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FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Frederick Douglass’ decision to escape his wretched life as a brute slave comes not without much emotional unrest. The physical and mental pain which he experiences at the hands of Mr. Covey is what brings forth such a colossal decision. A transformation occurs within Douglass, while he watches the ships, where he decides that it is better to lose his life than live that of a slave.
Douglass expresses his attitude and feelings toward slavery most apparently in his third paragraph while he watches the ships on the Chesapeake break free from their shackles of tyranny and oppression and sail off into the distance. “The glad ship is gone: she hides in the dim distance. I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery.” Here more than anywhere else Douglass clearly states how his enslavement is worse than the worst possible notion of anyone’s imagination. The personification of the ship eximplifies how joyful it is that it gets to taste the coolest breeze of fr...

Posted by: Carmen hershman

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