Frederick_Douglass

Frederick Douglass Re-Creating One’s Self Frederick Douglass has been an immense role model to all types of people who want to make their lives better. In his biography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he describes his life as a slave, and how he got out of it by “re-making” himself. Douglass educates himself and re-creates who he is throughout his life; so much so that in the end when he gives his speeches, people cannot believe he was ever a slave. This idea that we can “re-create” ourselves no matter where we have come from is one that started with Douglass, but is relevant to all humankind. In his opening lines, Douglass addresses how the institution of slavery narrows slaves' opportunities for self-knowledge. Slave owners withhold information about slaves' birth dates in order to keep them from developing a unique sense of self. They do not want their slaves to differentiate themselves from their land or farm animals, as Douglass implies when he says that most slaves know how old they are no more than horses do. Likewise, their masters do not acknowledge family ties among slaves. Family relationships would allow slaves to develop a unique sense of self and would douglass, slaves, slave, himself, life, about, slavery, re-create, one, new, escape, try, took, frederick, even, americans, time, think, things, story, role, relevant, read, people, make, human, experiences, education, day, american, white, way, wanted, voice, upon, unique, truth, themselves, succeeded, style, started, shows, sense, self, risk, re-creating, rather, put, own