English Notes - Vol 1

10. Frederick Douglass

Glossary:
Assistance : Help
Convention : assembly, meeting
Orator : speaker
Impressive : influential
Emancipation : Freedom
Accurate : precise
Authentic : Known to be real, genuine
Deprived : impoverished, underprivileged
Deemed : regard, consider
Impertinent : arrogant, disrespectful
Withheld : hidden, holdback
Hinder : stop
Inevitable : irresistible, irrevocable
Field hand : work in the field, farm
Soothing : smooth, calm
Tiding : news, information
Odiousness : wickedness, foulness
Ordained : ordered, appointed
Lust : animalism
Gratification : enjoyment
Sustains : control
Invariably : constant, consistent
Offence : violation, sin
Compelled : forced

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Mongers : trader, dealer

Dictate : command

Disposed : partial

Mulatto : Child of one white parent and the other dark

Gory : involving much bloodshed violence

Presume : assume

Overseer : supervisor

Profane : immoral, nasty, filthy

Slash : slit, slice

Cudgel : cane, baton for hitting

Humane : compassionate

Shriek : High pitched scream, cry

Joist : post, support, stud

Hush : silence, quiet

Barbarity : crudeness, brutality

Comprehension I:
1. What prevented the slaves from knowing their birthday?

Twelve month old infants were forcefully separated from their mother
before they knew, she was their mother. White masters preferred to
keep their slaves ignorant about their proper age, by not maintaining
any authentic records.
2. How would the master look at the enquiries about the slaves
birthday?

The white master’s deemed all enquiries about the slaves birthday as
improper and impertinent.
3. What was whispered about Douglass’s parentage?

Rumour was that the Master of Douglass, Captain Anthony himself was
his father.

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4. When was Douglass separated from his mother?

Douglass was separated from his mother when he was just twelve
month old baby.
5. Douglass mother was able to meet him only at night.
6. What was the penalty to the field hand for not being in the field
at sunrise?
Whipping was the penalty to the field hand for not being in the field at
sunrise.
7. How old was Douglass when he lost his mother?
Douglass was seven years old when he lost his mother.
8. Name the person who was believed to be both Douglass father
and master.
Captain Anthony was believed to be both Douglass father and master.
9. What was Mr. Plummer?
Mr. Plummer was an overseer who supervised the farms and slaves of
his Master Captain Anthony. He was a miserable drunkard, profane
swearer and a savage monster.
Comprehension: II
1. Why wasn’t Douglass affected much by his mother’s death?
Frederick Douglass was born in February 1817 on the eastern shore of
Maryland. His autobiographical works are My Bondage and My
Freedom (1855) and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass(1881). He
says that his exact date of birth remains unknown. His mother, from
whom he was separated at an early age, was a slave named Harriet
Bailey. She named her son Fredrick Augustus Washington Bailey. He
never knew exactly who his father was. He was forced to work hard and
suffered cruel treatment while working on the property of Captain
Aaron Anthony.
Douglass was not affected much by his mother’s death because he was
separated from his mother when he was just twelve months old, this
was done too obviously to administer to slave holder’s own lusts, and
make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well as
pleasurable. He saw his mother hardly for four or five times in his life
and each of these times was very short in duration and at night she was

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hired by Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles. She made her
journeys to see him in the night travelling the whole distance on foot,
after the performance of her day’s work. She was a field hand, and a
whipping was the penalty of not being in the field at sunrise. He
recollects of never seeing his mother by the light of day, she was with
him in the night. But long before he woke she was gone. Very little
communication ever took place between them. She died when he was
about seven years old, on one of his master’s farms, near Lee’s Mill.
Fredrick was not allowed to be present during her illness, at her death
or burial.
Comprehension: III.
1. What kind of hardships did the slaves suffer at the hands of the
slave holder and his mistress?
Or
2. How does the passage comment on the dreadful experience of
slavery?
Frederick Douglass was born in February 1817 on the eastern shore of
Maryland. His autobiographical works are My Bondage and My
Freedom (1855) and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass(1881).
His mother, from whom he was separated at an early age, was a slave
named Harriet Bailey. She named her son Fredrick Augustus
Washington Bailey. He never knew exactly who his father was. He was
forced to work hard and suffered cruel treatment while working on the
property of Captain Aaron Anthony.
The hardships faced by the slaves at the hands of the slave holder and
their mistress were unexplainable. They were not allowed to know
their ages or about their parents Infants were separated from their
slave mother before they knew she was their mother.
The slave holders were inhuman and showed extraordinary barbarity
in dealing with the slaves. They would at times seem to take great
pleasure in whipping a slave. Mr. Anthony, the slave holder and his
overseer, Mr. Plummer who was a miserable drunkard, profane
swearer and a savage monster, always went around armed with a cow
skin and a heavy cudgel.
He used to cut and slash the women’s heads so horribly, that even
master would be enraged at his cruelty. Mulatto (person with one black
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parent and one white parent) children were the great sufferers. They
were in the first place, a constant offence to their mistress. She was ever
disposed to find fault with them; they could seldom do anything to
please her; she was never better pleased than when she saw them under
the lash, especially when she suspected her husband of showing to his
mulatto children favors which he withheld from his black slaves. The
master was frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves, out of
deference to the feelings of his white wife; and cruel as the deed may
strike any one to be, for a man to sell his own children to human flesh-
mongers, it was often the dictate of humanity for him to do so; for, unless
he did this he must not only whip them himself, but must stand by and
see one white son tie up his brother, of but few shades darker
complexion than himself, and ply the gory lash to his naked back; and if
he lisped one word of disapproval, it was set down to his parental
partiality, and only made a bad matter worse both for himself and the
slaves whom he would protect and defend.
2. In spite of the hardships he suffered as a slave, why does the
author say, “Slavery would not always be able to hold me within
its foul embrace?
Frederick Douglass was born in February 1817 on the eastern shore of
Maryland. His autobiographical works are My Bondage and My
Freedom (1855) and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass(1881). His
exact date of birth remains unknown. His mother, from whom he was
separated at an early age, was a slave named Harriet Bailey. She
named her son Fredrick Augustus Washington Bailey. He never knew
exactly who his father was. He was forced to work hard and suffered
cruel treatment while working on the property of Captain Aaron
Anthony.
The hardships faced by the slaves at the hands of the slave holder and
their mistress were unexplainable. They were not allowed to know
their ages or about their parents Infants were separated from their
slave mother before they knew she was their mother. The slave holders
were inhuman and showed extraordinary barbarity in dealing with the
slaves. They would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a
slave.
Mr. Anthony, the slave holder and his overseer, Mr. Plummer who was a
miserable drunkard, profane swearer and a savage monster who always

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went around armed with a cow skin and a heavy cudgel. He used to cut
and slash the women’s heads so horribly, that even master would be
enraged at his cruelty.
The author expresses his dreadful childhood. Experience of slavery as
how he was a wakened at the dawn of the day by the most heart-rending
shrieks of his aunt, who was whipped by her master till she was literally
covered with blood? No words, no tears, no prayers, from the victim
seemed to move the iron heart, the louder she screamed the harder he
whipped and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He
would whip her to make scream and whip her make her hush.
In spite of the hardships, he suffered as a slave, he firmly believed in
God, Even in the darkest hours of his career in slavery, the living word
of faith and spirit of hope did not depart from him. His optimism
showed light at the end of the tunnel; hence he has a deep conviction
that slavery would not always hold him, within its foul embrace.

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