Try to paraphrase the “big picture” in your language

My Bondage and My Freedom is Frederick Douglass’ rendition of his life story. Douglass was born into slavery around the year 1817. (Records weren’t kept among most slaves, so this is Douglass’ estimate of his birth year.) Douglass lived the first few years of his life with his grandparents a few miles away from his owner’s plantation. The slave children lived with their grandparents until the age of seven or so, when they went to work for the master. Douglass’ master, Col. Edward Lloyd, owned approximately 1000 slaves. It was impossible for one man to manage each and every one of his slaves, so Lloyd had overseers, each of which had control of a portion of the slaves. Since Douglass was only a boy, and a young one at that, he worked in the house, rather than in the fields.

In this novel, Douglass described his life on the plantation and the many cruelties he saw. Some overseers were crueler than others, but they all had a cruelty to them. Douglass described times he’d seen people getting beaten for doing nothing that deserved punishment. He described the horrendous living conditions on the plantation, the small amounts of food they were given, the scanty clothing they were given, the whole works. After a few years, Douglass was sent to live with a relative of Lloyd’s. This family treated Douglass much better. There, Douglass learned to read and write. Eventually, he was sent off to live with other masters, most of whom treated him poorly. Since he “finally” was considered capable of fieldwork, these other masters required much hard labor out of him. Douglass went through many struggles with masters.

Ever since Douglass began to read, he got a hold of books that talked about the fact that all people, regardless of race, had certain rights. He realized the slaves, even when treated poorly, were still enslaved, and it was his goal to do something about that. He eventually ran away successfully, got married, got a job, etc., and then began to speak out against slavery. He told all the details of his enslavement and the horrors associated with it. In all, Douglass wrote three autobiographies, one of which is the one I selected to read.

This was a great book, describing the horrors of slavery and Douglass’ deep desire to do something about them. It’s a great shame that most people either haven’t heard of Frederick Douglass or don’t really know much about him. This was an excellent novel and made me think a lot about slavery and the horrors of it.

Quote a certain passage that strikes a nerve and discuss it

On page 60, Douglass writes, “There is not, beneath the sky, an enemy to filial affection so destructive as slavery. It has made my brothers and sisters strangers to me; it converted the mother that bore me, into a myth; it shrouded my father in mystery, and left me without an intelligible beginning in the world.” Douglass made this statement early on in the novel, when describing how he had to leave his grandparents, who had been caring for him, to go work for the master. Normally, when people think of slavery, the first thought that comes to their mind, well at least for me, is black people being mistreated. Few people realize all the horrors of slavery and even the extent of mistreatment. I’ve always thought of slavery as a bad thing, and I’ve always been taught that the slaves were whipped and so forth. This book, though, gave me a different outlook on slavery. Yes, the slaves were beaten, but in Douglass’ case, they were beaten and abused more harshly than any description I’ve heard in school. Douglass, being a slave at one time himself, was able to explain very in depth details of his life as a slave. He dedicated about 300 pages of the book to describing his enslavement and the horrors associated with slavery.

Back to the quote, though. As I mentioned, there is more to slavery than just mistreatment. As this quote shows, slavery broke up families. My parents have always emphasized the importance of family. Every night, we read the Bible as a family. We’ve always been quite family-oriented. Many families today, though, don’t see each other much. Similarly, Douglass didn’t see his family much. Douglass was unsure of who his father was – many times, the master would have children with the slave women, so as to increase the work force without investing money into it. Other times, men would be sent away to other plantations. Furthermore, Douglass’ mother died when he was eight or nine years old. The slaves didn’t have the family relationships that are important in people’s lives. Although some people think that the slaves were all one big family, this wasn’t the case. Douglass always felt alone, like there was no one out there to care for him and help him. As my parents have told me many times, the world (today) is cruel and family members always should be there for each other. Douglass was in an even worse situation and he had no one to depend on. When he was 13, though, Douglass trusted Jesus as his Savior. This gave him TRUE family – he was in God’s family and God would always be there for him. Douglass may not have had much of an earthy family growing up, but he had the best family possible, spiritually.

State questions the material left you with

Now that I’m done reading the book, most questions that came up while reading were answered. Each event in Douglass’ life made me curious as to what would happen next. There was one point at which Douglass was planning to run away, but his plans were discovered. That made me curious as to what would happen next – I figured he’d be sent way down south, as he thought he would. To my surprise, though, Douglass’ master had mercy on him and kept him.

