Frederick Douglass Essay

Frederick Douglass mentions at the beginning of his narrative that he doesn’t know his parents, and
even says he doesn’t feel close with his actual biological siblings which lived in the property of
colonel Lloyd in the early years of his life. Because of this, the people he tends to feel the
strongest kinship to throughout his life are most often either fellow slaves and other people that
are found in a similar situation and condition, and who he works together with to secure his
freedom.

This type of relationship can be seen especially in the passages describing the time when Douglass
lived in the homestead of William Freeland, where he secretly taught his fellow slaves to read and
where he first attempted to escape with several of them. Douglass mentions these enslaved men and
women of various ages were like a family to each other, and that teaching the Sundays during which
they were gathering in his school were some of the most fond memories of his.

The depth and strength of this relationship can also be backed up by the fear of being separated
from each other, and the pain it caused him when the other slaves owned by Freeman got separated
from him after their attempt at escaping was uncovered and curbed. Douglass already experienced the
pain of separating when he was young and the possessions of colonel Lloyd, including his slaves,
were being sold and their relationships disrupted. He says in the passages in which they
contemplate the plan to escape that their greatest fear, in addition to the possibility of them
being uncovered and cought, is that they will be forever separated from each other. He says during
his passage about the Sunday school he held that the slaves felt like one, made all decisions after
consulting them together, and that he believed that they would die for each other. What he also
expressed deep regrets about was to think about how his former fellow slaves are still unfree under
slavery when he already won his freedom, wishing he could do the same for them.

It can be concluded from Douglasse’s writing that much of the reason why they feel this kind of
strong kinship can be attributed to their shared condition of slaves, as well as their common
desire to defy this position by learning to read, which was prohibited to them, and support each
other in their position. This is also confirmed by Douglass himself, saying that their shared
hardships under slavery linked them as much as their characters.It could therefore be concluded
that the shared condition under slavery brought Frederick Douglass and other slaves together in
defiance of their master’s oppression. Because they all found themselves in the same position and
neither of them had anyone else who they would turn to, the Sunday school Douglass created served
not only as an institution where the enslaved people could come to defy the slaveholders by
learning to read, but also became the only place where they could find understanding and support in
face of their unfree condition.

                                            Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick, and William Lloyd Garrison. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an
American slave. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1849. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
<www.loc.gov/item/82225385/>.