Fredrick Douglas's dismantling of slavery defenders

 Frederick Douglas starts the narrative by describing where he was born. Immediately he says that he has “no accurate knowledge of my age” (Douglas Ch1). This was meant to shock people at the time who were white or free as not knowing your age because it was not recorded seems insane. I think that Douglas said this early on to specify that despite his terrible upbringing, he is just as smart as any white person and that he was able to educate himself despite such terrible conditions. He logically shows the true intentions of laws that allow slaveowners to act on their lustful desires with slaves. He explains that “the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers, and this is done too obviously to administer their own lusts” (Douglas ch1). Douglas proves that Black people are not inherently meant to be punished because the children of a white slaveowner still have to be slaves. This pokes holes in the argument of slaveowners saying that slavery should be permitted since the Bible says they are descendants of Cain. 

A subtle thing that Douglas has in his writing is the descriptions of people. When talking about his master Anthony, he says “he was not considered a rich slaveholder. He owned two or three farms, and about thirty slaves.” (Douglas ch1). He prefaced the number of slaves owned by Anthony with the fact that he still was not considered a rich slaveholder despite owning 30 human beings. This casual way of describing it is a firm reminder to the white slaveowners of their past and disregard of human life. They were sold and treated like property to the point where you can have hundreds of them on a farm and consider it a business.