White Children In The Life Of Frederick Douglass

In the narrative of Frederick Douglass titled “The Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass who is the son of a slave women and unknown white man explains his experience as a slave. As a young child Douglass experiences the cruel reality of slavery. Douglass states, “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquires of my master concerning it” (Douglass 15). In other words, at the time Douglass didn’t understand the difference between white children and colored children. He sees himself equally to them even though at that time colored children were not looked upon equally as white children. Douglass moves on to describe the injustice that slaves experienced in the hands of their master and how slave-owners maintained the system of slavery in the Southern United States, and the tactics that were used. Furthermore, he explains how slavery was dehumanizing for everyone that was involved. With great …show more content…
Douglass states, “I was immediately sent for, to be valued with the other property. Here again my feelings rose in detestation of slavery. I had now a new conception of my degraded condition. Prior to this, I had become, if not insensible to my lot, at least partly so” (Douglass 48), Basically Douglass is saying that slaves were valued as property rather than human beings. Even though their slave-owners passed or property was sold, slaves were still considered someone’s property and were not given the freedom to be free. Basically, slave-owners passed slaves from one property to another so that slaves could not become free which means that they would still have control of them. Slave-owners did not only treat slaves as property but also deprived them of many