Slave Essay
Ernesto Blanco
Social Sciences 125
11/12/13
Kronbeck
Response to the Narrative of Frederick Douglas The Narrative of Frederick Douglas was a very inspiring, yet a shocking story that would impact anyone truly who reads it carefully and pays attention to the meaning of the story. While reading this novel, I was totally devastated and shocked at the treatment of slaves and I was also shocked to notice that the masters had no sympathy or compassion. However, this slave Frederick Douglas was a very smart slave who learned and suffered along the way to obtaining his freedom. Something that I find extremely interesting is despite his treatment and the things he observed and experienced, he was still able to overcome his life as a slave, earned his freedom, and on top of that he became an intelligent man who wrote his own experience as a slave. This is truly stunning due to the fact that slaves got treated so poorly and they had no education, yet this man was able to gain his freedom and his education in spite of the adversaries that he faced. Another approach would be that as he learned and educated himself more, he also suffered more because as he kept learning things about the things he wasn’t allowed to do and the way white men were treated better than him, he was still a slave and this caused him great pain and agony within his mind. He struggled his entire life as a slave already and even more knowing all this information that wasn’t that much of use to him at the time because he was still a slave. Next, what also gets to me is that fact that he did not know he was a slave at first. He had never met his father, his mother dies and he cannot go to her funeral, and he watches his aunt get beaten while this is all normal to him. This is truly something to be astounded by. Finally what also impresses me is how he learns that slavery doesn’t exist because the masters aren’t better than their slaves, slavery exists because the masters keep their slaves ignorant.
Social Sciences 125
11/12/13
Kronbeck
Response to the Narrative of Frederick Douglas The Narrative of Frederick Douglas was a very inspiring, yet a shocking story that would impact anyone truly who reads it carefully and pays attention to the meaning of the story. While reading this novel, I was totally devastated and shocked at the treatment of slaves and I was also shocked to notice that the masters had no sympathy or compassion. However, this slave Frederick Douglas was a very smart slave who learned and suffered along the way to obtaining his freedom. Something that I find extremely interesting is despite his treatment and the things he observed and experienced, he was still able to overcome his life as a slave, earned his freedom, and on top of that he became an intelligent man who wrote his own experience as a slave. This is truly stunning due to the fact that slaves got treated so poorly and they had no education, yet this man was able to gain his freedom and his education in spite of the adversaries that he faced. Another approach would be that as he learned and educated himself more, he also suffered more because as he kept learning things about the things he wasn’t allowed to do and the way white men were treated better than him, he was still a slave and this caused him great pain and agony within his mind. He struggled his entire life as a slave already and even more knowing all this information that wasn’t that much of use to him at the time because he was still a slave. Next, what also gets to me is that fact that he did not know he was a slave at first. He had never met his father, his mother dies and he cannot go to her funeral, and he watches his aunt get beaten while this is all normal to him. This is truly something to be astounded by. Finally what also impresses me is how he learns that slavery doesn’t exist because the masters aren’t better than their slaves, slavery exists because the masters keep their slaves ignorant.