MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM essays

MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM essays The book My Bondage And My Freedom, one of Frederick Douglasss many biographies, attempts to put into perspective his views and experiences on slavery. Born in the year 1817, Frederick Douglass lived not with his mother and father like the white children of that era would, but with his grandparents. Living with them it was a long time before he knew himself to be a slave. As he began to mature in age and understanding he began to realize that the house and land he had grown to love, belonged not to his loving grandparents but to one his grandmother always referred to as Old Master. Understanding this also brought the knowledge that his grandmother, himself and all the other children around belonged not to themselves as freemen but to Old Master. Even through all this, still did he not realize what it meant to be a slave until around the age of seven or eight when he was carried to Old Masters plantation where he was to begin the labors expected of him. At the change of scene he was introduced to brothers and sisters he hadnt before met or seen. He was expected to treat them as long lost relatives he had once again discovered but to do this he would have had to know about their existence and spent time with them before now. His brothers and sisters did their best to help him get adjusted to the way of life he was now expected to live in but he was still a child and real labors werent to be thrown on his shoulders for a while longer. Although he was the property of Old Master throughout his life he would call many people master. At around the age of ten he was sent to Baltimore to live with a relative of Old Master, Master Hugh Auld. For the first time, he was living in a big city and got to see the differences between city slaves and country slaves. City Slaves had life a bit easier because not everyone in the city owned slaves...