The brutality that slaves endured form their masters and from the institution of
slavery caused slaves to be denied their god given rights. In the "Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass," Douglass has the ability to show the psychological battle between
the white slave holders and their black slaves, which is shown by Douglass' own
intellectual struggles against his white slave holders. I will focus on how education
allowed Douglass to understand how slavery was wrong, and how the Americans saw the
blacks as not equal, and only suitable for slave work. I will also contrast how Douglass'
view was very similar to that of the women in America, and the role that Christianity
played in his life as a slave and then as a free man.
The novel clearly displays the children's animalistic behavior when they were not
regularly allowanced. Douglass says, "Our food was coarse corn meal boiled, which was
called mush. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the ground.
The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come
and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with
naked hands, and none with spoons. He that ate fastest got most; he that was strongest
secured the best place; and few left the trough satisfied" (Douglass 41-42). This clearly
describes how children where treated like animals and their inability to act in the manner
of a normal educated child. Slave children were denied many luxuries that other children
took for granted. The knowledge of their birthdays was one of these luxuries. Douglass
states, "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record
containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses
know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their
slaves thus...