The story of Douglass is the pitiable story of man’ cruelty scheming against the natural ways of nature. Douglass narrates to the readers as to how the selfish people who employed ** as slaves systematically cut the *** from their roots.
He knows that his mother was a woman named Harriet Bailey from whom he was separated when he was an infant. He adds that it was the common custom in that part of Maryland that the *** were thus separated from their mothers, hindering the natural bond between the mother and the child.
He had seen his mother only four or five times when she met him after walking twelve miles from Mr Stewart’ place where she worked as a field hand, and each of these times was very short in duration and at night. She had to be back in the field before the sunrise if she had to escape the penalty of whipping from the **** master. This left the mother and child very little time and scope for communication. She would lie down with him, and get him to sleep, but long before he woke she was gone. He does not remember having ever seen his mother by the light of the day. The sad outcome of this is that he does not remember much about his mother and when he lost her when he was around seven, he didn’t feel the usual emotions of sorrow.
This is a very sad outcome indeed when we consider the fact that the bond between a mother and a child is the strongest and the most beautiful bond of all and it is unnatural for the son not to feel grief at the loss of the mother. Douglass thus proves that the repercussions of serfdom are more than what meets the eye and the psychological dimensions are far worse than the economic implications.
