In the book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an autobiography that .
He wrote to express the many hard trials he experienced. Born as a .
slave and died as a free man, but he also became a well-known abolitionist leaders. .
This book was important to him because most of his life he didn't know to read and .
write. He symbolizes the experiences slaves went through every day just to survive.
Slaves were not happy and they were not allowed to show emotion. But slaves .
used songs and lyrics to express the way they felt. Singing was the one way slaves could .
relieve their sadness and fear but slave owners thought it was them rejoicing. Douglass .
states, "They would sometimes sing the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous .
tone, and the most rapturous sentiment in the most pathetic tone." (Douglass 29) .
Slave owners knew slaves were valuable but they felt slaves were nothing but a .
slave. They weren't going to give their slaves adequate food or clothing because to them .
slaves were worthless. Even Douglass experiences the loss of food. When one of his slave .
masters didn't give him enough to live off. Douglass says, " The rule is, no matter how .
coarse the food, only let there be enough of it." (Douglass 63) Douglass only looked at .
this as just an act of meanness. But many slave owners felt differently.
Slaves rarely knew anything about their family, especially Douglass. He was never .
allowed to have a relationship with his mother. His mom eventually died when he was .
seven and he believed that his white slave master was his father. Which was common to .
Watkins 2.
have mixed sexual relations between slave women and white masters. Masters looked at .
slave families as a way of allowing slaves to develop a unique sense of self. Which was a .
major threat to the slave owner. For they felt they were losing control on power. .
Throughout the rough times Douglass was losing faith in the idea of family. .