From the conception of the country to the war that divided it and its fallout that abolished it, slavery was strongly rooted in the American company. From poor white farmers to Northern abolitionists to Southern nobility to apathetic Northerners, slavery transformed the way people viewed both their lives and their freedom. To truly understand the impact of slavery on American society, one need only look at those who experienced it personally. Frederick Douglass, a runaway slave and abolitionist advocate, attacked this person. Douglass was a living contradiction to the American society of his time. He was an African-American man, self-educated, competent, well-spoken and a robust writer. Douglass demonstrated a level of skill that few of his associates could achieve at the time. With his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, Douglass captivated the people of his time with his first-hand accounts of the horror and brutality that was the institution of slavery . A staunch abolitionist, Douglass would take the country by storm through the power of his words and writings. His story was unique in how it was written and the content it contained. Unlike most biographies of freed slaves, Douglass wrote his own story in his own words. His account would attempt to understand the effects of slavery not only on slaves, but also on slave owners. The success of his biography, however, rested not on the degree of horror it contained but on the unmistakable authenticity it offered. His account would compel his readers to take action with graphic accounts of the whippings slaves would receive as punishment, "the strong...... middle of paper...... a reliance on American religious ideals of purity, peace and impartiality. to drive. As a pious man, Master Thomas would convert many people in the name of the Church. His house even became the home of preachers to hold meetings and sermons. However, this does not change his attitude towards his slaves. For all his godly actions, inside Thomas was a vicious man who whipped, beat, and disowned his slaves out of a distorted sense of duty to the Church and God. “Here is a newly converted man, clinging to the mother, and at the same time she lets her helpless child starve and die! » Works CitedFrederick Douglass, Account of the Life of Frederick Douglass. An American Slave Written by Himself. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001) Henretta, James A., Rebecca Edwards, and Robert Self. America: A Concise History. (Boston: Bedford, St. Martin's, 2006),