Fredrick Douglas! Morgan Peach

When I read the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, I was very moved by it. Going through grade school we always read stories or did papers on Harriet Tubman or Rosa Parks along with other former slaves or even the slave owners. We always did extra activities during black history month. But when reading this, it really cought my attention, I had never read a story and it be that discriptive of what that person saw, what a person heard, what they had to go through, and what they missed out on. Everyone always heard that a slave wasnt allowed to learn to read and write unless they did it secretly, because "Reading would forever unfit them to be slaves"(pg.921). I never realized that a lot of them never knew who their mother or even father was, they never knew who any of their family was for that matter, and some of them never even knew their own birthday or how old they were, even what their name was. Some slaves believe it or not, got off luckily, or as lucky as they could get. Such as Fredrick, "He defies his brutal overseer, claims his manhood, teaches fellow slaves to read: finally as though by magic, he escapes" (pg.922). His story was filled with turmoil and greif and sadness, but he cut away from all that and went to school, got a degree, made speeches, and truely became a very profound and well rounded man despite what his upbringing was. That just goes to show that no matter where any of us came from, what we went through in childhood, that we dont have to let any of that guess us down, but only let it make us stronger as individuals!