Kent Thai

Dr. Jenel Cope

History 1700

Primary Source Final Paper

The document I read for my primary source was Narrative of the Life of

Frederick Douglass An American Slave. The author was himself and was published in

1845. This was a narrative of his life as a slave and his personal experiences living

during the time, this would be considered his diary. He was a black male who had

escaped from a southern prison-house of bondage. This was a short anecdote from

the beginning of the book of a man who had been acquainted with Frederick Douglas at

an antislavery convention in Nantucket, in August, 1841. He describes Frederick speech

as emotionally powerful it had moved the crowds from the bottom of their hearts. My

thesis is that he wanted to inform the people of the horrors of slavery and how he had

endured it firsthand, he wanted freedom from slavery so that they could too experience

life just like everyone else has.

During the era Frederick lived was when slavery was seen as normal thing to the

people living in the United States. Some would even boast about how they had inflicted

torture onto their slaves like it wasnt wrong to whip another human being. It was then

the Civil War started, to Frederick the war was a new hope for him as it was for many

slaves. The Civil War where Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation

Proclamation to free slaves in the North and later to free all the slaves. This was the first
step in abolishing slavery which Douglass had taken part in. With the Civil War having

two primary goals of reuniting the union and abolishing slavery. To Frederick he had

seen the Civil War as a moral crusade against slavery. He participated as an abolitionist

activist by participating in national anti slavery conventions and fighting against people

fought for slavery.

Fredericks intentions were to inform the people of the prejudice that the people

have been ignorant about, slavery. They were seen as property but the injustice was

that they were human just like the owners were, but they were treated as belongings

and nothing more. They were mutilated, branded, and even killed without a thought.

They couldnt even have essentials of life such as food or clothing. This was described

as annihilation of all rights of humanity, by Douglas.

Fredericks story began in Teuckahoe, near Hillborough in Maryland where he

was born. Unfortunately it may not be accurate when he was born since he himself

doesnt know his age or seen records of his birth. Frederick says it was true for all

slaves since every slave he met could not tell their birthday. This was the wish of their

masters he said, for them to remain ignorant. He compared himself to the other white

children who knew of their birthdays but he wasnt allowed to know such information.

His mother was Harriet Bailey and from rumors he heard that his father was a white

man, but to him they were nothing rumors with no facts to prove it or could he prove it.

He had been separated from her since birth and only seen her about 4-5 times in his

life. She lived about 12 miles away from home and worked for Mr. Stewart. She had

visited him to help him get to sleep. She had died when he was around 7 years of age.
He wasnt even allowed to see her mother when she died. He describes his emotions as

he received the news as same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a

stranger.

He has had 2 masters in his whole life, the first was Anthony. He had owned

about 3 farms and 30 slaves. He had an overseer known as Mr. Plummer, he was

described as a drunkard, profane swearer, and a savage monster. His firsthand

experience at slavery began when he had seen his Aunt whipped. As a child he

described the incident in great detail. His master known as Lloyds Ned had done the

whipping. She was taken to the kitchen and stripped from the neck to waist leaving her

completely naked. He had commanded her to cross her hands and tied them with a

rope tightly. He brought her under a large hook in a joist. There he tied her hands to the

hook. He remembered the words his master yelled, Ill learn you how to disobey my

orders! There he began whipping her, Frederick was so terrified that he had hid inside

a closet and not dare come out until it was over. He had believed it would be him next.

He thought it was the entrance ot the hell of slavery, and he was about to pass through

that gate.

This was only one chapter of his narrative of what he first experienced known as

slavery. The first part of his narrative was just him describing his early stages of his

childhood. Slavery had taken away everything from the slaves, not just their rights, not

just their blood, but everything that made them human. You can see from several

examples of his narrative as a child, he wasnt allowed to know his own age or birthday.

It continues to worsen as he describes his mother's relationship, he had seen her 4-5
times in his life and they were for a quick instant. His owners he described as monsters

and inhumane due to their horrific actions. The first he had experienced was the

suffering his Aunt had endured from his first master. The owners were described as

taking pleasure from the whipping especially Mr. Plummer who was the overseer,

Frederick noted that it took incredible barbarity to be such a person. He had said I

have known him to cut and slash the womens heads so horribly, that even master

would be enraged at his cruelty, and would threaten to whip him if he did not mind

himself. Master however, was not a humane slaveholder.

The life during the United States during this time seemed to sounds like hell

itself. The people who were slave owners committed acts so horrible they hardly

sounded even human. The life for the whites seemed to have no problems but for the

slaves their life was literally hell. You can see it was for them just from one event

Frederick described which was when his Aunt was whipped by his master. She had

been whipped for just the pleasure of her screams and then whipped to be silenced.

The slaves were victims of inhumane period and it was the flame that started the fire.

His story of his emotional and powerful narrative gave light into just how horribly being a

slave was.

His dedication was to let people know of how horrible the slavery was which is

why his narrative had been published. He had been seen as a moving speaker when he

went to the antislavery convention to speak. The people in the room described his
presence as powerful and emotional. They said that they had never have had hated

slavery more than when Frederick told them about his stories.

I believe this document was written to help Frederick tell about his story and also

help him release the horrors he had seen. This would have definitely caused any

regular person some mental issues. He wanted people to understand that slaves didnt

deserve the mistreatment they had. He wanted people to know that slaves were people

and deserved to be treated as people. He just wanted them to be human like everyone

else. They were deprived of not their rights but worst of all to be allowed to be human.

Salt was added to the wound since many saw it as the normal and continued with the

horrendous practices. To him he could hardly believe the slave owners were even

human. I believe this document survived because not only his will but the will of the

slaves needed the people to understand what they had been going through. They

needed their stories out there to help end slavery. His purpose was so that slavery

would end and the slaves could become human once again so that they too could

pursuit the happiness of life.