9/16/2021
The gruesomeness and graphic scenes in the first five chapters really threw me off when beginning to read this narrative. I wasn't aware that this book was going to articulate such graphic scenes, and it makes me sick to my stomach to read about what Douglass and the slaves surrounding him went through. While this narrative does display such graphic scenes, I am glad to have the opportunity to read this book and think that its contents are valuable lessons to learn from.
In particular, the scene of Mr. Gore and Demby upset me. On page 14, there is a scene of the cruel Mr. Gore shooting an innocent slave after refusing to leave a creek. Mr. Gore shoots Demby without hesitation, which shows not only his but also other slave owners' lack of care and respect for human life. Douglass illustrates that Mr. Gore shot Demby without an additional call or any hesitation, which highlights how little slaves' lives mattered during the era of slavery. They were viewed as less than human, and this real-life account from Douglass displays this idea perfectly. Furthermore, this shows Demby's willingness to give up after a hard life of enslavement. Rather than choosing to live another day in his sad existence, he chose death as the better option. He felt that there was so little hope in his life that death and giving up was a better choice, and sadly this was a reality for many other slaves across the country and throughout the world.
This sense of hopelessness saddens me that slavery was a reality in our country, but there are valuable lessons that can be learned from reading narratives like this one and I look forward to becoming more educated on first hand accounts of slavery.
- Zoe Krumwiede
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