Write to the EQ:  What do you know about your family history? How does this history affect your identity?  Responding to this question will help you consider the importance of the information Douglass presents in chapter 1 of the book. Locate this shape on your graphic organizer.

Why should you care?  Frederick Douglass's Narrative is not just about slavery. It is about that, of course; as a historical document, it paints a powerful picture of what it was like to be a slave, how the world looked from the bottom, and what kind of place America was when "the land of the free" was only free for white people. But while a lot of books were written by ex-slaves in the 1840s and 1850s, a lot of slave narratives read like documentaries, or worse, like Public Service Announcements. Frederick Douglass's narrative is by far the most important one, because he wants us to think about more than just the legal, historical, and political issues of slavery and freedom. He wants us to think about it as a philosophical question: what does it take for the human spirit to be free? Douglass wants to show us that he made himself free. Freedom isn't something that's given to us; it's something we each have to find for ourselves. And although Douglass had it a lot harder than most of us ever will, we each have something to learn from his perseverance and courage in search of his own freedom, and his refusal to rest before finding it. One of the hardest lessons Douglass has to learn is that this battle never really stops. As long as anyone is a slave, Douglass knows he himself is not fully free. This is something that we can think about with regard to justice anywhere and anytime: can any of us be fully free if the least of us is oppressed?

Your Task:  Read chapters 1 and 2 in the text.  Use the Cornell Notes sheet to respond to the text.  There are very specific questions from Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.  These questions should guide your understanding of the major issues described by Mr. Douglass.

Read Chapters 1 and 2

What is your task with this document? Say He doesn’t know his age, just like a horse Slave holders want slaves to be ignorant His father is white, maybe the master He didn’t know his mother well, but she traveled at night to see him Children of slave women are, by law, slaves themselves Slave masters father many slave children Slave masters often sell their slave children to please the mistress His first master, Captain Anthony, was not rich and he was cruel as was his overseer Hester went out with Lloyd’s Ned and was brutally beaten for it Think Slave children were taken from their mothers to destroy natural affection That his mother must have loved him to risk punishment to travel to see him (inference) The Captain Anthony did not want Hester going out with Lloyd’s Ned because he wanted her for himself He will be next to be beaten after Hester Do Not ask his master his age Not get to go to his mother’s funeral See his aunt Hester be brutally whipped Feel Unhappy and deprived that he doesn’t know his age/birthday Little more than if a stranger died when his mother passed away Like his mother suffered Slave masters are wicked and lusty Like slavery is hell when he first sees Hester being whipped Scared and horror-stricken when he sees Hester being whipped

Let’s Make a Personal Connection to the Text  Frederick Douglass encountered a great deal of struggles and difficulties in his time. We learn of some of these times in Chapters 1 and 2. How can you relate?  When you have difficulties, what things do you do to overcome them?  Respond in the Summary Section.