Slavery is usually defined as the bondage of a person without his or her consent as the property of another person. Robbery can be defined as taking personal property from someone without his or her consent by using force. In the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass uses both topics to clearly show his position about slavery and robbery. In his Narrative, Douglass gives detailed examples to clearly show how the two topics are similar in term.
"By far the larger part of slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is a wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant (Douglass 1)." Douglass explains that slaves did not know their ages or birthdays. "The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege (Douglass 1)."
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass portrait
English: Portrait of Frederick Douglass as a young...He also explains that inquiring any information was improper and impertinent. Your birthday is a celebration of the day you were born, Douglass was not saying that he wanted the privilege of celebration but just the information itself. Slaves were constantly being robbed of many things that you should naturally be entitled to.
Not only were slaves being deprive of information of their selves but also a relationship with their own mothers. "My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant, before I knew her as my mother (Douglass 2)." During this time it was common for a mother to be separated from their child before the child is one years old. Douglass says he is unsure of the separation, but he implies that the separation is to destroy any type of affection between the mother and child. The love of a mother...