Slavery certainly was a “peculiar institution,” but not necessarily in the ways that antebellum Southerners meant. Briefly assess that ways that being a slave and being a slave holder in the early 19th century would affect an individual’s personality. Then narrow your focus and point out ways that that status have “shaped “or at least “influenced” the personality of (1) Frederick Douglass and (2) your choice of any one Maryland white slave holder he encountered.
