Chapter 8,9,10 to Page 41 Reflection of Narritive of the Life of Fredrick Douglas

I thought the whole area that I read was kind of up and down. I really like that Douglas was treated well throughout the entire chapter. In the chapters I read, Master Thomas took Douglas from Master Hugh, his brother. I felt bad for Douglas since he left such a good home and was once again forced to work hard hours of Master Thomas plantation. Douglas was then sent to Mr. Covey, a well know “nigger breaker” and worked hard hours, sometimes until midnight. What I liked about Mr. Covey was that he actually worked in the fields with the slaves. I also liked how he always gave enough to eat while on his plantation. While here, Douglas met another slave named Sandy, who gave Douglas a root, which if placed correctly in a pocket, would keep you from being whipped. After Douglas obtained the root, he ran into Mr. Covey in the barn. This time instead of being whipped, Douglas stood up for himself. I thought that it was about time for a slave to stand up for what he believes in. I also, when reading this, was surprised that Douglas had so much spunk in him after being treated so horribly and whipped so many times. I thought, when Douglas ran away to Master Thomas, that he had the guts to run to the North and the will to be free. After that, he went to a Master called Mr. Freeman. I thought that he was definitely the nicest Masters in all of the USA at the time. All slaves were worked, but weren’t worked to death. The slaves had cots in their quarters. Finally, they had plenty to eat here. Even though the slaves were happy here, they formulated a plan to sail up Chesapeake Bay and go further north once they couldn’t go any further.

I thought that it was a foolproof plan to make all the followers free, but was broken up by the masters. They all ended up being taken to jail and were separated. I just felt awful that they were so close to getting freedom, but had their dreams crushed under a 5 ton wall. Overall, Douglas was very close but ended up at the mercy of the masters, which is how all slavery stories’ go.