...The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave Written by himself Throughout its autobiography, Douglass narrates his life as a slave, from his birth, in 1818, in a plantation of Maryland, to his evasion in 1838, which allowed him to take refuge in the North of the United States. He quickly became there a figure eminent and respected by the abolitionist movement to which he dedicated then all his energies. At first, we shall focus on the inhuman conditions from which Douglass suffered. Then we shall redraw the road he took towards freedom. We shall finally analyze how Douglass criticizes various institutions. The author makes us go right to the heart of the absolute horror of the institution of slavery. Throughout his personal experience, Frederick Douglass counts us the story of thousands of other slaves who were subjected to the same conditions under the influence of the white slaveholders in the southern plantations. Thus, this account illustrates how these human beings were condemned to a terrible tragedy that was inherent to their color. Being black justified their entrance to a process of dehumanization. From his youngest age, Douglass suffered from identity issue. He expressed his disorientation due to not knowing his father or his date of birth[1]. He was also deprived from experiencing the protection and the love that a family should bring. Indeed, he was separated from his mother at the age of one and in spite of his blood relationship...
Words: 1690 - Pages: 7
...Use Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave to examine identity. From its first page, The ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas’ is set up as an exploration of Identity; The main purpose of the novel being to establish the truth of Frederick Douglass’s public identity and ‘set [himself] right before the public in the United States’ (Blassingame, 1979, p. 251). In fact, the text was described by Albert Stone as the “first native American autobiography to create a black identity in a style and form adequate to the pressures of historical black experience” (Stone, 1973, p. 213). As Kimberly Drake explains, “Slaves' (or more accurately, ex-slaves') autobiographies record the process in which the ex-slave writes his or her self into an existence recognized by dominant American society. The author portrays the way he or she overcomes the slaveholding society's continuing attempts to eradicate his or her identity; simultaneously, s/he rewrites that identity to fit the dominant culture's norms, despite the fact that these norms tend to conflict with his/her own experiences during and after slavery. These autobiographies thus provide dramatic models of the textual construction and development of "American" identity”. (Drake, 1997) In essence, Drake argues that Douglass has used his ‘Narrative’ to chronicle the death and consequent rebirth of his identity. The novel uses language, pacing and symbolism to establish Douglass’s sense of...
Words: 800 - Pages: 4
...Although Frederick Douglass wrote several autobiographies during his lifetime, none continues to have the lasting literary impact of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. From its publication in 1845 to its present status in the American literary canon, the Narrative has become one of the most highly acclaimed American autobiographies ever written. Published seven years after Douglass' escape from his life as a slave in Maryland, the Narrative put into print circulation a critique of slavery that Douglass had been lecturing on around the country for many years. Yet while the Narrative describes in vivid detail his experiences of being a slave, it also reveals his psychological insights into the slave/master relationship. What Douglass realizes that day is that literacy is equated with not only individual consciousness but also freedom. From that day, Douglass makes it his goal to learn as much as he can, eventually learning how to write, a skill that would provide him with his passport to freedom. What gives the book its complexity is Douglass' ability to incorporate a number of sophisticated literary devices...
Words: 1647 - Pages: 7
...Jared Page Mrs. Justeson English 3A 28 January, 2017 Slavery Literature Reflects Slave Life Slavery literature reflects the life of freed or escaped slaves. Slavery literature shows what it was like to be a slave. Some slaves when they were freed or when they escaped wrote about their life and what their life was like as a slave. Two great writers that wrote about their life as a slave after they escaped slavery were Harriet Ann Jacobs and Frederick Douglass (biography.com, 2014). Harriet Ann Jacobs wrote an autobiographical novel called,“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” (biography.com, 2014). Frederick Douglass wrote an autobiography called,“Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” (biography.com, 2016). Harriet...
Words: 613 - Pages: 3
...Paine in My….Douglass? According to Frederick Douglass, a nineteenth-century northern slave, “Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.” Thomas Paine, a rebellious eighteenth-century Englishman, finishes and furthermore expands this thought, saying that “those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” While both of these men grew up in separate worlds, miles and years apart, their idealisms and life missions are very much alike. This is evident through the investigation of Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Frederick Douglass is the...
