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Review of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass



Frederick Douglass was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland, near Hillsborough.

He doesn’t know for sure of his age, he has seen no proof and his master

will not inform him. Most masters prefer for their slaves to stay

ignorant. He believes that he was around twenty-seven and twenty-eight

when he began writing his narrative - he overheard his master say he was

about seventeen years of age during 1835. His mother, Harriet Bailey,

was separated from him when he was an infant and she died when he was

seven years old. Frederick’s father was a white man who could have been

his master but he never found out.

Education was of utmost importance in his life. He received his first

lesson while living with Mr. and Mrs. Auld. Sophia Auld, Frederick’s

"mistress", was very humane to him and spent time teaching him the A, B,

C’s. After he mastered this, she assisted him in spelling three and

four letter words. At this point in his lesson Mr. Auld encountered

what his wife was doing for Frederick and forbid her to continue. He

believed that "if you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell" and

continuing with "learning would spoil the best nigger in the world".

The masters felt that an ignorant slave formed a choice slave and any

beneficial learning would damage the slave and therefore be futile to

his master. His next step on the road to success was during his seven

years living with Master Hugh’s family. Frederick would make friends

with as many white boys as he possibly could on the street. His new

friends would be transformed into teachers