Frederick Douglas and slavery

A detailed Summary of Frederick Douglas and slavery


Slavery did not function as many people now think it did. It was not as large-scale as it is imagined to be and was very systematic. Our textbook tells a lot about how it worked, but it did not tell us of the brutality and harsh reality that went along with the system. Douglas, though, did reveal this to us. From his experience and the textbook, we learn of slavery's effects and of the difference between city slaves and plantation slaves. However, Douglas' stories do differ from what the textbook teaches us.

Slavery was not what it is pictured to be like in the movies. There were no more than a handful of extremely wealthy slaveholders. Few slave owners had hundreds of slaves, a lot of land and a long, tree-lined driveway leading up to a huge, wonderful mansion. Most of them worked hard on the fields, side-by-side with their slaves. Slaves either worked on a specific task, and when they finished they were done for the day, or they were divided into groups and worked for as long as the slaved


Slaves on the plantation had a much different life than slaves in the city. City slaves were far better off. They could work, eat well, sleep well, and do much more compared to the desolate plantation slave. A city slave had a better chance of learning how to read and write, as Douglas did. The difference in the amount and difficulty of work was tremendous; the city slave did not have the arduous task of working in the fields. Also, especially in Maryland and other northern parts of the South, it was easier for a slave to reach freedom from a city, rather than an isolated plantation. Douglas was a great example of this; he failed to reach freedom from the plantation, but succeeded in reaching freedom from the city.

The textbook showed the economical and social surface skin of slavery, but Frederick Douglas open up the ugly insides of it for us. He was much more descriptive and his examples were meaningful. He did not get into the systematics of slavery as much as the textbook. Both the textbook and

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 684
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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