The institution of slavery is presented in both accounts as based on a range of typical features and behaviors which are experienced by all slaves. Thus, Frederick Douglass and Booker Washington draw the readers’ attention to the fact that their situations and descriptions of slave life are the reflections of the conditions typical for the period.
To examine the institution of slavery from the point of Douglass and Washington, it is necessary to concentrate on possible similarities and difficulties in the men’s situations. Basing on the general idea of slavery and its typicality, it is important to refer to the similarities characteristic for the accounts.
In their autobiographies, Douglass and Washington state that slaves usually do not know the date of their birth, and this fact is only one from a range of aspects to stress on slaves’ difference. Furthermore, both authors do not know the history of their family and the names of their fathers.
Recalling child memories, both the authors focus on the dangerous living conditions and impossibility to have even a bed to rest after the daily work. Although the general pictures of the living environments presented by Douglass and Washington have many similarities, it is more significant to pay attention to differences.
Thus, Douglass is inclined to depict the horrors of the slave life referring to the examples of abusing slaves and masters’ violent behaviors when Washington depicts the connection of slaves and whites during the Civil War as devotion and trust.
Douglass discusses the personal experience as the example of the social injustice associated with slavery, and Washington describes the slave’s everyday life as the conditions and practice perceived as natural by masters and slaves (Douglass 396-397; Washington 573-576). Thus, the spirit of opposition is more characterized by Douglass’s vision.
2. The most tragic effect of slavery for Douglass was the fact of separation from his mother. The author states that this practice is typical for slaves to make slave children more helpless and dependent on the will of the master. Having few opportunities to communicate with the mother or feel the support, the boy observes a lot of injustice directed toward his aunt and the other slaves at the plantation.
According to Douglass, childhood in bondage has few differences with the typical life of slaves with their everyday hard work and abuse, but the situation is more terrible for children who grow without their parents and under the constant physical and moral pressure (Douglass 395-396). Thus, the situation also depends on the master and supervisor, and their cruelty about slaves.
Washington depicts the effects of slavery on children from the other perspective. In spite of the fact Washington spent his childhood in a small cabin, labor was his main play, and the main dream was schooling, the boy was brought with his brother by their mother (Washington 572-573). Their living conditions were terrifying; children suffered from malnutrition and impossibility to have the necessary care.
However, the depicted situation lacks the appalling pictures of violence toward slaves as it was described by Douglass. Thus, according to Douglass, slave children suffered significantly from the lack of parental care, constant fear, and hard work.
According to Washington, slave children were rather vulnerable, their lives were unhappy, they had to work as adults, but the perception of the situation as natural and the hope for freedom helped them overcome difficulties (Washington 576).
Works Cited
Douglass, Frederick. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself.” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie McKay. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. 395-401. Print.
Washington, Booker. “Up From Slavery.” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie McKay. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. 572-580. Print.