Slavery is an occurrence that the majority of those who were of African descent had to endure before the civil war. Slavery by any means was not at all pleaseant. In fact it was quite the contrary.Slaves had to suffer a rough life that often involved brutal torture. Simply because of their skin color and their masters wanted cheap labor. In the book The narative life of Frederick Douglass,he depicts slavery as a very brutal and grim occurrence. He states that slaves got next to nothing to eat,they were given cheap cotton clothes known as negro cloth,and also had to endure horrendous treatment.”I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do things I wanted”
In chapter two Douglass lets us know of the conditions they were faced with. Clothing wise they were given cheap,poorly made cotton that would rip easily,leaving the slaves with holey clothes. Also slaves didn’t get much in the means of food and water.Chapter two, page 23 states th “As their monthly allowance of food,eigh pounds of pork,or its equivalent in fish,and one bushel of corn meal.Leaving slaves to ration the food and spread it out over the coarse of a month.What we often take advantage of today they had the disadvantage of not knowing. As if that wasn’t enough slaves also had no bed to …show more content…
Chapter 10, page 74 we come to the concept that Douglass values reading and writing.This means that his personality is being well educated and determined. Determined because on page 44 chapter 7 we learn that when he would go out he would always take bread and a book stating that”This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins,who,in return would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge’’.This proves that he was willing to give up his food just so that he could learn to read and write. Knowledge to him was of a much higher significance. Thru all of this determination and hope was what kept Douglass