Then, since I knew that Douglass escaped eventually, I wondered how exactly he would escape, and what he would go through to escape. I was disappointed when Douglass didn’t explain exactly how he escaped. He explained that, at the time of writing the book, slavery was still in place and many slaves were still looking for ways to escape. Had Douglass described the method he used to escape and any persons aiding him, he could have put people’s lives in danger and made it more difficult for those slaves desiring to escape to carry out their plan. If Douglass had described those who aided him and the route he took to freedom, slaveholders, after reading the book, would know where to look for their slaves in the event that they ran away. Now, 160 or so years after Douglass’ escape, it would do no harm to describe Douglass’ route, but he is no longer alive to tell us. I believe he did mention, though, that he entrusted a few people with his route of escape. It would be interesting to know how exactly Douglass escaped and to even visit any stops he may have made on the Underground Railroad.

Another question lingering in my mind is the question of Douglass’ family. Douglass wrote that after arriving in the north, he was married to someone whom he had planned to marry. It was so soon after arriving north that he had to have planned it before he escaped. Either that, or I missed a fine detail explaining the situation. Regardless, Douglass briefly mentioned his wife only a few times. I think it would be interesting to know more about his wife and her story of freedom (had she been a slave at one time) and also, I’d like to know if Douglass had any children. If he did have children, I’d like to know if they continued in his footsteps, standing out against slavery.

Lastly, Douglass wrote the book in 1855 and died in 1895. I’d like to know an overview of those 40 years of his life. I imagine that Douglass accomplished much during that time and it would be interesting to know more of it.

Express wonder and appreciation

First of all, this was a really great book. Douglass did a great job writing the book, explaining the details of his life. Every chapter was filled with all sorts of details describing the events occurring in his life at a certain time. Douglass wrote with a passion – he had been born into a horrible life of slavery and, at the time he wrote the book, slavery had not been repealed. Douglass’ passion came from the impact of the atrocities committed against him and all the other slaves. Despite his background as a slave, Douglass wrote at least as well as any modern author I’ve read. Had I had more time to read the book, I would have liked to read it at a slower pace, in order to absorb all the details even better than I did.

As I mentioned in a previous response, Douglass went into great detail, describing his life as a slave and the horrors associated with being a slave. A couple different times, Douglass gave in-depth descriptions of beatings he witnessed or were committed against him. The first time I read Douglass’ description of a slave being beaten, Jesus’ abuse was brought to my mind. Just as the slaves were punished for doing things they never did, so was Jesus punished for sins he never committed. Jesus was perfect, and yet He lovingly took the world’s sins upon himself and was beaten despite his innocence. The description of the beating the slaves endured made Jesus’ abuse before being hung on the cross more realistic to me. The Bible doesn’t go into as much detail as Douglass does. Douglass’ description of the punishment of the slaves shed new light on Jesus’ death on the cross. There’s a verse in the Bible that says that Jesus went through everything humans go through. I think that’s part of the reason so many slaves were able to turn to God for help in their time of trouble. Slaves are quite well known for their spirituals, as Douglass mentioned about in the novel. The slaves constantly sung songs, crying out to God, asking for help. Many people would argue that God didn’t listen to them because slavery still lasted a while, but there’s a verse that says that God has a reason for everything and that he works out everything for good. I’m not God – I can’t say why he allowed slavery to happen, but we do know that there was a reason, it could be to teach everyone in the United States about prejudice and racism; I don’t know. It was just great to see Douglass stand up for his beliefs in God and acknowledge that He is the one who’s in control, no matter what happens. God is sovereign and those who follow him, though they may have trials, he will turn them to gold.

