Fredrick Douglas's 'The Columbian Orator'

African American slaves were treated similar to the Holocaust victims. Fredrick Douglas was an African American who, like Elie Wiesel, was separated from his mother and was forced to do because of who he was. Even though they had this similarity, Fredrick wasn’t going to be killed any time soon. The experiences Douglas went thru mad him strong and helped him find out how to be successful in life. He learned and believed in three things: believe in yourself, take advantage of every opportunity, and use the power of spoken and written language to effect positive change for yourself and society. According to, frederickdouglass.org, Fredrick Douglas was born in February of 1818, in a slave cabin on the East Shore of Maryland. He was separated from his mother at only a few
Since it was illegal for a slave to learn, the Master forbade his wife to teach Frederick anymore. But, Frederick still craved knowledge; So much that he made his neighbor's kids teach him in exchange for his food. He soon purchased a book called, The Columbian Orator, which changed his life. While staying with his masters, he saw how the slaves were treated on the plantations. They were whipped and mercilessly beat. This was when his detest for slavery began. At the age of seven, Fredrick sent to, Baltimore, to work as a city slave. It was at this point that Fredrick realized what freedom felt like, he says in one of his autobiographies called, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”, “A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation.” He returned to his birthplace at the age of 15, and it was there that he became a field hand and experienced the horrible conditions that slaves had to deal with first-hand. In 1838, he was sent back to Baltimore to live with the Auld family. It was at this time that Fredrick planned his first escape but aborted shortly after because something happened.