The Life of Frederick Duglass

Edward Covey is a notorious slave “breaker” and Douglass’s keeper for one year. Slave owners send their unruly slaves to Covey, who works and punishes them (thus getting free labor to cultivate his rented land) and returns them trained and docile. Covey’s tactics as a slaveholder are both cruel and sneaky. He is deliberately deceptive and devious when interacting with his slaves, creating an atmosphere of constant surveillance and fear.

Frederick Douglass is he author and narrator of the Narrative. Douglass, a very skilled and spirited man, is a powerful speaker for the abolitionist movement. One of his reasons for writing the Narrative is to offer proof to critics who felt that such a clear and intelligent man could not have once been a slave. The Narrative describes Douglass’s experience under slavery from his early childhood until his escape North at the age of twenty. Within that time, Douglass progresses from unenlightened victim of the dehumanizing practices of slavery to educate and empowered young man. He gains the resources and convictions to escape to the North and wage a political fight against the institution of slavery.

Two of the quotes that I found important where. “The only penalty of telling the truth, of telling the simple truth, in answer to a series of plain questions” (page 23 narrative) what this quote means to me is that no matter what racial segregation will always continue. He was punished for answering truthfully to questions thinking that he might have gotten away easy. Unfortunately it didn’t happen. The second important quote is “The whisper that my master was my father” in this quote he is expressing how he feels like he has been working as a slave for an unconsidering long time and has now believed that the whisper of his master is his father.

Frederick Douglass the most successful abolitionist who changed America’s views of slavery through his writings and actions. Frederick Douglass had many achievements throughout his life. His Life as a slave had a great impact on his writings. His great oratory skills left the largest impact on Civil War time period literature. All in all he was the best black speaker and writer ever.

Douglass was born a slave in 1817, in Maryland. He educated himself and became determined to escape the horror of slavery. He attempted to escape slavery once, but failed. He later made a successful escape in 1838. Frederick’s life as a slave had the greatest impact on his writings. Through slavery, he was able to develop the necessary emotion and experiences for him to become a successful abolitionist writer. He grew up as a slave, experiencing all of the hardships that are included, such as whippings, scarce meals, and other harsh treatment. His thirst for freedom, and his burning hatred of slavery caused him to write Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and other similar biographies. In his Narrative, he wrote the complete story of his miserable life as a slave and his strife to obtain freedom. The main motivational force behind his character (himself) was to make it through another day so that someday he might see freedom. The well written books that he produced were all based on his life. They all started with Douglass coping with slavery. He had a reason to write these works. As a die-hard abolitionist, He wanted to show the world how bad slavery really was.

"He did this really well, because he made people understand the unknown, and made abolitionists out of many people. This man had a cause, as well as a story to tell. Douglass, as a former slave, single-handedly redefined American Civil War literature, simply by redefining how antislavery writings were viewed.

Frederick Douglass is well known for many of his literary achievements. He is best known, now, as a writer. "As a writer, Frederick Douglass shined. As a speaker, he was the best. There was no abolitionist, black or white, that was more for his speaking skills. "So impressive were Frederick Douglass’s oratorical and intellectual abilities that opponents refused to believed that he had been a slave and alleged that he was an impostor brought up on the public by the abolitionists. Douglass wrote Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845), which he revised in later years: in final form, it appeared in 1882 under the title Life and Times of Frederick Douglass."

Frederick’s speaking skills left the largest impact on Civil War time period literature. Douglass’s most significant autobiographical works include: Narrative of The life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: My Bondage and My Freedom: and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. These three books are about the same person, and share a similar message, but are written by Frederick at different times of his life, looking