The life of Frederick Douglas

Frederick Douglas' story was the most interesting piece of work I have read thus far this semester. I feel that Douglas' way of writing was very attention grabbing due to his use of language. Douglas' wording was very graphic and gave me the chills at certain points. I almost felt as though I were there watching everything occur when Douglas was telling his story. Douglas’ use of language was so descriptive. For instance, Douglas describes the beating of his aunt Hester: He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin. I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remember it. This specific description left me in tears. The thought of someone having to go through this, and Douglas witnessing this at such a young age is terrifying. I cannot imagine living through the time of slavery from any perspective. I feel Frederick Douglas endures a lot of strength to be able to allow his self to open up and recall these memories so vividly.
Another part of Frederick Douglas’ work I found interesting was the idea of the Great House Farm. The Great House Farm was a place for slaves who were selected by their slave owners to go and do work that wasn’t in the plantations. From the reading, it seemed as though the Great House Farm was a privilege for slaves to be chosen to go to. The slaves didn’t do field work here but more manufacturing. They were in charge of shoemaking and mending, the blacksmithing, cartwrighting, coopering, weaving and grain-grinding. When Douglas was selected to go to the Great House Farm he was very excited. However, I don’t think slaves knew everything that was going to happen once they got to the Great House Farm. I think slaves, including Frederick Douglas thought that the Great House Farm wasn’t going to be the same kind of slavery where you were beaten or abused. Upon Douglas’ arrival, he was treated better than he was on the plantation, but after a short while, Douglas was treated just as poorly as he was on the plantations. Once Douglas was at the Great House Farm he experienced his first severe beating. The description of this beating was so terrorizing and difficult to read for the fact that I could feel Douglas’ pain as he wrote each word.
Overall this reading was very interesting and filled with many facts about slavery I did not necessarily know for a fact prior to the reading. I knew many things about slavery as a subject, but not about specific experiences of slaves. I knew who Frederick Douglas was just as a slave, but not who he was as a person. I feel this reading taught me the life of a very important person whose impact on our world’s history will never be forgotten. It is unfortunate that there are millions of more slaves that have passed on that could have just as interesting life stories as Frederick Douglas, but were never taught to read or write.