Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass - Fredrick Douglass and Mary Rowlandson

Jeetu Halder

2/24/2012

Part two: Essay

Having freedom was a big accomplishment for both Fredrick Douglass and Mary Rowlandson, suffering and getting tortured from others didn't let them give up hope for living. In the autobiography "Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass" and "A narrative of the captivity and restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson" Both Douglass and Rowlandson faced ignorance and hatred but they both were strong and over came their goals, which was to get freedom. Even though Mary Rowlandson and Douglass had many similarities they both also had may differences. Douglass was born as a slave and was working in plantations ever since he was a child, and Rowlandson was captured by the Indians in her mid ages and was working in the Indian homes as a slave.

The similarities of both stories are that both the "Life of Fredrick Douglass" and "A narrative of the captivity and restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson" was an autobiography. They both were slaves and they didn't have any free will. They had limitation on what they can wear, eat and also how they had to behave around others. The setting of these two stories took place in Maryland, the reason for both Fredrick Douglass and Mary Rowlandson to write about their life was because they wanted others to know about their experiences and what hardship they both had to face.

Mary Rowlandson's story took place in the 19th century, when the Europeans escaped from their country to come to America to have a better life. Even after coming to America they had to face hardship because the Native Americans tortured them by burned their houses and killing there families, and who ever was alive was taken by the Indians to work as slaves. The Indians separated Rowlandson from her husband and her children on February 1975. She was beaten and starved to death by them and still she didn't give up hope for living, of the Indians would see her not obeying their rules then they would hit her and not give her any food. She was religious and she believed in god and eternity, she always carried a Bible with her and every chance she had she would read that Bible and make her self stronger. Even though she was tortured, she didn't defend her self because she taught this is supposed to happen to her life and she accepted the face that maybe she wouldn't be able to see her family again.

Fredrick Douglass was born, as a slave whose father was white and his mother was a slave. He wrote his narrative in the 1800's. He was separated from his mother when he was a child and was forced to work at his master's plantations. When he was seven years old his mother passed away and he was sent to another slaveholder to look over a child about his age. As a slave he had no right to have eye contacts