Frederick Douglass Slavery Essay Example

Introduction

There are many excellent essays in the world. They are all different, some of them comparing some things, others describing other stories. In all of this, there are essays about their own experiences, and one of them is Frederick Douglas's essay. The essay is a way to make a point or describe something. Frederick Douglas's essay is about his life and his experience. In the story, there are many parts about the challenges that he went through. Douglass’ essay is about reading, writing, a slave boy and his life.

Reading

One of the parts of Frederick Douglas's essay is reading. His mistress and her husband decided to teach him how to read, that is how Douglass described this “I had no regular teacher. My mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance with the advice and direction of her husband, not only ceased to instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by anyone else.” (107). Later, they stopped because it was too dangerous at that time, and if someone knew that they were doing that, they could face punishment; however, it was too late because they taught him the alphabet, and after that, he started to take a book when he went to work; he tried to finish his work early so he could read a book, “When I was sent to errands, I always took my book with me, and by doing one part of my errand quickly, I found time to get a lesson before my return.” (Douglass 107). This was his first steps to learning how to read properly. He started to trade with poor white kids in his neighborhood; he gave them a piece of bread, and in exchange, they taught him some knowledge about reading instead this is how Douglass remember it “I used also to carry bread with me, enough of which was always in the house, and to which I was always welcome; for I was much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood. This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge.” (108). This is improved his reading and definitely helped him on his way to learn how to read, he used many ways to get more knowledge about reading and usually was successful at it. When he became fluent in reading, he started to read many books, which gave him much new information about the world and what was happening around him. Also, it improved his reading by a lot because that was a lot of practice, and practice always makes you better at the thing you are trying to achieve. He went through a lot of challenges when he tried to learn how to read and achieved it. The reading was a big part of his early life, and he dedicated a big part of his essay to it.

Writing

One of the parts of Frederick Douglas's essay is writing. When he decided that he was going to learn how to write, his first step was copying letters on timber, he tried to copy every letter he saw around, and little by little started to be better at this; he could write something four letters named at the end. This is how he remember it “When a piece of timber was intended for the larboard side, it would be marked thus— "L. When a piece was for the starboard side, it would be marked thus—"S." A piece for the larboard side forward, would be marked thus— "L.F." When a piece was for starboard side forward, it would be marked thus—"S.F." For larboard aft, it would be marked thus—"L.A." For starboard aft, it would be marked thus—"S.A." I soon learned the names of these letters, and for what they were intended when placed upon a piece of timber in the shipyard. I immediately commenced copying them, and in a short time was able to make the four letters named.” ( Douglass 109). Significant improvement came when he succeeded at tricking the boy who knew how to write; This led to a massive boost in his writing because he always asked the boy to beat that, and all teenagers try to show themselves, so by this way, he taught him how to make very big words, and even write sentences, without this boy he probably could not get that far as he got. After that, he started everywhere where he saw opportunity do so because it was practice and by experience during the learning to read, he got that practice helps you to become better, to make sure you got that attribute in your skillset, by this way he became very fluent at writing. At that time, his master Thomas wrote many copybooks, and when he was alone at home, he used his copies of the book to master his writing; he spent many days and hours until he became as good as his master Thomas. The writing was an essential part of his life, and it gave him new opportunities and more confidence in case he decided to escape from slavery.

A slave boy

One of the parts of Frederick Douglas's essay is a slave boy. The fact that he was a slave boy brought him a lot of fears. He could not read something or write something anywhere because if anyone reports him, he would be punished or killed in a worst-case scenario. He needed to hide every time to do something unrelated to his work; it was dangerous even at home because his owners were afraid of it and tried to make sure he would be unable to read or write “If I was in a separate room any considerable length of time, I was sure to be suspected of having a book, and was at once called to give an account of myself.” (Douglass 107). When he speaks to someone from the city, he needs to pretend that he is a loyal slave and will never escape from his owner. He felt injustice in many cases because other children were able to go to school while he was obligated to do work at that time; other children would be free at twenty-one while he was not. This all brought him more stress, but at the same time, because of the person he was, it was character building for him, he took it like a challenge to fight, and it forced him to be more innovative, tricky, and how to get what you want out of people. When he became fluent at reading, he read many books; out of these books, he got a lot of information that was very negative for him. He read that, most likely, slavery is not going to end soon and that it would be almost impossible for him to escape slavery. All this knowledge brings him a lot of anxiety and depression. This is how Douglass describes his feelings at that moment “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed” (109). Imagine the struggle when you know that you will need to obey orders from someone for the rest of your life. It was tough for him to find a point to live, and he wanted to kill himself many times to avoid all of this. Being a slave brought many health problems to him, and he expressed it in this essay very well; almost in every chapter, he spoke how being a slave made his life harder; he wanted to remind people that slavery was catastrophic, and people should think more when they are making important decisions.

His adult life

One of the parts of Frederick Douglas’s essay is his adult life. At the age of twenty-one, Frederick decided to escape from slavery to start his new life; they state that in this way, “He escaped to the north at the age of twenty-one and created a new identity for himself as a free man.” (Douglass 106). Douglass was trying to help and solve as many problems as he could and was always a supporter. He was a national leader of the abolition movement and helped many other movements; as a book says, “He was a national leader in the abolition movement and, among other activities, founded and edited the North Star and Douglass’ Monthly. His public service included appointments as U.S. marshal and consul general to the Republic of Haiti.” (Douglass 106). After all of that, he finished educating himself and became one of the best in this area of his era and wrote many great books in his life. This is what they say about him “He educated himself and went on to become one of the most eloquent orators and persuasive writers of the nineteenth century.” (Douglass 106). His adult life was all about helping others and achieving great things in life, educating, and leaving some memories about himself; that’s why he decided to devote some space in one of the most popular works he has ever done to a part of his adult life.

Conclusion

Douglass’ essay is about reading, writing, a slave boy and his life. This Douglass essay has many fantastic information. I like how he always tries to motivate people to never give up and show them examples that you can solve any problem in this world. Another part that I love is how he analyzes the psycho type of a person when describing it. I believe people should read that essay to get more information about slavery and how it was for people who were a slave. Also, it is a great story and example that you can achieve your goals if you concentrate on your goal and do not let problems be on your way.