Douglass's really has two central claims in the Narrative. One is
that slavery was an institution that corrupted whites and robbed (or attempted to rob) blacks of
their humanity. Another is that slavery is an institution fundamentally based on violence,
telling the story of the vicious beatings an aunt of his would often receive:
I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most
heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon
her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from
his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed,
the harder he whipped...I was quite a child, but I well remember it.
Douglass describes this memory as the "blood-stained
gate" through which he entered slavery, and he is struck throughout at how the institution
made tyrants of whites. Sophia Auld, described as "a woman of the kindest heart and finest
feelings,"...
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