Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass is the self written story of a slave’s life who lived around mid 1800s’ in America. The copy I am reading is 188 pages that has attached related documents and is edited with an introduction by David W. Blight. From the time you read the introduction and document pages until you read Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, which is written by him, its purpose is to tell you about the slavery, and every possible aspect of it, like: moral, economic, master-slave relationship, psychology of slaveholders and the arguments of abolitionists. As an example I will quote a portion of a paragraph from the introduction part which says “Close readings of the Narrative uncover not only Douglass’s rhetorical strategies but also a good deal about the moral and economic nature of slavery, the master-slave relationship, the psychology of slaveholders, the aims and arguments of abolitionists, and the impending political crisis between North and South that would lead to the Civil War.”
In my opinion the accomplishment of the book is more than the intention of Douglass himself. Surely, he wrote about his life to make people aware of what it was like to be a slave and stop slavery. But, I don’t think he even knew that one day the book would not only be used as part of American and especially slavery history, but, as part of America’s oldest literary traditions as well. This is evident in the introduction part where it states “Douglass’s Narrative, like much of his oratory, also fits squarely into one of America’s oldest literary traditions: the jeremiad.”
As a matter of fact, it’s the facts, incidents and struggles of Douglass’s life that is the strategy and tool for achieving his goals in his life which creates tools for achieving his goals in the book. He starts the book by mentioning about his life’s beginning "The whisper that my master was my father, may or may not be true; and, true or false, it is of but little consequence to my purpose whilst the fact remains, in all its glaring odiousness, that slaveholders have ordained, and by law established, that the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts, and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well as pleasurable; for by this cunning arrangement, the slaveholder, in cases not a few, sustains to his slave the double relation of master and father." What an incident! Everyone knows that a slave’s son was considered a slave. But, in case of Fredrick’s life there is a whisper that his master might have been his father. So, his master being his father in life becomes the tool to teach us about the situation of a slave whose father would be his master. It shows how they would make laws to administer their lusts in anyway possible. Here is where a question arises in my mind, if a slave woman is so bad that her blood is a slave no matter what, then, why would you sleep with her? The main beauty of the book is that it gives you a general idea of what slavery truly was, through telling only a single persons life story. What I mean is, most parts do not only apply to Frederick’s life but, all other slaves directly share the same history as well. "It was considered as being bad enough to be a slave; but to be a poor man's slave was deemed a disgrace indeed!" Chapter 3, It shows how disgraceful it was to be a poor man’s slave. "'It is better that a dozen slaves suffer under the lash, than that the overseer should be convicted, in the presence of the slaves, of having been at fault.'" Chapter 4, again he talks about value of all slaves in normal people’s eye, not only himself. "It was worth a half-cent to kill a 'nigger,' and a half-cent to bury one." Chapter 4, once more it talks about all slavery. Slaves were treated as property and in this specific example they worth a cent.
One of the interesting tools the writer used to not only inform me about the slavery but, made it easier for me to understand most of the parts is the way he defines things and gives you words to help you imagine the situation. Like: “Everything looked clean, new and beautiful. I saw few or no dilapidated houses, with poverty-stricken inmates; no half-naked children and bare-footed women, such as I had been accustomed to see in Hillsborough, Easton, St. Michael’s, and Baltimore. The people looked more able, stronger, healthier, and happier, than those of Maryland.” Chapter 11, he could have easily said that: “people seemed to live a better life than Hillsborough, Easton, St. Michael’s or Baltimore.” But, instead he gives you more definitive words to help you understand better.
In my opinion the writer is very successful in achieving his goals. Just us, using his book as a way to learn an aspect of American history is a big achievement for him. Plus I want to add a quote from the document part of the book that shows how this book is honored through history again and again. “America has the mournful honor of adding a new department to the literature of civilization, - the autobiographies of escaped slaves… The subjects of two of these narratives, Frederick Douglass and Josiah Henson, we have known personally, and, apart from the internal evidence of truth which their stories afford, we have every reason to put confidence in them as men of veracity.” page 135.
In conclusion, I learned an abundance of information about the history of slavery in America. The way masters would treat their slaves was very harsh. Free people were trading human beings and would use them as property. To keep them as property they believed they should keep them away from education. “Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read. To his own words, further, he said, “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell.” Chapter 6
The only thing I would say some times stopped me from reading the book would be some sad points in his life. It was making me so sad that I wouldn’t want to read more. I sometimes thought that by my stopping to read, their sufferings might end. “Master would keep his lacerated young woman tied up in this horrid situation four or five hours at a time. I have known him to tie her up early in the morning, and whip her before breakfast; leave her, to his store, return at dinner, and whip her again, cutting her in the places already made raw with his cruel lash.” Chapter 9, page 78. And as you read further it talks about how the girl being whipped over and over was burned in her early life time, it talks more and more about suffers and sorrows that you don’t want to continue reading that portion. You just want to skip those sorrows in illusion of stopping the sorrows by stopping to read.
I think it is a really great book to start history of slavery with. It gives you a real life story of someone who is directly related to history of America. I definitely can connect some parts of the book to my country, where my countries history was my life once, and that part is education. I believe, that everything my country goes through right now is because of a low level of education. The way they used to keep slaves illiterate in order to use them as property and ignore their rights. A high percentage of illiteracy is the cause of almost all problems in my country too. I learnt how Douglass taught himself in anyways possible to read. He even used his friendship with street boys to learn. That is what my country needs, Education. At the end I recommend all history seven students to read this book. By reading this book they will learn a lot about a big portion of history seven, which is slavery. But, my recommendation would not be limited to just people who take history seven class. Any one interested in learning about slavery can read the book and find the specific information that he or she needs, while people even use it as a part of literature as mentioned before.
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