Frederick Douglass Essay

Frederick Douglass’s work was extremely hard to read. His thorough description of American slaves’
everyday horrors and struggling must frustrate every reader. The author (as many other children of
slaves in Maryland) was taken from his mother not a long time after he was born and, moreover, he
had never found out, who his father was. Although his mother had visited him at nights, it was
completely deficient upbringing for a young boy, which is the reason why he had to replace the
family relationships elsewhere.

The task of establishing close relationships appeared to be rather difficult in the beginning. On
the one hand, it is obvious, that there was a warm atmosphere among the slaves and that they tended
to carry for each other. On the other hand, it did not seem to work as well as a true family. In my
opinion, they knew any of them could be replaced any day, which did not lead to establishing very
close relationships.

The author did not quite manage to find a slaveholder to get close to at first. White people showed
no empathy and often even no mercy treating slaves like some animals.  Followingly, none of the
slaves, including the author, intended to get closer with them. There were however moments of kind
behaviour of the slaveholders. The first case of empathy appears in the fifth chapter, while
author’s living on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation. Since he was too young to work in the field, he was
helping to Master Daniel Lloyd. A connection between them started to develop, because the author
often accompanied him while hunting. Master Daniel then protected him from the older slaves and
provided some extra food, which led to first significant relationship of the author.

The role of mother and father were, in my opinion, embodied by Mr. and Mrs. Auld. They were the
author’s masters in Baltimore. He adored Mrs. Auld from their very first meeting describing her “as
a white face beaming with the most kindly emotions”. She treated him as a normal kid and even
started teaching him to read, which, unfortunately, did not last for a very long time because of
Mr. Auld. He stated that a slave who is able to read tend to be unhappy, disconnected and valueless
to his master. This proclamation changed the author’s life forever since he truly understood the
way from slavery to freedom ever since. The author followingly established another relationship,
namely with white children from Baltimore. They finished his education in the area of reading and
the author usually brought some food to them in return.

The last and the most important connection developed in the author’s first attempt to run away. A
slave named Sandy Jenkins helped him to survive and after the author came back to his master, he,
Sandy and a few other slaves (Henry and John Harris, Henry Cadwell and Charles Roberts) worked out
more elaborate plan to escape. Even though their plan failed, they became brothers. The author
taught them all to read (which he enjoyed the most), spent most of his time with them and
eventually claimed that they would even die for each other.

More generally, these basic findings of my essay show that Frederick Douglass successfully
establish many close relationships despite quite unpleasant beginning of his life. After being cut
off from his mother and other family members, he remained dependent on help from another people. It
is completely understandable that he adored first adults showing some empathy, meaning Mr. and Mrs.
Auld (especially her), who eventually changed his life forever. She gave the author the opportunity
to become less dependent thanks to the ability of reading; and he evoked the author’s lust for
freedom. On the other hand, the stronger and more significant relationships appeared to be the ones
with his fellow slaves (Sandy, Henry, John, Handy and Charles). He often thought of them even when
he ran away, became a free man and got married in the end.