Frederick Douglass’ decision to escape his wretched life as a brute slave comes not without much emotional unrest. The physical and mental pain which he experiences at the hands of Mr. Covey is what brings forth such a colossal decision. A transformation occurs within Douglass, while he watches the ships, where he decides that it is better to lose his life than live that of a slave. Douglass expresses his attitude and feelings toward slavery most apparently in his third paragraph while he watches the ships on the Chesapeake break free from their shackles of tyranny and oppression and sail off into the distance.
“The glad ship is gone: she hides in the dim distance. I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery.” Here more than anywhere else Douglass clearly states how his enslavement is worse than the worst possible notion of anyone’s imagination. The personification of the ship exemplifies how joyful it is that it gets to taste the coolest breeze of freedom. Meanwhile he must remain in this hottest hell of eternal slavery.
Slavery, according to Douglass, has broken and crushed not only his physical being, but his emotional state of mind as well. The only time that he is able to take refuge is when he gazes upon the ships on the Chesapeake for they were once slaves in shackles themselves, but they have been cloaked in white and set free into the world. While Douglass is given new hope by seeing these ships he is also reminded that his everlasting torment and unending nightmare still lingers over him as the ghosts of his ancestor linger over the ships. “Those beautiful vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to the eye of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of my wretched condition.” Douglass’s life has been trampled, cracked, and has left him departed from a life which he may not even see in his sweetest dreams, which for us would be horrendous nightmares. “My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died.” The selection of detail here exemplifies how even though he has lived a seemingly terrible life, until now he hasn’t broken. At the hands of Mr.
The Essay on Frederick Douglass And Slavery
Frederick Douglass and Slavery Abolitionist Frederick Douglass was the most distinguished and influential black leaders of the nineteenth century. Douglass focused his writings on the harshness and brutality of slavery. He describes in many of his books accounts of his own experiences as a slave. A reader is able to perceive a clear image of slavery through Douglass' words. His writings explain ...
Covey his life has been forever changed, scared, and defeated. Douglass concludes that above all else he must be free from this life of a brute and an animal. All of his mental frustrations and his burning hatreds have been forced to a climax. He is found crying out. Asking God why? Why him? Why must he stay here as a slave when his fellow man whom is just a few shades lighter is free to walk and run and taste the cool refreshing drink that would set him free from his slavery. “I had as well die with ague as the fever.
I have only one life to lose, I had as well be killed running as die standing.” Through prayer and internal reflection Douglass has reached a point of no return. Be it by his death or his escape he must be set free. He must be as one of the ships on the Chesapeake sailing free. He must be cloaked in purest white. He must break the shackles and be free from the whips which bind him to this eternal hell and this torment of his soul. He must be free.
He will be free.
