Classic Slave Narratives

The stories told by Gustavus Vassa and Fredrick Douglass are very different. Even though both men were slaves, and their experiences were sometimes similar, fate played different roles in their lives. This contrast began at their births. Vassa was born a native African whereas Douglass was born into slavery in the southern United States. Vassa' family was prominent in his tribe. His father was a chieftain and he was to grow up into this position as well. Only by chance, he was kidnapped and made a slave. Douglass on the other hand had been a slave from birth and had seen black people only as slaves for most of his youth. His mother was a slave and his children would have become slave if he had not become a free man.…