Frederick was another one of the literary giants in the south. He was one of the biggest writers of the African Americans. Him along with many other of the leading black writers had to leave the south and go north to begin their writing.
I can't believe all the things that Frederick Douglass had to go through as a slave. It's really traumatizing what he had to deal with. One think that was very traumatizing was that he had to see his aunt be beaten to a bloody pulp. I don't know how he got through such hard times. A quote from the book is,"I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, who he used to tie up to a joist, and whip her naked back till she was literally covered with blood." I can't imagine even putting myself in that situation. It's just so horrible. He even to go through many beatings of his own.
Another thing I had trouble understanding was how difficult to please the masters were. For example when the master is describing things that were not perfectly done to the horse. "He has not been sufficiently rubbed and curried, or he has not been properly fed, his food is too wet or dry." It just really annoyed how nothing would ever please them. These things are also irrelevant and stupid too. Then, because of this, the slaves would get whipped and beaten. Another thing that surprised me was that the slaves were not clothed properly for the weather. If the masters want to keep the slaves and not have them die then they should have them wear a lot of layers in the bitter cold and not a lot of clothes in the summer. As described in the story Douglass didn't even have shoes on his feet in the winter.
I really admired Frederick Douglass because even though he was going through all these hard times, he still managed to learn how to read and write. He didn't want to be illiterate, he wanted to be smart. If I was going through all that that would probably be the last thing on my mind. I wouldn't care about learning how to read at all. Another thing I admired about Frederick Douglass was that he fought back and started fighting his masters. An example from the reading is,"I seized Covey hard by the throat; and as I did so I rose. He held on to me, and I to him. My resistance was so entirely unexpected, that Covey seemed taken all aback." I'm glad he didn't feel like taking the abuse and stood up for himself. I'm also glad he ran away and made it to the north where there is no slavery. He had to make a decision to either get killed while trying to run away or continue getting beaten by the master and he chose to run away. I'm glad he did because we would of never known about this courageous man if he didn't.
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I totally agree on everything. Douglass' resistance to his masters is something admirable, something that you wouldn't expect from him or any other slave. As I mentioned in my post, I only recognized Douglass' name, I wasn't taught about him, but everything we just read was contradictory to every presumption I made about him. His writing is something great, a realistic portrait of slavery and the south, which made his persuasiveness as an abolitionist that much more effective.
As we discussed in class, Douglass didn't mention him being beaten until later in the narrative. I find it odd that he had witnessed so many beatings to other slaves, but he never endured one. I think that goes along with him not mentioning his escape. Maybe Douglass had experienced more beatings than mentioned in his narrative, but he blocked them out of his memory or he doesn't remember them at all. Or maybe the point was to show that Douglass wasn't weakened by beatings and instead shows his strength when he fought back.
I agree that the reasons why slaves were beaten were completely stupid. like you said, the masters were never happy with anything that the slaves did. It was very odd to hear about a slave that barely got beaten until later on in his life.
I think the writings of Frederick Douglas really portay the pain and sorrow that slaves went through. The part with his aunt really makes me me sick to my stomach when i read it. I mean really how could you sit there and survive and be strong knowing that your aunt is getting beaten up in the next room over. I couldn't imagine being in his spot. I also couldn't imagine the pain he went through himself with the beatings that he recieved. It really just makes you think of how strong slaves really were and the pain they really did go through each day of their lives.
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