized.
Frederick Douglass finally made his escape with the aid of the white and black individuals that operated the Underground Railroad; however, to keep from making it an “upperground railroad”, he refrains from going into much detail (Douglass 101). Naturally, upon his arrival in New York, Douglass’ initial feelings were one of immense relief. In his words, he felt as though he escaped “a den of hungry lions” (Douglass 107). The Problem was, after years of slavery and the idea of being alone in a new land, the man quickly became lonely and insecure about his new status as a free man (Douglass 108).
On a personal level, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is likable simply because it proves that persons of African descent did not accept slavery. Apparently, while slaves did not hold the likes of Nat Turner’s rebellion, they resorted to subtle yet more efficient methods of self-emancipation. Concurrently, based on Douglass’ writing, the nature of slavery went beyond the mere concept of one human owning another simply because of skin color. The dehumanizing tactics of cruelty and separation explain why the system of slavery propelled the United States to a Civil War. In the same manner, in which the institution upheld Southern economy, it also formed the grounds from which white supremacy and social order stemmed. In that sense, the surprising factor revolves around the amount of cruelty with which whites dealt with their slaves.
Works Cited
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845. Print.