Words: 1944 - Pages: 8
...certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Ironically, all beings have been aggravated by society to maintain the freedom of their ethnicity for years. African-American abolitionist and self-taught writer, Frederick Douglass, uncovers the white supremacy demonstrated in the form of slavery in his novel: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Its crucial content revolutionized how Americans perceive slavery since northerners in the 19th century were awfully convinced giving an African-American the life of bondage was none other than acceptable. White supremacy is the collaboration of people. Where all spread social hierarchies that exclude might. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass asserts: “I saw in every white man an enemy, and in almost every colored man an enemy, and in almost every colored man cause for distrust…[and] to understand it, one must...experience it…” (Douglass 113) This suggests the absorbance of gloomy behavior and attitudes about white male’s features particularly. Foreigners,...
Words: 750 - Pages: 3
...Frederick Douglass said, “I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do things I wanted.” He was trying to say he didn’t know what was going on in the beginning of his life. After his experience as a slave, he made a slave narrative. A slave narrative is a type of literacy work that is made up of written accounts of enslaved Africans. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery around 1818. He escaped when he was in his 20s and after going to a black church he became an abolitionist. He was asked to tell his story at the abolitionist meetings and he became an anti-slavery lecturer. Frederick Douglass is first person point of view in his novel Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave. Frederick Douglass uses a lot of literary terms such as ethos, pathos, and logos for his slave narrative to be a strong and persuasive piece....
Words: 732 - Pages: 3
...controversial issue due to the amount of decades it has been around, and many other reasons. The main reason why education and individual freedom has become controversial is because of the accessibility that people have towards the two. Some people don’t have access to the two due to the economic shortages of their location, and many other because of the living conditions they are in. In Frederick Douglass’s, “The Narrative Of The Life Of Fredrick Douglass An American Slave”, Douglass believes that with out the proper education a person does not have complete freedom. Just as Douglass believes, Martin Luther King Jr.’s, “The Purpose of Education”, emphasizes mainly on how he believes that with out the proper education, a person can not be completely free because a person needs to be able to use his or her education in the proper manner. Both education and freedom are related to each other due to the idea that a human being must be able to acquire education, and must use the education acquired in the most successful manner, in order to be free. As Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass feel, I also believe that having education plays an extreme role when it comes to individual freedom, because I feel that the more education that I human being has, the more freedom...
Words: 921 - Pages: 4
...Essay 1 Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs are two authors with very similar backgrounds. Both Douglass and Jacobs illustrate the tension involving being African American in a time where slaves did not have any rights, and when they were treated like property instead of a humans. Each of the slaves had different experiences with slavery, but one thing in common: share their accounts through autobiography on how slavery greatly changed their lives. The experiences, memories and treatment in any situation are viewed upon differently between a man and a woman. Obvious in the case of slavery, the two sexes were treated differently and so therefore their recollections of such events were-different Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, were both written during the same time period. Both authors go into many aspects regarding the cruelty of slavery, but they still had their differences. During each of the author’s childhood they explain how it was for them. When Harriet was growing up in her, she was shielded from slavery. Her Father was accomplished carpenter, whose wish was to someday buy his children. “I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise…” On the other hand Fredrick childhood was the opposite. Fredrick was born to a slave mother and an undisclosed white man. He did not know his age growing up he had to make educational guesses. ”I have no...
Words: 577 - Pages: 3
...way to see life; they appreciate every single moment of happiness. For slaves, there was almost no time for happiness. A writer that describes all that he/she had to go through during his/hers life time, explains every single detail because they remember what they felt at that moment, how it felt, the smell, the light, the thoughts, everything. Slaves suffered too much, until they said “enough”. As black slaves, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs have a lot of common because of the symbolism they used, the theme of how they describe slavery, and the literacy scene in how they did something everyone thought was impossible. For both, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, the symbolism of the word “slave” had a deeper meaning than just a word. In “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave” is written, “The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, change to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon” (Douglass). In this quote, Douglass is describing how the person who bought him for slave changed from being a good person to becoming a demon. The power that corrupts this person which in the story is Mrs. Auld makes her become a bad person by wanting to have control over the slave. This is one example of the symbolism of how Douglass used the...
