The Life of Frederick Douglass | The Life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was born in February 1818 in his grandmother's cabin. His mother was Harriet Bailey a slave owned by Aaron Anthony. The last time he saw his mother was when he was one year old. He never knew his father. The only thing he knew about him was that he was a white man. This report will be about the worst things about slavery in the eyes of Frederick Douglass.

As a child Frederick wondered about his age. The white children could tell their ages. He did not understand why he should be deprived of not having the privilege to know his age. It was considered improper, important and evidence of a restless spirit to ask any questions about yourself to the master. Black children were taken from their mothers at the age of 12 months. The old woman then raised them. Frederick believed they were separated from their parents at such a young age to destroy the affection between a mother and a child.

Frederick remembers one the first time he seen slavery at its worst. His aunt went out with a young man one night when she was not supposed to and she was caught. The master striped her down from her neck down to he waist, and tied her hands behind her back. The master made her bend over while yelling at her and whipped her till blood ran down her back. Frederick witnessed this as he was hiding in the near by closet.

Frederick talks about a man named Mr. Gore. He served colonel Lloyd as an overseer at one of the outer farms. He had proved himself worthy of the high station of overseers upon the great house farm. Frederick describes him as proud, cruel, artful, and ambitious. Mr. Gore was the most dreaded overseer by the slaves. He's presents were painful and he flashed confusion and when his voice was herd their was horror and trembling among the slaves. He committed the most grossest and most savage punishments, to the slaves. Their was a slave named Demby whom was getting punished, he was whipped a few times then ran and jumped in to the creek bed. Mr. Gore gave him three chances to get out of the creek. Demby did not budge each time he was told to get out. So gore took his gun out and shot him in the head. These incidents made the other slaves fear him more.

According to Frederick another thing that was bad about being a slave was the fact that they did not receive enough food to eat. At one time Frederick and three other slaves were only allowed less than half a bushel of corn meal per week, and very little else of meat of vegetables. He says that not giving a slave enough to eat is regarded as the most aggravated development of meanness among slaveholders. The rule is no matter how course the food is its ok as long as there is enough of it. That is he slave theory in Maryland.

Mr. Covey was one of Frederick's masters that he lived with for one year. Under this master was the first time he had been a field hand. Mr. Covey worked his slaves very hard. They worked from sun up to sun down, and they only had five minutes to eat at meal times. They worked every hard at this farm but they were given plenty of food to eat. Frederick received one of his most sever whippings from covey. Frederick explains that he had to take a team of oxen into the woods to gather a load of wood, and it was his first time driving oxen and he had no knowledge of how to so it. When he got to the woods the oxen got out of hand and tipped the cart over tangling themselves in the thicket. He got the cart back up and the oxen untangled. When he returned to the farm he explained to the master what had happened. Covey took him back to the woods and whipped him with a tree limb until blood ran down his back. It left ridges on his back the size of his little finger.

Living with covey was clearly the time Frederick experienced slavery. Another dispute came about between Frederick and covey it was a hot day working out in the field. Frederick got heat stroke and became sick and could no longer work that day. Falling to the ground, Covey kicked him and gave him a blow to the head with a hickey stick, telling him to get up, but Frederick couldn't move. Covey walked away. So Frederick ran to the woods to his old master for protection. Frederick was in fear of his life, but was still sent back to live with Covey. When Frederick returned, he got in to a fight with Covey. Frederick didn't resist the beating. He defended himself against Covey and Frederick said, "This was the turning point in his career as a slave."

Frederick planned an escape with a few of the other slaves they planned it for a few weeks. On the day of the escape, some men came to the house and the slaves to jail. Some how the word got out that they were going to escape that night. After Frederick was released by his old master. He went to work at a shipyard where he received a sever beating by the white workers, because he stood up for himself.

Frederick had now learned skills as being a caulker. He made fifty cents a day that was rightfully his. The money was taken away from him each time he would go home to his master's house. He was still a slave even though things were getting easier in his life.

In my eyes Frederick Douglass is a very strong willed man. He lived a life of physical and mental abuse. To me I feel that the worst thing about slavery he went though was seeing other men having the right to freedom. It was hard for him to understand that another man had the rights to his life, by making his on decisions and telling him what to do, when and how they wanted it to be done. I have great respect for this man, to manage to live a life in such hard times. I'm sure Frederick Douglass was an inspiration to many other slaves, and many people who read his book.