Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Journal #7
Posted By Melissa Veum
10-13-09
Engl 48A

"I know of such cases; and it is worthy of remark that such slaves invariably suffer greater hardships, and have more to contend with, than others. They are, in the first place, a constant offense to their mistress (Douglass, 2073)."

"People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get (Douglass, quotationspage.com)."

In this passage Douglass is referring to the many slaves that had a father who was also their master. In these slave days the "right of passage" for all slaves was to follow in the footsteps of their mother, not their father. So many children born to slave mothers grew up to be slaves even though they were part white. These slaves in turn had the worst hardships of all in many cases. Nothing they ever did would be good enough for the master and his wife because this child was born into a forbidden world according to the mistress involved.

These slaves were considered a "constant offense to their mistress'" because every time the masters' wife would look upon these children it reminded her of the fact that her husband was a sleazy, unfaithful husband. I don't think that it would be a woman's place to reprimand her husband in this time for doing these deeds of adultery, but maybe instead she could get out some of her anger on these poor, defenseless children stuck in the middle of scandal.