Fredrick Douglass

This week I read Fredrick Douglass by France's E. Ruffin.  The book begins with Fredrick being raised

by his loving grandparents. Unfortunately his mother was a slave so that meant he was a slave as well.

At a young age he remembered saying that "(Aunt Katy) meant to starve the life out of me." when Fred

Was moved into the city he began reading and writing with his mistress. When her husband found out

he rebuked her and she stopped the lessons. But that didn't stop Fred. Instead he got his friends to teach

him and give him books in exchange for food. At one point of his life,when he was much

older, he was sent to a slave breaker because his master thought he was to rebellious. Fred and the other slaves there were beat often until one day Fredrick had had enough. When the man approached him to begin beating Fred like lunged at him and so it began. They wrestled for a while until his master gave up and left. Fredrick was never beat again by that man. Later in his life he stated that when he won that fight he also won the determination to become a free man. Finally Fred ran north and into free country. He got married and had kids while becoming a very popular speaker on freeing slaves. Sadly Fredrick Douglass died on February 20th 1895. This was a good book with very good writing. I liked that they gave lots of quotes and pictures as well. My favorite quote was after Fredrick received money for the first time as a free man. He said "I have no master who could take it from me, that it was mine that my hands were my own. I rate this book 3 stars and if you enjoy reading about American history I would recommend this book to you.