In his early life as depicted in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass describes the breakdown of his family, which is one of the motivating factors that he has for wanting to expand rights and freedoms for others once he escapes slavery. In the first chapter, readers learn that Douglass never knew his father and that he did not meet his mother for a long time because he was separated from her. Then he sees his Aunt Hester severely beaten, and he describes the copious amounts of blood drawn during the whipping. Finally, his old grandmother is supposedly set "free," but she has little ability to care for herself and is abandoned to live in a hut in the woods. After having his family ripped apart in this way, Douglass is motivated to fight for rights and freedoms for slaves so that they do not need to experience the pain of having their own families torn apart.
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