Often times he had to eat mush with the other children. A trough would be placed on the ground when it was time to eat, and the children would have to eat with either their broken oyster shells, or their hands. The biggest kid got to eat the most. It was a fight to survive. Douglass also spoke of beatings, whether it was first hand, or whether he witnessed them. Sometimes he saw his masters taking great pleasure in whipping a slave, or beating a slave with a hickory stick. He saw people beat so bad, the blood ran for a half hour at a time, leaving large welts and scars. He also talked about the blood curdling screams he heard when people were beaten. He watched his aunt get a horrible beating. One of his masters, Master Andrew stomped on Fredericks little brother until blood came from his eyes and ears. Other times slaves were killed. One time a friend of Douglass was getting whipped and then decided to jump into a creek so he wouldn't get hit anymore. Mr. Gore gave him the count of three to get out. He didn't, so Mr. Gore raised his gun and shot the poor man in the head. The slave who was shot didn't even belong to Mr. Gore. He was just watching him. The situation is still that severe. .
Other than the beatings, and the lack of rights, slaves still had to put up with "mind games" that "proved to slaves that they could never really make it if they ran away to freedom." One thing is that slaves couldn't trust anyone. Some masters hired spies to see what slaves thought of them, or to hear about any plans to run away. Other times slaves would just do it to get rewarded by their master. No matter how much you behaved, or how close to freedom you think you were, you were always reminded that you were a slave. Douglass" mistress started to teach him how to read and spell. After his master discovered this, he was no longer allowed this. Just as soon as he started making progress, he was stopped, even though he secretly continued to teach himself.