Both narratives are inspired by the authors’ lives. The principal theme is the journey from slavery to freedom. In this excerpt, Jacobs describes the difficult decisions involved in taking steps toward freedom, which often meant leaving loved ones behind:
But now that I was certain my children were to be put in their power, in order to give them a stronger hold on me, I resolved to leave them that night. I remembered the grief this step would bring upon my dear old grandmother; and nothing less than the freedom of my children would have induced me to disregard her advice.
Douglass paints a picture of the daily freedoms that slaves could not enjoy. Here, he relates how how slaves were denied an education and were under constant surveillance:
Nothing appeared to make my poor mistress—after her turning toward the downward path—more angry, than seeing me, seated in some nook or corner, quietly reading a book or a newspaper. I have had her rush at me, with the utmost fury, and snatch from my hand such newspaper or book, with something of the wrath and consternation which a traitor might be supposed to feel on being discovered in a plot by some dangerous spy.
Douglass shows how fighting to get an education, even though it put him at risk, was important in his journey from slavery to freedom.
