Frederick Douglass: Free in Body, Soul, and Spirit

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Eventually, Frederick was sent away from Baltimore back to plantation life. His city life had a very pernicious effect upon him. Frederick reminisced, "I suffered more anxiety than most of my fellow-slaves. I had known what it was to be kindly treated; they had known nothing of the kind" (27). He also speculated that "a city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation" (21). After being sent away from Baltimore to St. Michael's, his knowledge of freedom made him careless and indifferent in his duties and unaffected by severe whippings. Thus, he was sent by Master Thomas Auld to Edward Covey, a man notorious for breaking slaves. Frederick worked long days as a field hand and was often whipped and ambushed by Mr. Covey. Douglass eventually got fed up with Mr. Covey’s abuse and initiated a two-hour physical fight in which he surprisingly gained respect from Covey. The fight instilled a revival of Frederick’s sense of manhood and an inspiration and determination to be free. In his time as a field hand, he realized he would rather be dead than be a slave, and he let it be known that "the white man who expected to succeed in whipping, must also succeed in killing [him]" (43). Frederick resolved to escape, and after successfully doing so, he became free and committed to the abolitionist movement.

Frederick Douglass struggled to free himself from both physical and mental slavery. Ultimately he was able to escape to the North and obtain his freedom in body, soul, and spirit. Frederick credited his liberation to recognizing that education was the means to freedom. After becoming more literate and knowledgeable, Douglass advocated to white Northerners that slavery was dehumanizing to not only slaves, but to slaveholders as well. His graphic, horrific stories of his experiences as a slave and the frustrating paradoxes he presented evoke empathy in the reader and demonstrate the evils of slavery. In becoming his own master, Frederick Douglass became an inspiration for slaves and a credible advocate for the abolitionist movement.