The journey of Frederick Douglass, as documented in the account of the life of an American slave, is one that faces not only societal and physical obstacles, but also obstacles spiritual problems that he must overcome to acquire a holistic vision. feeling of freedom. The main spiritual obstacle that Douglass repeatedly encounters throughout the narrative is the deceptive nature of piety. However, the more Douglass comes into contact with the pious, through an acute sensitivity to understanding people's affect, it becomes quite apparent to him that piety is a negative quality to possess. In An Account of the Life of an American Slave, Frederick Douglass, through the use of various characters, literary symbols, and techniques, depicts godliness as a venomous quality that infects the hearts of religious slave owners, making it impossible to empathy towards slaves and justifying extremely cruel treatment of slaves. slaves. The town of St. Michael is a very important element in the patterns of the story, as it is clearly a metaphor for the falsity of piety that Douglass encounters. Saint Michael, simply by his name, evokes ideas of holiness, but this city hardly resembles a holy place. The town of St. Michael is located in Talbot County, which Douglass describes as a place "where it is not a crime to kill a slave or any colored person...neither by the courts nor by the community" (40). . . Douglass then tells many stories of slaves who were killed in the town of St. Michael, including Mr. Gore's malicious murder of Denby, Thomas Lanman's murder of two slaves, and Mrs. Hicks' brutal murder of the wife of Douglass (40). This oxymoronic combination of a city with a name as hallowed as St. Michael and the real-life atrocity that...... middle of paper ...... by Edward Covey and Thomas Auld, Douglass reveals its connotation immensely deplorable of the word piety. Works Cited Carter, J. Kameron. “Race, Religion, and the Contradictions of Identity: A Theological Engagement with Douglass's 1845 Account.” Modern Theology 21.1 (2005): 37-65. Print. Douglass, Frederick. Account of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. New York. Signet Classics, 2005. Print. Ferguson, SallyAnn H. “Christian Violence and the Slave Narrative.” Duke University Press, 1996. 297. Vol. 68. PrintKeller, Ralph A. “Methodist Newspapers and the Fugitive Slave Law: A New Perspective on the Northern Slavery Crisis.” Church History 43.3 (1974): 319-39.JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3163755Matlack, James. “The Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass.” Phylon (1960-) 40.1 (1979): 15-28. Print.