Make predictions about what might happen next

Now that I’ve read the entire book, it’s a bit difficult to make predictions as to what will happen next. Because of this, I made sure to write down a few predictions as I read. Up through chapter nine or so, Douglass wrote about the first few years of his live as a slave. In chapter 10, Douglass wrote about his being chosen to go be a slave at the house of a relative of his master’s. (It seems that “renting” out slaves was quite a common thing, at least in Douglass’ experience.) Douglass went to his new master’s house. Upon meeting the family, Douglass was quite pleased – they seemed a friendly family and they seemed like they would treat him better than he had been treated. Douglass’ suspicions were right – he was treated quite well, at least for the first few years of his life there. Originally, it had been the wife’s idea to get the slave, but, over time, her husband pressured her into treating him more like slaves were treated at the time. Well anyway, Douglass was quite well off the first few years in the Auld household. He wrote in the novel that he was treated as if one of the family – as if he were the half brother of the boy he was instructed to care for. Mrs. Auld was a very caring person – she read the Bible often and even taught Douglass to read. This is where my predictions started coming in. Once Douglass knew how to read, he started realizing the unfairness in slavery and be began to have a small desire to be free. Douglass used a little foreshadowing here; he said that, had he never gone to the Auld’s, he probably never would have gotten free. I predicted that either Mrs. Auld would help him gain his freedom, or that the experiences there, such as learning to read (and teaching himself to write while there), would contribute to Douglass’ getting free. My prediction ended up correct – the experiences Douglass had at the Auld’s, namely, learning to read, gave him the desire to be free. Learning to read and write made the difference between slavery and freedom for Douglass. Once Douglass was able to read, he read everything he could get his hands on – newspapers, portions of the Bible laying on the ground, etc. Douglass became interested in anything having to do with slavery. For example, he often heard discussions about the abolitionists. He read everything he could to satisfy his thirst for knowledge of slavery and the injustice of it. The injustice in slavery gave Douglass a desire to do something about it, and do something about it is exactly what he did. After becoming a free man, Douglass worked relentlessly against slavery. Had he never learned to read, he never would have gotten the desire to be free, and therefore, would have never become free.

Make connections between it and other things you’ve read, thought or learned

There are many connections that can be made between this book and other things I’ve thought, learned and read in the past. I’ve mentioned a few of these in previous responses. One of these is the connection that can be made between the treatment of Jesus and the treatment of the slaves – both were punished for things they didn’t do. Also, I referred to things I’ve been taught in the past about slavery and how this book really opened things up for me and taught me many details that no one taught me in grade school (or even high school, for that matter), when I learned about slavery.

Another connection that can be made to my life at this current time is the feeling I have that I’m enslaved by school. First of all, I sit in school from 7:45 until 3:15, learning things, in many cases, that are of no interest to me. We have one of the longest school days in the area, probably in the entire country. Then, we’re sent home with loads of homework to be completed for the following day. In addition to those daily assignments, we are given long-term projects that are due a few weeks from the date of being assigned. Often, the daily homework takes up much of the time after school. If it doesn’t take up most or all of my time, I’m either too tired to work on my long-term assignments, or I have other duties required of me to perform. Since I have little time to work on long-term projects during the school week, I am forced to work on them on the weekends, if I want to complete them on time. Normally, I think of the weekend as a time to take a break from school, to relax, etc., but there are few weekends that actually allow for this. It seems that for the past few weekends, I’ve had a project of some sort to work on. The weather has been nice lately and I’d like to enjoy it, but it’s difficult to find time to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather.

This constant concentration on school makes me feel enslaved to it – there are many days where I wake up, get ready for school, go to school, get home from school¸ do the schoolwork assigned for me to work on at home, eat dinner, do more schoolwork, read the Bible as a family, take a shower, and go to bed. School takes over my time, just as the slaveholders forced their slaves to work relentlessly on the plantations. The main reason such a great importance is placed upon school is because some people relate it directly to making a lot of money. People enslave themselves to their desire to make a lot of money and force their beliefs upon the students, requiring them to work relentlessly at school.

Discuss what is similar in your own experience

As I discussed in the previous response, I can see some similarities between the enslavement of blacks in the 19th century and earlier and school. Apart from that, there are few things that I can find similar between Douglass’ life and experiences and my life and experiences. We were raised in completely different environments, under different living conditions, different standards of living, etc. He grew up an enslaved black, while I’m growing up a free white. There was one thing, though, that Douglass mentioned that I’ve experienced and seen in modern times. Douglass described that there was still racism and discrimination in the United States, even in the so-called “free-states.” When residing in Europe, he experienced no such racism, except from Americans who were touring there. Although I’ve never been to Europe, I can see racism even today. The Civil Rights Movement may have gained more freedoms, equalities, and opportunities for blacks, but I really don’t think we have learned from our mistakes. In freshman English, I interviewed a Hispanic student, an Anglo student, and a teacher, to find out what, if any racism exists in our school. I wish I could honestly say that no racism exists in our school today, but, in my opinion, as well as the opinions of the interviewees, it still exists in our school. Although not as obvious as the hate crimes committed against blacks in the 1960s, there are smaller incidences of racism in our school. At times, it can be a seemingly small derogatory comment that starts a large argument between a Hispanic and an Anglo student. Other times, it is just the difference of treatment between Hispanic and Anglo students.

