He Made A Difference

I found Douglass' ending to his memoir to be very modest and caring.  He definitely used his brain and reflected on his writing.  Instead of writing about his escape detail by detail, he decided to refrain himself since it would "induce greater vigilance on the part of slaveholders than has existed heretofore among them;...". In other words, the slaveholders would make sure to guard "a door whereby some dear brother bondman might escape his galling chains." (99)  In a memoir, the first thing the writer would like to do is write about the most important and exciting thing that has happened in his/her life.  They would love to express it using details that would allow the reader to imagine the monstrosity or amazing event.  Douglass wanted to but he didn't.  I admire him for doing that.  He put his fellow slaves' lives first nstead of putting himself and his memoir first.  Douglass decided to write about what happened after his successful escape.

I realized that Douglass finally did Something useful fornhis fellow slaves.  I discovered this while reading the last chapter of his memoir.  However, at first he only watched out for himself until he met   Mr. David Ruggles.  He took him in and presented him to his future wife, Anna.  Ruggles sent the couple to New Bedford and taught Douglass to trust men.  Due to fear, Douglass had decided to "Trust no man!" (105).   Ruggles helped him turn a new page in the novel that represented his life.  Douglass began to fight for the freedom of his "brothers" on August 11, 1841.  He finally decided to help the other slaves and speak in front of white abolitionists.  His care for slaves and modesty is seen in his tone.  The form in which he expressed his escape proves it.

I admire Douglass for escaping, learning, and taking a step forward to free the people he cares about. It's not easy to do that in one life time due to the gruesome and scary consequences that may follow.  He made sure the world learned and realized the cruel torture the shaves were going through.  Instead of focusing on his escape, he wrote about his life as a slave. He wrote of what he did after his escape instead of writing a memoir on how he did it.  He was intelligent enough to realize that the slaveholders would use his memoir for their advantage.   He made a difference.