Narrative Of Frederick Douglass Struggles Essay

The Narrative of Frederick Douglass is a memoir of a former slave who is known now as an abolitionist. This autobiography takes place in Eastern Shore of Maryland; Baltimore; New York City; New Bedford, Massachusetts. Douglass serves his life on a plantation where life is not thought to be that difficult. Being a child, he serves in the household instead of in the fields. At a very young age he was given to Hugh Auld, who lived in Baltimore (Douglass 1845). In Baltimore, Douglass lives more freely. In general, city slave-owners are more aware of not making them look cruel when handling slave so that their neighbors would not think of them as evil. Sophia Auld, Hugh’s wife, has never owned slaves before, and therefore she is very nice to Douglass at first. She begins to teach Douglass how to read, but is
Douglass does not describe the details of his escape in because he wants to protect the future slaves who may attempt the journey. In New York, Douglass is afraid that he will be captured again and changes his name from Bailey to Douglass after, he gets married Anna Murray, who is a free woman he met while in Baltimore. They moved north to Massachusetts, where Douglass becomes very active with the abolitionist movement as both a writer and an orator.
This memoir was has many issues , but he main issues are that Frederick Douglass has a very difficult time freeing himself, mentally and physically, from slavery, and the treatment of slaves as property. The theme is that ignorance keeps one down and keeps one in bondage , and also that knowledge is power. The characters are very complex in the memoir. Captain Anthony , Douglass’s first master and also thought to be his father. Anthony is the clerk for Colonel Lloyd, managing the plantations and the overseers of those plantations. Anthony is a cruel man who takes pleasure in whipping his slaves, especially Douglass’s Aunt Hester. He is called “Captain” because he once piloted ships up the Chesapeake Bay