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Name: Course: Instructor: Date: Frederick Douglass Narrative Frederick’s narrative portrays the suffering slaves went through and how their masters treated them badly. Most of the slaves don’t know when and where they were born, but Douglass thinks that he was born to a slave mother Harriet Bailey in 1817. The mother worked in the field as hands woman and was not allowed to see him often. The mother died when he was seven years old. His father was a slave master, Captain Anthony. Douglass narrates that most of the slaves were of mixed race as result of raping of black women slaves by the white masters. The slaves were not allowed to admire one another, and they would face brutal beating if found by the masters who wanted to own all the women. This behavior brings the thought that these masters move to rape the women was a strategy to increase the number of slaves in their fields. The slaves were also not told their ages and parentage so that they were kept ignorant of their identities. This could reduce the slaves to a level that they did not know themselves and could not even think of escaping. The master also prevented the slaves from developing family bonds by separating the children from their mothers. According to Douglass, slavery was more of torture to the blacks, in most fields the whites were the masters. The slaves were expected to be disciplined, breaking the rules of the plantation, being unruly or being caught trying to escape would lead to being whipped and sold to the slave traders in Baltimore. They worked for long hours and did not even get enough sleep. Douglass links his childhood with witnessing the brutal treatment offered to the slaves. He
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