Fredrick Dougless and Harriett Jacobs

Frederick Douglass, in his "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," recalls early memories of seeing slaves receive terrible beatings and horrific overseers who were cruel. Fredrick Douglass also was separated from his mother before the age of one and was taken care of by an older women his mother died when he was about six. Douglass only got to see his mother about 4 or 5 times before she past away. Douglass also did not know how old he was because most masters kept their slaves ignorant of their birthdate. Harriet Jacobs, in her "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" recalls a happy childhood, in which she was taught to sew and read, and was unaware that she could be bought or sold. It wasn't until Harriet was older that she was abused and treated badly. Frederick Douglass, on the other hand, had to sneak his reading and writing and does hard labor for slave owners who are very cruel his whole life, only briefly working under a kind family. Douglass did hard labor as for Jacobs and other women slaves their master's would come on to them. Jacobs even got pregnant from lawyer so her master could leave her alone but that didn't stop him he wanted to then sell her children as well. When Douglass escapes, he goes North. Initially, Harriet Jacobs hides in a crawl-space at her grandmother's house for seven years before escaping to Philadelphia. Both Douglass and Jacobs end up working together in the abolitionist movement.