Book Review on the life of Fredrick Douglass.
Frederick Douglass is often seen as the most prominent African- American orator, journalist, and anti-slavery leader of the nineteenth century. Born in Tuckahoe, Maryland (1819?), Frederick Douglass began his journey into a life of slavery. .
He was born to Harriet Bailey, a slave, and believed to have been fathered by his master. Douglass was never able to prove that his master was his father, he only assumed because his skin was so light compared with his mother's. Slave children fathered by their master were often given special treatment. The children were often sent away so as not to be punished by the master's wife for his infidelity and so the master would never have to punish his own son. Frederick soon experienced the true cruelty of slavery. He witnessed his own Aunt's beating . He was treated as an animal having to eat out of a trough with the other children and never having a filling meal. He was often half naked without shoes and trousers in the winter. Not beds nor blankets were provided. Thus the harsh life of a slave.
As Douglass matures and is sent to live with Mr. Hugh and Mrs. Sophia Auld in Baltimore. Here is the beginning of Douglass's way to freedom. Frederick takes notice of the different way city people treat him he always has enough to eat and a lot more free time. Sophia Auld begins to teach Douglass how to read and is caught by her husband who puts an end to it. He said, "if you give a nigger an inch he will take an ell- and continued with "learning would spoil the best nigger in the world."" These words heard by Frederick were the driving force for his education. From this point on he knew his freedom would come through education. Over the next seven years while in Baltimore, Frederick would use young schoolboys to teach him how to read and write. He would often challenge boys to a writing contests to learn how to write.
