1

Natalie Lally

Miss Burke

English 11

December 15th, 2017

The Life of Frederick Douglass

Have you ever accomplished something without going through struggle to reach the goal?

Frederick Douglass lived a tough life and is living proof of struggle leading to success. He was a

slave from a young age and lived most of his life working as a slave. He was separated from his

family, treated unfairly, beaten, and lived an unfair life. Although he was living such an

atrocious life, Douglass was still a courageous, intelligent man. Struggle is essential for progress,

which is evident through the battle that Frederick Douglass faced with slavery, being separated

from his family, and attempting to escape.

Frederick Douglass was unfortunately born into the slave life. Being a slave included no

freedom, being beaten upon, working to your fullest ability at every hour, and being separated

from your family. Although he was separated from his family, he was courageous because he

handled being away from his family very well. As a young child, he was never able to grow up

and live a normal life with a family and friends. “I received the tidings of her death with much

the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger” (page 21). This quote is

portraying how Douglass barely knew his mother because he was separated from her at such a

young age. He felt as much sympathy for his mother as he would a stranger. When she died, he

did not care as much because he did not have any connections with her. Frederick Douglass grew

up without a mother or someone to guide him in life so he was never taught how to read, write,
 2

or even do the simple things in life. He thought it was normal to not know how to do those

things. “I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It

is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the

power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel

that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man” (10.45). In

this quote, Douglass put a lot of emphasis on the fact that slaves have to be tricked into accepting

their enslavement. The slaves went through crucial pain which was a harsh struggle for them by

not being in the right state of mind. Because no person is in their right mind, it is easy for the

masters to destroy the slaves’ minds.

Frederick Douglass made the bold decision to attempt to escape slavery. He made the

daring decision to run away from his life and start somewhere new. Frederick Douglass was

doubting himself about escaping because he had a fear that he would starve or get killed. He also

had a feeling he could get sent back to slavery. Every day he acted as if nothing was up, “He

little knew what my plans were… at that very time in which I was planning my escape” (page

111). He had great plans which he hid to only him and the other slaves attempting escape. Their

greatest concern was being separated. Douglass was the leader of this decision and attempted to

get other people in on it as well and make a plan together. In attempt of escaping, he disguised

himself as a sailor in hope of covering up the fact that he was an escaping slave. He brought with

him a protection pass that railroad officials required as proof of not being a slave. He borrowed

the document from a seaman. Frederick was caught and his plan failed. Frederick Douglass was

separated from the other slaves involved in the escape attempt because he was the leader of it. He

then got sent back to Baltimore by Captain Auld to live with his brother and learn to trade.

Douglass becomes a caulker and was eventually allowed to hire out his own time. Douglass
 3

wanted another attempt to escape but had the fear of separation and apprehension of failure, “If I

failed this attempt, my case would be a hopeless one- it would seal my fate as a slave forever”

(page 112). He had a sickening fear of being a slave forever. On September 3rd, 1838 Douglass

left slavery. He escaped to New York City but felt sadness and loneliness because he has no

family, friends, or home. Douglass had better living conditions and working conditions. He

found much pleasure in his new job because he did not have to give his earnings away to his

master. Frederick Douglass soon began speaking at anti-slavery meetings. Douglass’ life

gradually got better.

Struggle is essential for everybody to reach their ultimate goal. This is established in

Thomas Edison’s journey with creating the lightbulb. As a young boy, Thomas Edison’s teachers

told him he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He did not have much more success in the

workplace, as he was fired from his first two jobs for not being productive. Even as an inventor,

reports claim that Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a

reporter asked how it felt to fail so many times, Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The

light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps” (They Did Not Give Up). If Edison had not failed,

he might not have become Americas most well-known innovators. Edison did not let the failure

stop him, instead it encouraged him to not give up. “To Edison, the inefficiency of such a system

was absolutely stunning, and he realized that he could invent a system to quickly tally all the

votes and skip the unnecessary and wasteful step of calling out votes” (Furr Nathan). This quote

shows how Edison’s failures led him to only focus on the good that was coming out of it and

ignore all of the bad. Each fail was only one step closer to being a success. He had a desire to be

a success and with his strong drive to reach his goal, the failures he experienced was a learning

process on how to become better. Thomas Edison is proof that failure is evident in any journey to
 4

success that occurs. The failures that happen are all a test on whether or not someone will give

up, or let it push them even more.

Without struggle, most would not reach their goal, including Frederick Douglass. Being

born into the slave life was a hard task to accomplish by Frederick Douglass. He was taken away

from his family and experienced brutal beatings and being told he was wrong constantly. He

thought escaping was the only way out of his misery, and after a failing attempt, he didn’t give

up on it. This led him to not only escaping, but happiness in his life. Thomas Edison is also proof

that failure leads to success with his invention of the lightbulb. After failing 1,000 times, he

never had a moment of giving up. If one has never failed until success, one has never truly

succeeded.
 5

Work cited

Furr, Nathan. “How Failure Taught Edison to Repeatedly Innovate.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 9

Aug. 2011, www.forbes.com/sites/nathanfurr/2011/06/09/how-failure-taught-edison-to-

repeatedly-innovate/#3b55243e65e9.

They Did Not Give Up, www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Pajares/OnFailingG.html.