Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass Essay

Come, saints and sinners, hear me tell how pious priests whip Jack and Nell. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was published in 1845 by Frederick Douglass. The book is his autobiography of his life as a slave. Douglasss autobiography depicts the brutality of slavery and the violence to which slaves were subjected to.

Violence was an everyday occurrence on plantations; slaves would be whipped for disobeying orders, not working fast enough, and some time they were whipped for no reason at all. Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes.he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood came dripping to the floor. In this quote Aunt Hester is being whipped for disobeying Captain Anthonys orders. He told her not to go out at night, and not to let him catch her in the company of other men that were paying attention to her. The violence against slaves was very gory.

There are many instances where people kill slaves and nothing is done about it. Mr. Gore told him that he would give him three calls, and that if he did not come out at the third call, he would shoot him. Mr. Gore shot Demby and nothing was done about it. Other instances of slaves being killed were Mr. Thomas Lanman, who killed two slaves, one with a hatchet. Another was Mrs. Hicks who broke a sixteen year old girls nose and breastbone killing because she was slow to move. And Mr. Beal Bondly who shot one of Colonel Lloyds slaves for accidently wandering onto his property. These are all instances where slaves were killed and nothing was done about it.

The brutality of slavery had a devastating effect of slaves. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute! Douglass was sent to live with Mr. Covey for a year to be broken, and in this quote Mr. Covey has succeeded. The breaking of a salve broke their spirits leaving no hope thus making them manageable. The brutality of slavery transformed men into brutes.

Douglasss autobiography provides many examples of the brutality of slavery as depicted through the violence slaves endured at the hands of their oppressors. Slavery was a harsh and cruel system that oppressed human beings with brutality and violence. Frederick Douglass captures the essence of this perfectly in his narrative with vivid recounts from his life as a slave.