Words: 1028 - Pages: 5
...Fredrick Douglass final essay Subpoint 4: The Christianity of the slaveholders is hypocritical and used to justify their actions. There are two forms of Christianity represented in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and each are described and function differently throughout the text. Based on Douglass’ personal recollections and thoughts in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, there are both real and false versions of religion and generally, the real or “true” form of Christianity is practiced by himself as well as some whites who are opposed to slavery. The false form of religion, or what the author explained in one of the important quotes in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, “the hypocritical Christianity of this land” (95) is practiced by whites, most notably Mr. Covey, and is a complete bastardization of the true ideals behind genuine Christian thought. Through his discussions of religion that are interspersed throughout The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the reader gets the sense that slavery and true Christianity are opposing forces and one cannot be present while the other exists. Not only is the simultaneous existence of the true version Christianity with slavery impossible, it appears that even if real Christianity does exist in a pure form, the introduction of slavery corrupts it inevitably and...
Words: 2185 - Pages: 9
...Slavery was a very disturbing action that existed in America’s history. African Americans were treated terribly during this time because of things such as racism, discrimination, and prejudice. They were treated as if they were not even human beings. One specific account that is available regarding slavery in the 1800s is The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. This book, published in 1845, is an autobiography that gives a vivid description of the struggles Frederick Douglass faced as a slave in America. The first thing that Frederick Douglass had to face was prejudice. Douglass was automatically viewed differently in his time simply because of the color of his skin. The Prejudice Personality is also known as “Authoritarian Personality.” An example of someone with this type of personality is Mr. Austin Gore, Douglass’s overseer at one time. He thought that he automatically had a power over the slaves because he was a white man. He judged the slaves as worthless and stupid before ever knowing the facts. Little did he know that Douglass was so smart that he would later write a book, let alone learn to read and write. This predisposed judgment is an example of someone with the Prejudice Personality. Prejudice is an attitude, however and therefore can be changed or eliminated. This is not an easy task though. In order to ever make a social change, as in the case of slavery, an attitude change must come first. According to Functional theorist...
Words: 856 - Pages: 4
...Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, Written by himself. New York: Blight, 2003. Frederick Douglass was known as the most important African American leader and intellectual in the 19th century. He became a major figure in the crusade for abolition, the drama of emancipation and the effort to give meaning to black freedom during reconstruction. He tells stories about the 20 years of living the life as slave to his amazing and courageous escape. Douglass portrayed the core meaning of slavery, for both individuals and of the nation in his narrative. His multiple meanings of freedom as an idea and reality of mind and body and of the consequences of its denial were his themes in the book. The narrative also uncovers Douglass’s symbolic strategies in moral and economic slavery, the master-slave relationship, the psychology of slaveholder, the aims and arguments of abolitionists and the impending political crisis between North and South. He believed in equal rights as throughout his narrative dreamed of being free and wondered why slaves where treated the way they were. Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in Tuckahoe, Maryland. He never new his exact age as there was never any record of his birth. Not knowing this information made him realize early on that there was a difference and unfairness in equality as he commented on he never met a slave in his life who could tell when their birthday was or how old they were. He continued saying...
Words: 1603 - Pages: 7
...Frederick Douglass’s experience during the time of slavery was both narrated by himself however varying in the amount of information provided in both My Bondage and My Freedom as well as in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; An American Slave, Written by Himself. Although they both contain similar facts of information about himself and his experience, they are different because My Bondage and My Freedom contains more content on Douglass’s background history prior to becoming owned by masters giving this narrative a different focus. This differs from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; An American Slave, Written by Himself because this narrative only briefly spoke about Douglass's background facts and rather moved quickly into what he saw and experienced as a slave making this more of his focus in this narrative....
Words: 508 - Pages: 3
...Frederick Douglass During a time of war leading to reconstruction of the United States of America there were few that had such passion to speak out against slavery to set forth laws of quality. An escaped slave, Frederick Douglass, went against current times with the possibility of being apprehended and executed became an abolitionist. Despite the fact that he was an ex-slave, he taught himself how to read and became a man of many words. His passions led him to prove society wrong, with the notion that slaves would not gain enough intelligence to become an independent member of society. He did the unthinkable; he spoke with great intellect as a modern leader of African Americans at many public affairs. In doing so, he paved the way for other great African American abolitionist leaders such as W.E.B Dubois. He was a man with many different endeavors. Frederick Douglass also published an auto biography that was the most widely published work in African American literature. Lastly, his political position was also a great example for other great African American politicians to come. Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was a slave but changed his name to Frederick Douglass after he escaped successfully from his slave owner. Born and raised in Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Maryland at Holme Hill Farm. His mother was also a slave and her name was Harriet Bailey. As for his father, he did not know exactly who he was; however, it was believed to be a white man, his master...
Words: 1089 - Pages: 5
