Essay 2

Tate Andrie

Essay 2

American Literature I

The Life of Frederick Douglass: Why Slaves Deserve Liberty

            “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” is an autobiography by Frederick Douglass himself and his life growing up as a slave. Douglass’ fight for the anti-slavery movement ultimately shows why the men and women of slavery deserve liberty, using his personal accounts to argue against slavery and why it is not only immoral, but illogical as well.

            Through the first few chapters of Narrative, Douglass gives the audience a first-hand look into the cruelties of slavery, presenting his personal experience as a slave as the typical life of a slave, thus convincing the audience of his credibility. For example, Douglass explains that he, as well as most of the slave population, does not know their age, writing “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs…” (1182). As a mixed slave (his father a white man and his mother a slave), he also talks about how these types of slaves face harsher treatment. This is because the mistress of the slave is often disgusted with their existence due to the slave being the offspring of her husband and a slave girl, and makes sure that they either suffer constantly or are to be sold (Douglass 1183).

            The fact that there is such a large population of these mixed-slaves seems to prove that the biblical argument that proslavery writers use (Genesis 9.20-27, in which Noah cures his son and condemns him to bondage to his brothers) is illogical. Douglass argues that the increase of the mixed-race slaves “will do away the force of the argument, that God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right. If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural” (1184). Douglass not only proves that the biblical argument slaveholder’s use for the justification of slavery is illogical, but also that the mere idea that African Americans are inferior is a fallacy.

            Douglass also makes the case that slavery is not sustained through the natural superiority of whites (as whites do not actually have a natural superiority) but through strategies whites used to hold power over blacks. From the beginning of a slave’s life, it was custom that they are taken away from their mothers usually before their first year of age. This created vulnerability for the slave almost right from birth, as well as “hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child” (Douglass 1182). Whites also sustained power over the blacks by restricting them of any education, most importantly learning to read or write. Douglas writes about how one of his mistresses, Mrs. Auld, teaches him the alphabet and how to read small words. Once Mr. Auld finds out about his, he instantly forbade her of any further instruction, saying “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell…A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master-to do as he is told to do” (Douglass 1196). This gives Douglass a revelation, realizing the strategy whites use to enslave blacks. Blacks were not slaves because of their “natural inferiority”, but because they were kept in the state of ignorance. This further shows the irrationality of “black inferiority” as well as bring the inhumanity of slavery to the surface for the audience, and strongly argues why slaves deserved liberty.

            Douglass shows how slavery not only affected the minds of the slaves, but the slaveholder as well. For example, when Douglass is first introduced to his mistress Mrs. Auld, he described her as “a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman” and as talked about before even started teaching Douglass how to read (1198). But as time went on, Douglass described that “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me…under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness” (Douglass 1198). Woman during the nineteenth century had a gender stereotype of being sympathetic and pure, and in Douglass’ narrative Mrs. Auld represents just that. This turns Mrs. Auld into an object of sympathy for the readers, much like the slaves are in his narrative. So when Mrs. Auld loses her kindness towards Douglass and turns it into anger and hatred, it acts as an emotional reinforcement for the reader that slavery is unnatural and evil. Douglass’ use of emotional appeal to the reader helps argue his point that slaves were treated unjustly and deserve liberty.

             “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is Douglass’ argument to end slavery. He uses personal accounts to connect with the audience emotionally, bringing slaveries harsh and brutal realty to the surface for the reader, while also presenting the fallacies of the pro-slavery arguments.  His real-life narrative shows that the African-American slaves were people of equal worth, and that the men and women held in bondage deserve liberty.

Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and American Slave.” The       Norton Anthology of American Literature Vol. B.  New York: W. W. Norton, 2012. Print.