04/14/03 Darlington P. Why ee English 101 Prof: Ashman Frederick Douglass The effect of family values The life of Frederick Douglass as a narrative is a unique and intriguing masterpiece. This narrative irradiates on a whole lot of divergent issues affecting the black family who where under the oppression of slavery. This is also about a man who was born in the cradle of oppression who never allows the mal-treatment of slavery break his spirited soul and his determination to be free. Family is a unit that literally passes on important values from one generation to another. These values may help to nurture, educate, or encourage disciplines in every member, and more importantly create an awareness of which an individual is, and what make him or her what he or she is.
In the case of Frederick Douglass, he was born not unto a well-defined family that is characterized by the above points. This is supported by the fact that his mother was a slave, and his father, ironically, a slave master. Fortunately Frederick Douglass was taken care of by his grandmother when he was separated from his mother at birth. According to the narrative, black slave mothers are separated from their infants immediately when they give birth. Through this method, family values are decapitated thus creating a state of isolation wherein elements of family values are unquestionably absence. Frederick Douglass describes the splitting of the family to be one of the cruel consequences of slavery.
Born into the spotlight of oppression, Frederick Douglass did not know what true family is; he knew he had a mother, but she was miles away from him. Douglass’ knowledge of his father, who should have taught him how to grow up and be a responsible man, was an imagination. There were a lot of questions racing through the mind of young Douglass but the issue of family now, seems not to bother him much. The issue of family now, had no relative effect on Frederick more than his desire to survive the brutal treatment of slavery.
The Essay on Harriet Jacobs Douglass Frederick Slavery
... total callousness of slavery was only partially divulged in Frederick Douglass' experiences. In her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet ... child was hurled across the room by Dr. Flint. Her family was thrown into jail when she escaped into hiding in ... strength while proving to possess the attributes of a weathered mother, unrelenting in her responsibility for her two children. As a ...
We see this in his aging and as he went from one plantation to another, from one slave master to another and how he realize he at time almost considered his slave masters to be his families. Over the years Frederick Douglass have learn a great deal from his experiences and instead of family depositing a sense of values in him he learn from oppression and turn the negative effect of slavery into something positive. By learning how to fight the system of oppression using the only mean more effective, education.
