The book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave is a powerful reminder of the impact the institution of slavery had on American life, especially during its twilight years in the mid-1800s. Douglass is often very frank about his and others" experiences, going into graphic detail in order to convey the seriousness of his message: "My feet have been so cracked with the frost, that the pen with which I am writing might be laid in the gashes." (pg. 72). Because of this graphic nature, and because of the raw emotion that comes through in Douglass" writing, this book can be difficult to endure, but both of these were done in the interest of pointing out the cruelty and inhumanity of slavery; in essence, Douglass had to shock his readers in order to make them sit up and pay attention.
Douglass" dehumanizing starts very early on, when he is separated shortly after birth from his natural mother. As he is only able to see her less than half a dozen times in his life, and even then only when she comes at night, when she dies, he "received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger." (pg. 49). Slave children were often removed from their immediate family, perhaps, in effect, to destroy those bonds between mother and child and prevent any kind of cohesive group that could form together and rebel; it could also be that the masters simply did not feel that the bonds of family were necessary among slaves after all, most slaveholders saw their slaves as little more than animals that happened to be able to speak. While Douglass makes remarks from time to time about a certain Uncle or Aunt throughout the book, one gets the feeling that he is speaking of an informal bond, established more in the interest of filling in the gaps in his otherwise empty family life, rather than talking about actual blood relations.
