A closer
reading of Douglass's narrative brings out more intricate details about slavery.
As a child, he suffered from abuse, starvation, and cold. He recounts how slaves would
be forced to sleep together in the same room. This clearly points to the miserable conditions
that slaves were kept undera fact that many slaveowners at the time denied. He further states
that this experience was quite typical and not unusual.
He also points to the
extremely dehumanizing experience of slavery. First, he states that he does not know exactly
when he was born. He recalls being separated from his mother at an early age and only ever
seeing her four or five times throughout his life. Furthermore, he has no knowledge of who his
father was, other than rumors that it was a former master. This gives historians an idea of the
real brutality of slavery and how it stripped African Americans of their identity and
family.
Douglass makes it clear that slavery was also a mechanism to take
away a man's identity....
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