Nora OKeefe

January 29, 2017

American Slavery Essay

Slavery in America started in the early 17th century and continued on

for the next 250 years by the colonies and states. The Narrative of the Life of

Fredrick Douglas is a story written in the eyes of slave. It is told in great

detail of the pain and hardships for an African American slave between 1818

and 1895. Fredrick Douglas tells graphic descriptions and horrifying

experiences of his childhood and being a slave as well as the dramatic

escape to the North to freedom. The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas

portrays American slavery using setting, characters and symbols as it is told

by vivid descriptions and storytelling power.

First, the characters play a critical role in portraying American slavery

in the book. Each character represents the traits of people that were involved

with slavery. Fredrick Douglas is able to tell his extraordinary life story of

being a slave from growing up and living on a plantation, then moving to

Baltimore and back to the plantation and escaping to the North and

becoming free. During this time many different masters owned slaved and

treated them all differently. Mr. Gore and Mr. Covey were cruel masters to

Fredrick and several other slaves. They whipped and beat each of their

slaves. A slave named Demby on the plantation with Fredrick was in the

creek refusing to come out and Mr. Gore told him that he would give him

three calls and if he didnt come out by the third call he would shoot him. By

the end of the three calls Demby did not move and Mr. Gore then, without
consultation or deliberation with any one, not even giving Demby an

additional call, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his

standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more (Douglas, 14).

This quote represents the mean and cruel mentality of some of the masters.

However, Mr. Auld one of Fredricks masters in Baltimore was very different

in how he treated his slaves as he did not beat them. Along with his wife who

taught Fredrick the alphabet and how to read. The slaves that Fredrick lived

with also helped tell the story of American Slavery as they try to figure out a

way to get to the North and become free. The slaves along with Fredrick

fought back to try and gain their freedom. Each character helped to tell the

tale of American slavery.

American Slavery is shown immensely with the help of the setting of

the book. The plantation is a hard and unpleasant place to live. Many slaves

are put into a house where they have to sleep on the floor. There were no

beds given the slaves, unless one coarse blanket be considered such and

none but the men and women had these (Douglas, 6). When Fredrick moved

to Baltimore he was surprised by how well he was treated as it was not as

harsh as life on the planation. He had a lot of nice clothes and lived in

masters house, Mr. Auld, with his family. When Fredrick and his slave friends

were brought to jail for suspicions of them escaping the conditions of the jail

were more satisfying than expected. The jail conditions were a lot better than

the plantations since they got a bed and blankets and the jail cells were very
clean. The setting played a large role in representing slavery in American

during the 1800s.

Symbols were shown throughout the book and served as American

Slavery. Slaves not being able to read means that the masters can have

power over the slaves. Once slaves know how to read, the masters lose the

power of the slaves since they can read the newspapers and gain knowledge.

The power of the masters is also shown through the symbol of whipping. It

also symbolizes the sadness and weakness of the slaves. There was a

certain root, which, if I would take some of it with me, carrying it always on

my right side, would render it impossible for Mr. Covey, or any other white

man, to whip me (Douglas, 42). The plant root symbolizes power that the

slaves have and gives them the ability and confidence to fight back. There

were many symbols in the book that represent the hope, weakness and

power depicting American Slavery.

Fredrick Douglas was able to show just how trying American slavery

was by sharing his own experiences in the book, Narrative of the Life of

Fredrick Douglas. Fredrick was capable of showing from his perspective what

life was like for a slave through his autobiography. The book portrays that

American slavery was a difficult time in American history.