United States History Student Edition

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“The Dark Night of Slavery” Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818 but escaped to the North as a young man. Douglass became an author and activist, fighting to end the practice of slavery. He published his life story in 1845 to explain the harsh realities of enslavement. In this excerpt, he describes his experiences with a farmer named Edward Covey. PRIMARY SOURCE: AUTOBIOGRAPHY “ If at any one time of my life more than another, I was made to drink the bitterest dregs of slavery, that time was during the first six months of my stay with Mr. Covey. We were worked in all weathers. It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, hail, or snow, too hard for us to work in the field. Work, work, work, was scarcely more the order of the day than of the night. The longest days were too short for him, and the shortest nights too long for him. I was somewhat unmanageable when I first went there, but a few months of this discipline tamed me. . . . I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. . . . [T]he dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute! ” — Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, 1845 dregs the most undesirable parts of something EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Analyzing Based on the excerpt, how did Douglass change while working with Covey? Cite words or phrases from the text to explain your response. 2. Explaining What does this excerpt reveal about the practice of slavery? What does it indicate about the living and working conditions of enslaved people?

Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom is a slave narrative written by a husband and wife, William and Ellen Craft. Published in 1860, it describes their experiences while enslaved and shares the story of their escape. Ellen, who had fair skin, disguised herself as a white male planter and pretended that her husband William was her servant. Together in 1848, they traveled by train and ship from Georgia to Philadelphia, hiding in plain sight. This excerpt from their autobiography explains why they finally decided to escape to freedom. PRIMARY SOURCE: AUTOBIOGRAPHY “ My wife was torn from her mother’s embrace in childhood, and taken to a distant part of the country. She had seen so many other children separated from their parents in this cruel manner, that the mere thought of her ever becoming the mother of a

child, to linger out a miserable existence under the wretched system of American slavery, appeared to fill her very soul with horror; and as she had taken what I felt to be an important view of her condition, I did not, at first, press the marriage, but agreed to assist her in trying to devise some plan by which we might escape from our unhappy condition, and then be married. ” — Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom , William and Ellen Craft, 1860

wretched awful devise to design

EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Explaining Based on the excerpt, what was one reason why the Crafts decided to escape? 2. Evaluating What language do the authors include to convey their point of view on the practice of slavery? How effective do you think their language is?

PHOTO: Fotosearch/Archive Photos/Getty Images; TEXT: (l)Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845; (r)Craft, William and Ellen. Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom. London: William Tweedie, 1860.

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