Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass is, without a doubt, one of the most influential and most well-known slave writers. This makes sense, as his way with words is powerful, his language is educated but understood, and he knows how important his story is to tell. Like Harriet Jacobs and Olaudah Equiano, he went through many things, and saw many horrors, but he tells the details of his life in an interesting and detailed way.

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs are alike in that they both lost parents at a young age. However, Jacobs got to live with her mother and father before her mother's death when Jacobs was six years old, and Douglass, from the start didn't even know his age. He says "I do not recollect ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I walked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us. Death soon ended what little we could have while she lived, and with it her hardships and suffering. She died when I was about seven years old." Douglass had no idea who his father was. From the start, they were not only slaves, but also incredibly alone, which only adds to the hopelessness of their ordeals.

Douglass and Jacobs also differ in their views of their slave mistresses. Jacobs despised her master's jealous wife. She speaks of her as follows:

"I had entered my sixteenth year, and every day it became more apparent that my presence was intolerable to Mrs. Flint. Angry words frequently passed between her and her husband... In her angry moods, no terms were too vile for her to bestow upon me."

Jacobs writes again, later:

"She was not a very refined woman, and had not much control over her passions. I was an object of her jealousy, and consequently, of her hatred; and I knew I could not expect kindness or confidence from her under the circumstances in which I was placed."

Douglass, on the other hand, felt the exact opposite way about his slave mistress. She instructed him, and commanded that no one else instruct him. He spoke kindly of her, saying:

"My mistress was, as I have said, a kind and tender-hearted woman; and in the simplicity of her soul she commenced, when I first went to live with her, to treat me as she supposed one human being ought to treat another. In entering upon the duties of a slave holder, she did not seem to perceive that I sustained to her the relation of a mere chattel, and that for her to treat me as a human being was not only wrong, but dangerously so."

However, slavery even took its toll on Douglass's mistress, turning her "lamb-like disposition" to one of "tiger-like fierceness". She became more demanding in her lessons and more violent towards Douglass. This goes to show how horrible slavery really was. The act of owning and completely commanding over another life turns people vicious, and puts everyone involved through experiences that entirely change who they really are. No one, the owners or the slaves, seems really happy, and this is crucial to realize. Everyone in every slave story has some sort of negative emotion to express, whether it be jealousy, hopelessness, viciousness, sadness, grief, or fierceness. Douglass says at one point, "I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed." That is huge, that though everything that had happened to him, and everything he had seen, he still had that glimmer of hope. That hope is what makes him so important, to me.

Another way that he differs from Jacobs is in the fact that Jacobs's master never beat her. She was afraid of him, and he did abuse her emotionally, but he did not strike her. She says that she wondered why, but she assumed it was "better policy to be forbearing".

Douglass, however, was physically hurt. He says:

"He ordered me to take off my clothes. I made him no answer, but stood with my clothes on. He repeated his order. I still made him no answer, nor did I move to strip myself. Upon this he rushed at me with the fierceness of a tiger, tore off my clothes, and lashed me till he had worn out his switches, cutting me so savagely as to leave the marks visible for a long time after. This whipping was the first of a number just like it."

Both writers, Douglass and Jacobs, are crucial to teaching us about slavery. Jacobs tells us about being a woman. Douglass tells us about being a man. Jacobs tells us about a mistress who is jealous and hateful. Douglass tells us about a mistress who is originally kind and gentle. Jacobs tells us about emotional abuse. Douglass tells us about physical abuse. All of these aspects make up the numerous different terrible things endured by slaves, and they are so important for us to realize. Slaves were not all handled in the same ways, and were not all treated as poorly as others. However, they all lived a life outside of their own control, and were not treated as the strong human beings that they were.

If I had to choose an author, I'd choose Jacobs because I loved her emotional appeal, and I loved that she tells the women's side. That being said, I fully understand why Douglass is so important and well-known, as he depicts his story with honor, grace, and courage.