Essay - Frederick Douglass' 'Narrative on the Life of Frederick Douglass' is...

Frederick Douglass' "Narrative on the Life of Frederick Douglass" is a ground-breaking autobiographical tale of ***** childhood of slavery, h***** struggle to escape, and *****is triumph over stereotypical restraints put up***** him because ***** his color. Douglass uses his narrative to dispel the myths about African-Americans - ***** that white slave owners typically circulated to justify their cruel treatment of slaves. He also exposes the white Americans who do not own slaves, as well as free blacks, to the savage ***** brutal world he grew up in - in an honest way that had never before been seen. Through this *****, Douglass confronts the ideas ***** power, family, knowledge, home, violence, ********** having a sense of self. Douglass also attempts to warn Americans about the dire effects that slavery is going to have on the whole nation - ***** Americans as ***** as black.

The power a slave owner has over slaves is broad - ***** explains how slavery itself narrows opportunities for ***** to have any sense ***** self. Like many slaves, Douglass did ***** know his birth date, which strips ***** of his own identity from a young age.

Slave ***** purposely withhold this personal information, attempting to keep slaves ***** feeling human - they don't want ***** to have the power ***** human rights. To the slaveholders, they are just property, like cows, horses and sheep. The slaveholders utilize their power by keeping children away from their parents, too, because any sense of family would have given slaves security, and camaraderie - both ***** which could have caused rebellion against the *****ty of slavery. ***** knew little ***** his mo*****r, which prevented him from knowing ***** his history, his ancestry. Without ***** knowledge, he was *****less from a young age - ***** was exactly what the slave owners wanted. Knowledge truly would ***** been power.

For that reason, ***** owners also actively controlled their slaves by giving them false information ***** almost like brainwashing. Slave owners would convince their slaves ***** a ***** age ***** ***** lives were not their own, and that they belonged in slavery - ***** slavery was right. By feeding them ***** opposing information, slaves were forced to grasp onto what their masters said, and believed it to be true. Some slaves actually felt loyal to their slave owners, much like battered women do to ***** abusers. Because they were secluded from the rest of ***** world, mostly illiterate, ***** uneducated - ***** didn't know anything else. Douglass' ability ***** learn, to expose *****self to the ***** outside of slavery confirmed ***** doubts about the sanctity of slavery. He thought it might be wrong, and because he had t***** chance ***** learn *****o read, as well as experience kinder interactions w*****h white Americans, he regained ***** over himself. Other slaves probably thought slavery ***** wrong, but without the ***** to prove it to themselves, they were ***** to accept their fates. Sophia Auld w***** the first sense ***** family that Douglass really had,