Recently, we were working on a trial for American History class. The head lawyer in my group assigned me to be the lawyer of the two Hispanic students we were to question in the trial for our side. He quickly said that the two Hispanic students wouldn’t do their work, so they wouldn’t really be able to help out our case very much. Although there was some truth to his statement, one of the two Hispanic students tried to find information for our case. She helped the other find information, too. In the end, I ended up doing most of their work for them, but at least they were making some effort to do the work. This is just one of many examples of racism I still see today in the school. I’m sure Hispanic students are more aware of this racism, since they are often the victims of rude comments. As my American History teacher has mentioned, we’re not just supposed to take history and learn the facts, we’re supposed to apply it to today and learn lessons from it. By continuing racism, we’re showing our ignorance to past events in history and our stubbornness to not change.

Agree/Disagree, explain why

While reading this book, I gained much insight into slavery and the evils associated with it. There were many events in the book I devoted much thought to while reading it. One of these thoughts is the topic of slaves fighting back. The first thing I wondered is, “Why didn’t more slaves fight back against their masters?” They could have easily overpowered their masters and gained an advantage over them, and yet the majority of them didn’t. I realize now, from Douglass’ explanation, that the reason slaves didn’t rebel often was because they were beaten severely for just planning to rebel. If they actually did turn on their masters, they were usually hung for all the slaves to see. The masters instilled a fear in the slaves, so that they would not cause problems and would be obedient.

The whole idea of slaves fighting back and running away from one’s master sparked thought in my mind as to the morality of this issue. In the Bible, I Colossians 3:22, it says, “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God.” Another translation uses the word slaves, instead of servants. When reading it in context of the verses around it, it sounds like the Bible is saying that you should obey your masters, regardless of whether you want to or not. It even almost sounds like the slaves, regardless of their masters’ actions toward them, should obey. I think, though, that slavery had a different meaning to it in Bible times. From what I understand, the slaves, although they may have been mistreated once in a while, were treated nothing like the slaves in the United States were treated. There were great atrocities committed against the slaves in the United States and I feel that it was all right for them to leave for freedom. One of Douglass’ reasons for desiring to be free was the realization of the unfairness of slavery – the slaves were property and were sure treated like it. I’m basing my opinion on this, too. I think the slaves in the Bible were treated less like property, and more like people, where as the slaves in the United States weren’t even recognized as humans. Many people didn’t even recognize the free slaves as being human. Although slaves were disobeying their masters by running away and turning on them, I think they have justifiable reason for it. The slaveholders had no right to commit such atrocities against the slaves, for they were people too.

Express likes and dislikes and explain

Despite its length, the book was very enjoyable to read. As I’ve mentioned in many of the previous responses, it really taught me a lot about slavery. Because of the first-hand experience of the author, details normally overlooked were exposed. Douglass explained slavery in ways I’ve never heard it explained. His descriptions of the beatings were very realistic, whereas when they teach the topic of slavery in school, the extent of the beating, more properly called torture, is not portrayed accurately. Douglass’ descriptions of beatings he and other slaves received gave me more of an appreciation for those who fought for the North in the Civil War. It made me realize the necessity for the war, as well as the importance of the Civil Rights Movement 100 or so years later. Douglass explained that all the slaves considered the south bad. He was fairly far north, in Maryland, and the atrocities performed against him sounded terrible. It’s hard to imagine anything much worse than what Douglass described, but it apparently was worse in the south. Even today, there are some in the south who don’t have a problem with slavery. I really liked learning about slavery, from the perspective of a freed slave. It was interesting to see his response to being free and how joyous he was after running away to freedom. It was obvious from Douglass’ appreciation for racial tolerance in Europe that he truly believed freedom is better than bondage.

The majority of the book was about Douglass’ life in bondage, as he rightfully considered it. As I mentioned, this portion of the book revealed much information to me. In the last 70 or so pages, Douglass wrote about his life as a freeman. At first, this part was interesting, seeing Douglass’ response to being free, learning about what he did once becoming free – he got married, traveled to Europe, spoke out against slavery not only in the U.S., but also in Europe, etc. After a while, though, Douglass’ very detailed description of the events during his free life didn’t catch my attention as well. Part of it was that I was nearing the end of the book and I’d spent a lot of time reading it, and I just wanted to finish it. Regardless, I think the main reason I got bored with the last portion of the book is because the topics didn’t have as much interest to me. I’ve learned much more about the Civil Rights Movement than about slavery. The second part of the book had detailed information revolving around the topic of the abolitionist movement, which just isn’t as interesting to me. Overall, though, this was a great book to read and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys learning the very small details of slavery.

Summarize Main Ideas

Throughout this book, there were a few major themes/ideas portrayed, most of which revolve around slavery. The first of these themes/ideas is the neutrality towards slavery. At first, Douglass described his feelings toward slavery as being pretty much neutral. He was born into slavery, he saw all the other blacks bound by slavery, and he expected that his life would end up the same as the slaves around him that he saw. Many of the other slaves, often sang songs of mourning because of their treatment, but many never sought to gain freedom. They, too, felt that slavery was the type of life they would always live, and for many of them, it was.

As Douglass got older and learned to read, he began to see slavery as an evil, a form of oppression, and a great injustice. This is the second major theme/idea in Douglass’ autobiography. From the point he realized slavery was unfair and that blacks were just as good as whites, Douglass had this burning desire to be free. During the rest of his enslavement, Douglass worked toward that goal of being free some day. Although there were many points at which he considered taking his own life and other times when he thought about giving up his goal of being free one day, he was persistent. He eventually got to freedom.

Once he was free, Douglass’ deep desire for freedom and his strong feelings against slavery continued to exist, possibly even stronger than before, once he knew how wonderful freedom was. Douglass worked to speak out against slavery. He couldn’t help but share his story with others. Although he was finally free, his beliefs about slavery were so strong, he had to convince others that slavery was not the only way to live their life. If they looked for that one-day they could be free, and worked and worked at it, they would lead a much better life. Even if they didn’t become free, this optimistic view on life would help them to be happier people. People had to have this hope that they would be free, if they ever actually wanted to gain that freedom.

Douglass showed from his life the main reason the slaves weren’t allowed to learn to read and write – if they knew how to read, they would realize the injustice in slavery, just like Douglass did. It was only once he began to read that he realized the injustice in slavery. Had many other slaves realized the huge injustice, there would have been many more rebelling, and slavery would probably not have been carried out to the extent that it was.

Comment on the construction/organization of the selection

In previous responses, I’ve briefly mentioned the organization of the book. The first 300 pages or so were about Douglass’ life as a slave. The last 70 pages were about Douglass’ life as a free man. The entire book was written in the most logical order for an autobiography, in chronological order. Douglass starts from the time he was a boy. Until the age of 7 or so, Douglass began his life of bondage. Eventually, Douglass ran to freedom. When explaining events in his life, not only does Douglass go in chronological order, but also he describes every event with great detail. This made the book take longer to read than other books. The writing style wasn’t overly complex, but slightly different from the writing style of authors today. Most of the differences in writing were simply because people talked differently in Douglass’ day than they do today. Although this difference in writing slowed down the reading process a bit, I found that Douglass’ in depth descriptions of everything made it necessary to read at a slower pace. There were many times while reading the book that I began to read too quickly and I’d miss a seemingly small detail. It ended up that this apparently small detail was not so small. The high level of detail requires everything to be read carefully and understood, since many other details after that are based on the first details.

Another form of organization Douglass uses, especially in the earlier parts of the book, is one he uses when he describes an event in his life. Many of these times, rather than going in depth about himself, he describes slavery in general, not only the events that he endured. Along the same lines, I noticed that many times (again, early on in the book), Douglass wouldn’t say “I did this” or “this happened to me,” but he would focus more on what happened to slaves in general. In one of the three introductions, the editor includes a letter Douglass wrote to the editor, describing that his reason for writing the book is not to make himself look good, but to expose slavery. At that time, it was very uncommon for slaves to be as knowledgeable as Douglass was. Therefore, another reason Douglass wrote the book was to show that it is possible for a black man to be just as educated, if not more, than white men at the time.

