The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass details the life of Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, from his birth in Talbot County, Maryland to his speech (as a free man) during an anti-slavery convention in Nantucket, on August 11, 1841. The Narrative was written between 1844 and 1845 in Lynn, Massachusetts. It was published in May of 1845 and revealed his full identity. This was dangerous, because Frederick was not yet a free man. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass serves as both historical truth and imaginative literature. It is a story of both slavery and freedom. It is a "classic illustration of the will to power as the will to write, of physical and psychological liberation through language." (pg. vvi) Douglass "provides a remarkable window into the world of oppression, cunning, and survival in which slaves lived, as well as the religious and ideological world of abolitionism..." (pg. vvi) It is a "tale of bondage, escape, and self-made public career." (pg. vvi) This Narrative truly captures the meaning of slavery. It details many of the traumatic experiences the slaves went through. In chapter one, the first thing we read is the story of Douglass' Aunt Hester being whipped. "He took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back, entirely naked. He then told her to cross her hands....After crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong rope, and led her to a stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose. He made her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to the hook.....Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so she stood upon the ends of her toes.....he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood came dripping to the floor." (pgs. 42- 43) Several more times, we are told of the horrible realities of violence among slavery. In chapter four, the death of a young girl, between the ages of 15 an...
