The Classic Slave Narratives Essay

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The Classic Slave Narratives Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 1. Frederick Douglass spoke of his mistress as a “kind and tenderhearted woman” (page 367). She would always care for the slaves when they were hurt, hungry, cold, or in need of anything. “There was no sorrow or suffering for which she had not a tear. She had bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, and comfort for every mourner that came within her reach” (page 367). Frederick as a slave did not agree with slavery and by her actions being very different then the others, she had the same opposing opinion to slavery as did Frederick Douglass. He said “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me” (page 367). 2. After he beat up the slave breaker named Mr. Covey in a fight, Frederick was surprised that he was not punished. “It was for a long time a matter of surprise to me why Mr. Covey did not immediately have me taken by the constable to the whipping post, and there regularly whipped for the crime of raising my hand against a white man in defense of myself” (page 395). Mr. Covey did not punish Douglass for the sake of his own reputation. “Mr. Covey enjoyed the most unbounded reputation for being a first-rate overseer and negro-breaker. It was of considerable importance to him. That reputation was at stake; and had he sent me-a boy about sixteen years old-to the public whipping-post, his reputation would have been lost; so to save his reputation, he suffered me to go unpunished” (page 395). 3. Frederick Douglass spoke of the advantage of having a non-religious master. “I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes,-a justifier of the most appalling barbarity,-a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds,-and a dark shelter under which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find

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