I really liked the way Douglass organized the book. Many times when he could have focused on himself, he focused on slavery in general, which made the book much more enjoyable to read – Douglass didn’t come across as a proud man, but a humble one.

Try to express how it made you feel

Because of the nature of the book, and the topic that Douglass writes about, I felt many things while reading the book. While it was enjoyable to read, hearing the horrors of slavery is not always very easy. At times, I felt sad, because of the things done to Douglass and the other slaves. Other times, especially when Douglass finally got his freedom, I felt a few things. First of all, I felt happy for him. That day he had been waiting for so long had finally come. At the same time, I felt a bit nervous for him. Many slaveholders were known to have gone after their runaway slaves. More times than not, runaway slaves were captured before they got very far. Even if they did get far, as Douglass mentioned, the slaveholders would send people looking for runaway slaves. Douglass described the people hunting for runaway slaves as people who would do anything for a little money. At that time, if a runaway slave went to a free state, he could still be taken back to his master, and his master would most likely punish him for his deed. Douglass also described that in slave states, any white man could ask for a black man’s papers proving his freedom. Often times, these people would rip up the black’s papers, and then sell him right back into slavery. I thought that it was possible that this would happen to Douglass, but I knew that he eventually got free, so I wasn’t too worried about that.

This book, although enjoyable to read, was not always the most relaxing book. There were times when I felt it for Douglass, hoping he wouldn’t get beaten for what he did. One time, Douglass was planning to runaway to the North with a few other slaves, but someone told on them. I felt upset at the person who told on Douglass, and I was worried for him, that he might get sent south, where conditions were supposedly worse. Also, it seemed that Douglass had a really great friendship with the guys with whom he was going to run away. It was sad to see them split up; Douglass never saw them again. At this point where Douglass got arrested, I was nervous for him, because he could get in big trouble for plotting to run away.

I can’t even begin to imagine the happiness Douglass felt when gaining his freedom. A few days ago in American History, we watched a video about political asylum. The video showed a man when he found out he could stay in America. The look in his face had so much gratefulness, and so much joy. I imagine Douglass felt this when he gained his freedom. (In addition to being nervous – he had no clue how to function alone.)

Explore digressions

As I mentioned in a previous response, Douglass often explained things about slavery in general, rather than just about himself. Once in a while, when he explained slavery in general, Douglass got somewhat off-topic. For example, I recall that Douglass wrote about his first experiences with slavery. He wasn’t really beaten severely, but he saw people being beaten. Not only did Douglass mention that people got beaten severely, but he described exactly how they were beaten. Since Douglass at this point was talking about his childhood and he did see people being beaten as a child, this isn’t quite as directly related as it could have been. Although I think the information provided about people being beaten was very informative, the in depth explanation at that point didn’t really fit.

In chapter 14, Douglass described how he had to leave Baltimore to go to St. Michael’s, a town in Maryland. In the third paragraph, Douglass explains that he left Baltimore in 1833. Then, he goes off on a tangent, explaining how he knew it was 1833. Apparently, there was a cholera epidemic in 1833 in Baltimore, as well as a few other things that made Douglass remember the year. He went off explaining what he liked about that year, things of that sort. What he described really had nothing to do with his leaving for St. Michael’s, and yet he includes it. Douglass also explained, “I witnessed this gorgeous spectacle, and was awe-struck. The air seemed filled with bright, descending messengers from the sky. It was about daybreak when I saw this sublime scene.” What this has to do with going to St. Michaels, I really don’t know. Regardless, it was a bit of information Douglass considered important, and it was interesting at the same time.

When Douglass got back on topic, he wrote, “But, to my story.” There were many other times when Douglass got off track and described something he enjoyed or thought interesting, and then went back to what he had been talking about. This method of including these extra details is different than I have ever seen. It appears as if Douglass was writing the story, and then he included some extra detail. Then, it seems like he realized that he had gotten off topic and then he wrote “But, to my story.” I just found it interesting that Douglass didn’t edit these digressions out, but he left them in there, as well as the short sentence that shows he realized he got off topic.

What matters to the author?

