Frederick Douglass showed perseverance and GRIT throughout his life. For example, when he was born, he was born into slavery; also he was able to escape slavery even when he fails.
Generally, Frederick Douglass’s parents were into slavery and when he was born, he went into slavery also. Frederick Douglass had a lack of freedom to do anything: “he was the property of a white man” (1). Frederick Douglass went into slavery the first moment, he was born. When born into slavery, the person endured hardship and poverty. Frederick Douglass had to live his life under the control of a white man and was not able to do anything except work all day long. The only thing a slave was able to do was on the orders of the master: “Suddenly he woke to the terrible shrieks of his aunt Hester. Old Master was whipping Hester for spending time with her boyfriend” (12).
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Escaping from slavery was difficult with all the slave hunters and when everyone tries to make it hard from a slave to escape. When Douglass was a little kid, he always tried to create a plan to escape: “After the Easter holidays, Frederick’s friends when released from jail by their owner and taken home” (41). Douglass risk his life and the lives of his friends to escape to a free slave state. When a slave gets caught, they get sent to jail and it depends on their owners on the punishment. Douglass know that creating a plan to escape will be difficult and not getting caught was harder because not many slave are able to escape slavery. Even when he was close to escaping, he feared getting caught: “But he still had two boats and two more trains to his destination, New York City” (51). Frederick Douglass was determined to become a free man. Frederick Douglass was able to face and achieved any hardships or struggles that came his way. Through his determination, he was able to escape slavery throughout the many years he tried to
In America in the 1800’s slaves were not allowed to be educated and were broken so that they wouldn’t have hope to escape to the north. Slaves were separated from their mothers at birth and would be taken to another plantation to be put into slavery. They would also be sent to cruel masters who would break them and make them hopeless and more compliant. But Douglass was different; his intelligence, observation, and motivation defined and impacted him. Douglass’s experiences and attributes allowed for him to escape from slavery.
Douglass was able to escape slavery through
The second attempt to escape brought him freedom in another place. Douglass found it hard to leave his friends behind. But in favor to have freedom in his life he had to give up the friendship he found in Baltimore. While reading this last chapter it sounded like this was another huge turning point in Douglass’s life, after reading the Liberator he was getting more familiar with the antislavery movement.
He goes on to say “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow slaves for their stupidity. 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.” Later Douglass learns the term abolition and gets the idea of running away to be free. But before running away, he wants to learn to write. At the end of the essay Douglass talks about finally learning to write and being “free.”
The issue of slavery has always been a sensitive and important topic in the history of the United States. Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an autobiographical account of his experience as a slave and his eventual escape to freedom. His story is not unique, as many other slaves attempted to escape to freedom. However, most slaves did not make the attempt to escape, and this raises the question of why Douglass was able to achieve freedom while most other slaves did not. In this essay, I will explore the factors that set Douglass apart from his peers and the qualities that impelled and helped slaves to escape.
He escaped on a train and was free in the north (OI). He wrote an abolition newspaper called the North Star that helped raise awareness on how terrible this was (Doc. 3). Douglass stated in an article saying that slaves “would never be done away with” (Doc. 3). Frederick hinted at African American philosophers and statesmen to come up with a plan (Doc. 3). Union armies needed more people; the escaped slaves were happy to help, joining the Union’s side.
In the narrative Why I Learned to Read and Write, by Frederick Douglass he expressed how difficult life had been being a slave. He felt the need to break away from the norm and learn how to read and write. While educating himself he dealt with many obstacles that prolonged his education. Although he dealt with difficult obstacles he ended up becoming a free slave, because he was well educated. Slaveholder believed education and slavery were incompatible, therefore Douglass was faced with the decision to use various stratagems; in the process he ended up re-enforcing the view of the slaveholders and taught society the importance of education.
Douglass managed to overcome the maltreatment of his wretched slave owners through the eventual attainment of freedom. The injustice imposed upon the African-American slaves by their owners was the crux of Douglass’s motivation to escape this inhumane life. Adolescents in today’s society could use Frederick’s determination as an example of moving forward to better oneself or one’s situation regardless of
Douglass is a African American that was a slave and did a Narrative about his time being a slave and in his Narrative he “threw light” at the American slave system. African American slave Frederick Douglass lived through a time of racism and how slavery was a natural thing to do but was a very awful thing. And slavery is when families who had colored skin were separated and sold of to a person that can do anything to them, the slave is pretty much like the slaveholder’s property. And in this essay I will talk about how Douglass’s position differs from those who supported slavery and also I will be talking about How Douglass used his Narrative to share his position. How Douglass “throws light” on the American Slave system is by showing
In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.
Moreover, Douglass began to acquire knowledge about an abolitionist movement. With Douglass’ knowledge about an abolitionist movement, he began to contemplate about the meaning of freedom and the need to escape slavery. Essentially, Douglass decided that he needed to run away to escape slavery. However, Douglass thought that he was too young to flee from slavery. Furthermore, Douglass realizes that escaping slavery with the inability to write would be a detriment to his education.
His beatings and lack of food were only part of his miserable daily life. Eventually Douglass was able to successfully escape this life and vowed to forever actively support the equality of all
Frederick Douglass, author of the narrative by the same name, was a slave that was not physically free, but he was mentally. While other slaves did not realize that what was going on was wrong, Douglass did. He used his mentally freedom to become free physically free as well. Douglass’ hardships started the day he was born. He was born into slavery, like other African-Americans, and was constantly treated like dirt.
Slavery is equally a mental and a physical prison. Frederick Douglass realized this follow-ing his time as both a slave and a fugitive slave. Douglass was born into slavery because of his mother’s status as a slave. He had little to go off regarding his age and lineage. In the excerpt of the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Fredrick Douglass does not actually tell us exactly how he escaped in detail to the North from slavery because he does not want to give any slave masters information. Which makes sense because, he would not like to be giving slave owners an upper hand on slaves that do try to escape. One of the most important factors to Fredrick Douglass gaining his freedom is when he moved to Baltimore. I believe that is where his quest for freedom began.