`Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave`

The narrative written by Frederick Douglass about his life is one of the most sincere and heartfelt pieces that I have ever read regarding the life of a once enslaved man . Although I have not been exposed to many such works , the simplicity and honesty with which he conveys his experiences is one that impresses both the heart and the mind

He begins his story with his earliest recollections of life as a slave It is both amazing and horrific the way he recounts the often humiliating and degrading experiences , including the physical

and psychological maltreatment he went through . Physically , he was beaten lashed , overworked , underpaid if at all paid , and deprived of the basic necessities of adequate food , clothing and shelter . Frederick Bailey among others was treated no better than a pig . Psychologically , the slaves were lambasted , spoken to in a disrespectful and cruel manner and deprived of education and knowledge . Some of the psychological schemes employed by slaveholders , were separation of mother and child from infancy , depriving slaves from knowing when they were born and how old they were , and in Baileys ' case , not knowing who sired him , although rumor had it that his master was also his father

From the beginning Bailey understood that he was less than nothing and that his very life depended on the whims of his master . Bailey in fact experienced how such whims could change his life at the snap of a finger , sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse...