Fredrick Douglass Essay -- essays research papers

After reading the Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave, I have received a better understanding of the life of a slave. Douglass has a way of explaining the trials and tribulations of a slave, which makes the reader, look at the situations in a different perspective. Douglass' narrative was originally oral and he eventually sat down and wrote it as story of events of that time during his life. I believe he wrote it not just to tell his story but for other abolitionists of the time to actually feel what the slaves went through.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Douglass begins his narrative in a very original way. He does not jump into the accounts of his life. But he begins very passive and describes the overseers in a detailed manner. He compares one of his slave masters, Mr. Covey, to a horse breaker. A horse breaker trains horses to be obedient and this is exactly what Mr. Covey does, he trains slaves in a similar way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The audience Douglass is trying to appeal to are the other abolitionists who he wants to convince that these masters were wrong for their treatment of other human beings. The other abolitionists consist mainly of white, middle-class individuals, usually women. They were the most literate people of the time, therefore they could read this story and understand where Douglass was coming from. He did not go into gruesome details because the women of that time could not handle the gory descriptions of the beatin...