Life and Times of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

There was some suspicion that she was also forced to have sex with Anthony, as she was beautiful and noble in appearance. She was romantically involved with a man named Ned Roberts, who belonged to Colonel Lloyd. His aunt had gone out one night but did not have permission to do so. This event took place when he was very young. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it.'

It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. The first time he witnessed this outrage, it 'struck me with awful force. No amount of tears or supplication or streaming blood would cause him to cease his whipping.ĭouglass recalls how his own aunt was often prey to these whippings. He also occasionally delighted in viciously beating his slaves. His exceedingly cruel behavior was barely restrained by Anthony, who did not much seem to care how his slaves were treated. Plummer was an awful man, given to drinking, swearing, and intense violence. The overseer, Plummer, looked after the slaves. Anthony only had a few slaves on a small farm. If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural.'ĭouglass had two masters, the first being Anthony (called ' Captain Anthony'). The fact that there were so many mulattos present in the Americas who are held in slavery refutes the belief that 'God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right. It is actually best if he sells these children to another slaveholder. The slaveowner himself must watch his white sons abuse their black brothers. They must always fear the wrath of the slaveowner's wife their presence was a constant reminder of her husband's infidelity. Children born from slave mothers and white fathers – mulattos – experienced far more difficulties than did other children.

Slave children always followed the condition of their mother, a fact Douglass noted was no doubt due to slaveowners' pernicious lustful designs upon slave women. They rarely spoke and when she died when he was seven, he did not feel much more than he would have as if a stranger died. He saw her about four to five times and always at night she would travel to where he was enslaved and lie with him at night. His father was unknown to him, but he was a white man and perhaps even his first master.ĭouglass's relationship with his mother was brief and characterized by a lack of emotion on his part owing to their infrequent visits. His mother's name was Harriet Bailey, a very dark-skinned daughter of Isaac and Betsey Bailey. He did not know his age because no accurate records were kept, and slaves were generally bereft of information about their lives. Douglass began his narrative by noting the place of his birth – Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, twelve miles from Talbot County, Maryland.

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass