Fredrick Douglas

            The thing that really amazed me the most about what I have read thus far is how poorly the slaves were really treated. I have heard many stories before about how slaves were beat, but I never really heard to what extent. Throughout the first ten chapters of this book it talks about how slaves were beat to near death many, many times.
             For example, just when the book starts in the very first chapter Fredrick Douglas talks about his very first experience of seeing someone getting beaten. He saw his Aunt Hester get beat on her naked body to the point where she was totally torn up and bloody.
             Another thing that shows how bad they treated them, is when in the second or third chapter Fredrick Douglas talks about how if the master caught anybody with tar on them they would beat them horribly for supposedly trying to steal fruit.
             An additional thing that truly amazed me is that they kept all of the slaves stupid. They would not them learn to read or write. If they would catch someone teaching someone to read or write they would beat them profusely.
             This book has truly opened up my eyes to how things were back in the times of slavery. I always knew that slavery was a bad thing, but I never really realized that the slaves were treated that maliciously. They were not even treated like human beings, but more like animals.