Frederick Douglass, 1818-1895

thefederalistpapers.org

According to our text, the early twentieth century saw a momentary enthusiasm for remembering Douglass as one of the most memorable and formidable anti-slavery speakers, lecturers, and intellects. However, it was not until the 1960s, in which the nation saw a cry for Black Studies programs in colleges and universities, that the life and work of Frederick Douglass was reconsidered. In a rare instance, the African American publication, Ebony magazine published an article on Douglass. The post-modern era of Civil Rights Activism caused black intellectuals to cast a backward glance at the endeavors of their forebears. The article began:

"Born a slave, he escaped to freedom while still young and devoted a long and fruitful life to the winning of freedom for all Negroes. A fervent integrationist, he was the first of the 'freedom riders' and 'sit iners.' He felt that true freedom could not com for him until all Negroes were free and equal" (Ebony Magazine, 1963).

Born in Talbot County in about 1818 to Harriet Bailey and an "unknown white man," Frederick Douglass emerged from the brutality and subjugation of slavery to become one of this nation's most revered activists, reformers, abolitionists, and statesmen (Gates 385). Our text points out that James McHune Smith, a physician and contemporary of Douglass's in the Abolitionist movement, described Douglass as a "'noble example'" of American perseverance and self-actualization. Douglass moved audiences with his eloquence and oratory, which he delivered while still under the threat of recapture. The speaker casts an ironic figure against the spectre of the stated goals of American independence: Douglass was the very epitome of the self-made individual who elevated himself from the depths of bondage, to freedom.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself was the author's first autobiography published in 1845; the subtitle assuming even greater significance as its author battled against assumptions that a black man was incapable of intellectual thought or reflection. Ten years later, following a disagreement with abolitionist journalist William Lloyd Garrison, he would republish his biography under the title My Bondage and My Freedom. The second narrative, which includes the addendum of his life as an orator for human rights, is comparatively a more trenchant, reflective, and philosophical review of Douglass's life in slavery. In it, he recounts numerous remembrances of the horrors of physical abuse which he himself bore; and the abuse he witnessed of others, particularly women.

Notably, Douglass is credited with introducing the "I-Narrative" of slave autobiography: one that features the first-person account of slavery from one who experienced--and witnessed its horrors firsthand. Also of note, Douglass's second biography explores not simply the physical horrors of slavery, but the moral, psychological, and emotional abuses incurred from the institution. Determined to defend the personhood and humanity of the slave subject, Douglass's project was an examination of the individual's evolution as he journeyed from bondage to freedom.

Each edition of Douglass's story includes what are now considered the conventions of the slave narrative. Narrative and My Bondage and My Freedom are episodic in structure, featuring his recollections of an idyllic childhood in his grandmother's cottage before coming to an awareness of his condition as a slave. He came of age as a house servant to Thomas Auld and his benevolent wife, Lucretia, before going to Baltimore to serve at the household of Hugh and Sophia Auld. In the Auld household, Douglass would learn to read from Scripture until Mr. Auld demanded his wife to stop instructing him, insisting that if one were "to give (a slave) and inch, he will take the entire ell." It was at this point that Douglass realized that the key to freedom was literacy.

Following an altercation between Hugh Auld and his brother, Thomas (Douglass's legal owner) Douglass was sent to work as a farmhand at St. Michaels, where he was turned over to the notorious slave-breaker, Edward Covey. Our text relates that "after six months of unstinting labor, merciless whippings, and repeated humiliations, the desperate sixteen-year-old slave fought back, resisting one of Covey's attempted beatings and intimidating his tormentor sufficiently to prevent future attacks. Douglass's account of his struggle with Covey would become the heroic turning point of his future autobiographies and one of the most celebrated scenes in all of antebellum African American literature" (385). Douglass's triumph over the monstrous Covey may have served as a significant turning point in Douglass's emergence as the formidable and undaunted figure for which he is renowned.

One of the most striking aspects of Douglass's second autobiography is that, despite the eloquent language of the text, Douglass portrays his life in and after slavery with rare directness and explicit honesty. Douglass is brutally direct and incisive, naming precise dates, places, and names associated with the events that took place. His intrepid honesty never wavered despite the fact that he was a fugitive slave. In an excerpt from My Bondage and My Freedom, Douglass explains that he often tired from recounting his life in slavery to Northern audiences; however, he took great pains to write the history of his plight not once, but three times. Douglass's autobiographies gave form to the so-called 'slave narrative,' endowing the form with its recognizable conventions, and paving the way for the evolution of black autobiography and 'writing the self into existence.'