Frederick Douglas

            The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass himself, is an autobiographical genre that travels through years of the oppressive institute of slavery. Douglass gives insight about the early stages of his life, all the way up until the time that he wrote the Narrative in an effort to show the ignorance, callousness, and cruelty that the white slave-holders had towards their black slaves. Douglass's experiences may have been a bit more lenient in some respects because he was mixed and, therefore, treated with a little more compassion because his color was closer to the white hierarchical color structure. However, he still used his experiences and remembrances to create his Narrative and use it as a tool to help abolish slavery.
             In the first section of the autobiography, Douglass notes instances of slave oppression that he experiences and witnesses in his life. The first of such experiences that Douglass discusses is the relationship that he had with his mother. He was separated from his mother at birth and taken to live on a different plantation. However, his mother worked all day and would occasionally travel all night to spend time with Douglass until she passed away when he was seven.
             Douglass later notes that the first brutality that he witnessed being done to another slave was when his Aunt Hester was beater by her slave master because she was visiting a young boy on another plantation. Later on in the autobiography, Douglass has his second revelation at Captain Auld's plantation. There, he begins to learn how to read from Sophia Auld until Mr. Auld tells her to cease her lessons with him. At this point, Douglass sees the importance of education and tries to further educate himself by using alternate methods.
             Douglass goes on to tell about how he tricks young white schoolboys to teach him how to read. He then used the information that he learned, to try to educate other slaves that he felt had a desire to learn too.