Frederick Douglass, An American Slave - 1284 Words

Frederick Douglass is known as not only one of the greatest black writers in history, but as one of the greatest American writers in history. The â€Å"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave† fully captures the brutality of slavery practiced in the American South, experienced by Douglass himself. Douglass provides unique insight into the practice of slavery not only through firsthand accounts of the cruelty of his slavery but also by breaking down piece-by-piece slavery as an unjust and unnatural system. Frederick’s slave narrative forms evidence of the inhumanity of slavery, particularly the violence of slave discipline, helping to convince the reader of the necessity of abolition. Frederick’s narrative shows a†¦show more content†¦Frederick effectively connects to his audience the heartless and animal like beatings that were common to every slave, while being able to create personal empathy for his main point. Frederick focuses on various corrupted acts of violence. Violence towards slaves could happen randomly, and death was not uncommon. Frederick speaks of the death of Demby, who merely disobeyed orders to return once, saying, â€Å"Mr. Gore then, without consultation or deliberation with any one, not even giving Demby an additional call, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more† (Douglass 20). Other acts of brutality were shown in the work the slaves did and what they received in exchange for work. When Frederick had worked in the shipyards, he was badly beaten for the fear of unemployment caused by slavery, an odd occurrence since the beating was not from a slave owner. He details a particularly gruesome account of such falsehood saying, â€Å"I have seen him tie up a lame young woman and whip her with a heavy cow skin upon her naked shoulders causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of Scripture† (Douglass 48). Frederick consistently mentions the use of death threats against slaves to push forced obedience. In one case he wrote how some police threatened his