One major thing that matters to Douglass is freedom. From the time Douglass learned to read, and then read an article explaining the injustice in slavery, he wanted to be free. He believed that God would help lead him to freedom some day. Douglass wasn’t happy with the situation he was in, and I can’t blame him for that. He probably held up a lot better than I would have, had I been in that situation. Douglass’ dissatisfaction with slavery created a driving force inside him – one that led him to work toward freedom. There was one point, fairly near the time when Douglass finally ran away, when he made an agreement with his master that he would pay him nine dollars a week, if he was allowed to go find work himself. Any extra money, Douglass would be able to keep for himself. He was hoping to save up enough money to buy his way out of slavery. Douglass saw this somewhat as freedom – he stayed at his master’s house, paid him nine dollars a week, and was able to choose where he worked and keep some of the profits. Douglass didn’t really think he was under the rule of the master, so he went away for a weekend to visit either a friend or a relative – I don’t remember which. When Douglass returned to his master’s house late, his master was upset with him, so he took Douglass’ privilege of finding his own work away from him. This was a huge setback for Douglass, yet he kept going – he kept working for his master until that day he ran away. His persistence paid off in the end.

Once he was free, one of Douglass’ goals became informing people about the evils of slavery. He accomplished this goal not only by speaking (as I’ve mentioned in previous responses), but also by writing. In 1845, Douglass wrote a 125-page novel about his life. Then, in 1855, he wrote this novel. Later, when he was in Europe, Douglass wrote an even longer autobiography. In a letter to the editor of the autobiography I read, Douglass wrote:

I have never placed my opposition to slavery on a basis so narrow as my own enslavement, but rather upon the indestructible and unchangeable laws of human nature, every one of which is perpetually and flagrantly violated by the slave system. I have also felt that it was best for those having histories worth the writing–or supposed to be so–to commit such work to hands other than their own. To write of one’s self, in such a manner as not to incur the imputation of weakness, vanity, and egotism, is a work within the ability of but few; and I have little reason to believe that I belong to that fortunate few.

These considerations caused me to hesitate, when first you kindly urged me to prepare for publication a full account of my life as a slave, and my life as a freeman.

We see here that Douglass didn’t even deem himself worthy to write about his life – he considered it too difficult to write about yourself, without being egotistical. He agreed to write the novel, though, because he wanted “to enlighten the public mind, by revealing the true nature, character, and tendency of the slave system,” as he wrote later in that letter.

Describe one of the major characters (physical, emotional, psychological, include examples)

Frederick Douglass was a very strong person physically, emotionally, and psychologically. The events that he underwent while enslaved helped to build up his character. First of all, we can assume from certain events in the book that Douglass was a strong man. Douglass explained how the cruelest master he had abused him everyday. After about six months of this treatment, Douglass fought back. The two fought all day long, and ended up in a draw – neither won. The master never attempted to beat Douglass again. The most amazing part was that Douglass was only about 16 and his master was a grown man. I imagine the reason Douglass was so strong physically is because of all the hard labor he did all those years.

Emotionally, Douglass appears quite strong. The only time I recall him mentioning him crying was the time he had to leave the only pleasant mistress he had – she had been so kind to him, taught him how to read, etc., and he knew he was going to go somewhere worse, where he’d miss her wonderful treatment. This naturally made Douglass sad, and he, as well as Mrs. Auld and her son, cried. All the other things Douglass went through, being taken from his family (his grandparents), the torture, the lack of food, lack of clothing, etc., show that he was quite strong emotionally. How can someone withstand all Douglass went through? I really think the reason he was able to is because he was strong emotionally, as well as psychologically.

Psychologically, Douglass was very strong. He was able to put the hope of freedom into his head. He learned about the injustice in the treatment of the slaves and it made him want to be free. As I’ve mentioned in many other responses, there was this driving force inside Douglass. Despite all the harsh treatment that most people wouldn’t be able to stand emotionally, or psychologically, Douglass stood up for himself and got the freedom he dreamed of for years.

Frederick Douglass is a great example of someone who is a very strong person, not only physically, but also emotionally and psychologically. The biggest reason he was able to stay strong is because he put his faith in God. God pulled him through. God was the slaves’ Rock, and He was their Fortress, just like the Bible says He should be. He was a very present help in times of trouble. We can only attribute it to God that made Douglass strong. Without God’s help, Douglass wouldn’t have been able to do anything. With God’s help, though, Douglass was able to do the things that seemed least possible.