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Frederick Douglass Final Essay

The whip lowers swiftly, onto the back of the slave. A scream erupts, as blood gushes

from the wound. The master raises his hand for another lash. Imagine yourself as the slave.

Being mercilessly whipped by your master for a simple mistake you made. This type of

treatment, along with many others, occurred every day to slaves in the south. In the novel, The

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the slaves are subjected to multiple types of

oppression. Frederick Douglass suffered from intellectual oppression the most because he had

little to no relationship with his family members, he was unaware of the concept of time, and he

was subjected to brutal whippings.

After a slave has a child, the baby is taken from them within a few months. The child is

separated from its mother and most of its family; taken to a different plantation to be taken care

of by an elderly slave that is too fragile to work in the field. Thus, this intellectual oppresses both

the mother and child. The mother is not there to nurture her child and be a role model and the

child is not there to learn from her. Douglass writes, For what this separation is done, I do not

know, unless it be to hinder development of the childs affection toward its mother, and to blunt

and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. This is the inevitable result,

(Douglass 20). Douglass seldom saw his mother and thus was unable to learn his heritage and

connect with other family members. Only on a rare occasion would his mother make the twelve

mile journey to visit Frederick. His mother later died but he showed little emotion for he never

developed a close relationship with her. The author writes, My mother was dead, my

grandmother lived far off, so that I seldom saw her. I had two sisters and one brother, that lived

in the same house with me; but the early separation of us from our mother had well nigh blotted

the fact of our relationship from our memories, (Douglass 44). Even though Frederick lived
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with his siblings, he did not have any relations with them. They all were separated from their

mother and had no memory of being related. This sad reality was quite common throughout the

South and only added to the oppression the slaves had to endure.

Another type of intellectual oppression that Frederick was faced with was the fact that he

had no sense of time until he was a lot older. Slaves could only tell time based on harvest times

and the seasons. Douglass states, I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen

any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages

as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their

slaves thus ignorant, (Douglass 19). Frederick suggests slave masters deprive their slaves of

time so that the slaves are uninformed. The masters did not want their slaves to be educated,

because then they could become organized. Since slaves did not know their date of birth, a sense

of individuality was taken away from them. Douglass writes, I have now reached a period of my

life when I can give dates, (Douglass 64). After being able to record dates, Frederick became

more organized and was able to formulate a plan to escape slavery. This sparked his interest for

knowledge so he learned how to read and write which helped him immensely when escaping his

captivity.

The whippings that slave masters gave to their slaves were just another form of

intellectual oppression the slaves underwent. If a slave did not do what their master said, they

would most likely be whipped. Whipping not only hurt the slaves physically but mentally too.

When Frederick was a child, his Aunt Hester was brutally whipped. The author writes, I was so

terrified and horror stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet, and dared not venture out

till long after the bloody transaction was over, (Douglass 24). Frederick was scarred after

witnessing his aunt being whipped. This exemplifies how whipping a slave not only hurt the
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victim but also others who were witnesses. The first time Frederick was whipped was while he

lived with Mr. Covey. Douglass states, Upon this he rushed at me with the fierceness of a tiger,

tore off my clothes, and lashed me till he had worn out his switches, cutting me so savagely as to

leave the marks visible for a long time, (Douglass 71). This was the first time that Frederick was

whipped and he was whipped multiple other times. Fredericks state of mind changed quite a bit

while at Mr. Coveys. Whippings usually tore the slaves apart both physically and mentally, but

the opposite occurred to Frederick. Frederick was built up and inspired by the whippings to do

something about his situation. He was encouraged to put an end to the whippings and stand up

for himself by standing up to Mr. Covey.

During the 1800s, slaves were oppressed in a countless number of ways, but they were

effected intellectually the most. They had little to no relations with family members which made

day to day life even harder. Slaves had no sense of time which limited their intellect. They also

suffered from brutal whippings which effected them physically and mentally. All of these

dehumanizing factors led to an extremely harsh and depressing lifestyle which only added to the

oppression the slaves suffered.