If The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is used as a historical source, what information does the narrative provide about the...

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass provides information about the ways in which slaves' families were broken up. Douglass writes, "I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life" (page 2 in the Dover edition). As a result of being taken away from their families, slaves developed close relationships with other slaves who they regarded as extended family, even if they weren't actually related. The book also provides insight into the lives of urban slaves, as Douglass was sent to Baltimore to work with his master's family. Later, he worked as a caulker on boats, earning wages. This type of slavery was different than the traditional rural slavery on plantations, and it provided Douglass with skills he could use after he escaped north. The book also shows the capriciousness and cruelty of slave masters, who entice their slaves to get drunk on holidays (so that the slaves will associated freedom with sickness) and who prevent Douglass from setting up a Sunday school.

The narrative shows the degrading effects of slavery on southerners, white and black, and the ways in which laws were created to keep slaves in bondage. For example, Douglass's slave mistress, Mrs. Auld, attempts to teach him to read, but she is castigated for doing so by her husband, who says that a slave who can read is no longer fit for slavery. Douglass says of Mrs. Auld, "Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me" (page 22). She has been dehumanized and her naturally good instincts quashed by the institution of slavery. In addition, slavery imposed perverted political and legal realities on white and black southerners, as slaves could be killed with no justification (though, as they were property, masters did not want them killed). Slavery is above all degrading for blacks, who, Douglass says, learn to state they are happy when they aren't in fear of their masters.

The style is told in a kind of format that resembles the popular Christian conversion novels of the day. Douglass's conversion is his turn towards hating slavery and fighting to free himself. His conversion allows the reader to understand and sympathize with his desire to be free. One critical moment in his conversion is when his fellow slave, Sandy, gives him a root. Douglass says that he begins "to think that there was something in the root" (page 42). His possession of the root inspires him to fight against his slave overseer, and he eventually has the confidence to escape northward.