Transcript Frederick+Douglass - Indian Institute of Technology

About Frederick Douglass
• Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, who later became known
as Frederick Douglass, was born a slave in Talbot County,
Maryland near Hillsboro.
• He escaped slavery in 1838 and went to New York city and married
Anna Murray, a free colored woman.
• He is famously known as an American abolitionist, editor, orator,
author, statesman and reformer and is popularly referred to as "The
Sage of Anacostia" and "The Lion of Anacostia”.
• As one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement,
Douglass fought to end slavery within the United States in the
decades prior to the Civil War.
• During the Civil War, he served as an adviser to President Abraham
Lincoln and fought for the adoption of constitutional amendments
that guaranteed voting rights and other civil liberties for blacks.
Autobiography
• Douglass' most well-known work is his autobiography,
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,
which was published in 1845.
• Critics frequently attacked the book as inauthentic, not
believing that a black man could possibly have produced
so eloquent a piece of literature.
• The book was an immediate bestseller, selling over
11,000 copies and received overwhelmingly positive
critical reviews.
Reasons for writing an Autobiography
• To present the reality of slavery.
• To generate enthusiasms for the abolitionist struggle.
• In his own words,
“Sincerely and earnestly hoping that this little book may
do something toward throwing light on the American
slave system, and hastening the glad day of deliverance
to the millions of my brethren in bonds--faithfully
relying upon the power of truth, love, and justice, for
success in my humble efforts—and solemnly pledging
my self anew to the sacred cause.”
In His Times …
• Slaves did not know when they were born and couldn’t determine
how old they were.
• Children born into slavery were denied the privilege of knowing
their age and their parentage. A few lucky ones had the liberty to see
their mother 4 or 5 times in their lifetime.
“ I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother. She made
her journeys to see me in the night, traveling the whole
distance of 12 miles on foot. Her death soon ended
what little we could have while she lived, and with it her
hardships and suffering ”.
He Recalls …
• Whipping and selling unmanageable slaves, naked children, want of
time to sleep over want of beds, fiendish barbarity of slave holders,
fields of blood and blasphemy.
“I have seen him whip a woman, causing the blood to
run half an hour at the time; and this, too, in the midst
of her crying children, pleading for their mother's
release. He seemed to take pleasure in manifesting his
fiendish barbarity ”.
• Horses valued more than slaves, never say a word against a
complaint, luxury of whipping the servants, penalty of telling the
truth, ‘still tongue makes a wise head’, disgrace to be a poor man's
slave.
Organization of the book
• The book is divided into eleven chapters describing his life, from
birth into slavery to escape into freedom.
• In the first few chapters, he gives an account of his childhood and
narrates few incidents revealing the horrible character of slavery and
the devilish atrocities inflicted upon them.
• In the next few chapters, Douglass describes his struggle towards
freedom at Baltimore. He speaks about his everlasting and unabated
desire to learn to read, realizing that education is a pathway from
slavery to freedom.
• Towards the end, he describes his efforts in planning to escape to
the north, to become ‘his own master’.
The Genre – A Slave Narrative
• The slave narrative is a literary form which grew out of the
experience of enslaved Africans in the New World. Some six
thousand former slaves from North America and the Caribbean
gave an account of their lives during the 18th and 19th centuries
• The Genre soon emerged as a mainstay of African American
literature.
• North American and Caribbean slave narratives can be broadly
categorized into three distinct forms: Tales of religious redemption,
Tales to inspire the abolitionist struggle, and Tales of progress.
• The tales written to inspire the abolitionist struggle such as
Frederick Douglass's autobiography, are the most famous because,
they tend to have a strong autobiographical motif.
Analyzing the book …
• Throughout the Narrative, Douglass has a tendency to skip around
often and does not always follow a completely chronological ordering.
• Throughout the text it can be noticed that Douglass makes reference
not just to the cruelity of slavery as an insititution, but also to the way
it has become institutionalized through things like politics, law, religon,
and social practices.
“ There is no legal protection in fact, whatever there may
be in form, for the slave population; and any amount of
cruelty may be inflicted on them with impunity. Is it
possible for the human mind to conceive of a more
horrible state of society? ”
Analyzing the book …
• Often, the reader is left to figure out the psychology behind the
awful incidents described while Douglass simply explains his feelings
and reactions.
• The plantation where slaves were employed, is described as being so
big that many slaves never even saw their master and vice versa.
Douglass details an instance in which a slave was heading down a
road and encountered his master without knowing who he was.
When the unknown master asked the slave how he was treated and
the slave responded that he was ill-treated, he was made an example
of by being chained up and sold to a slave trader—one of the worst
punishments.
Analyzing the book …
• Douglass often interrupts his own story to tell tales of other slaves.
He does this to emphasize his points and show the extent of the
cruelty and wrong of slavery even if he wasn’t directly involved in
the event he describes. These side stories work to tell the whole tale
of slavery by showing the extent to which the cruelty was manifest.
“ The slave auctioneer's bell and the church-going bell
chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the
heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts
of his pious master ”.
• A turning point in the narrative comes after an incident in which
Douglass revolted back against his master, for the first time in his
life. He describes this incident as the turning point in his life, for it
rekindled the flame of hope for freedom in his heart.
Analyzing the book …
Metaphorical References :
Douglass uses innumerous metaphors throughout his autobiography.
• ‘A still tongue makes a wise head'.
• ‘It is worth a half-cent to kill a nigger and a half-cent to bury one’
• ‘Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world and would make
him unfit for a slave’.
• ‘ Education - the pathway from slavery to freedom’
• ‘ It is wise to bear the ills present than to fly to those unknown’
• ‘Escape from a den of hungry lions’
• ‘The paper (The Liberator) is my meat and drink’
Analyzing the book …
Words used :
Douglass uses a variety of words to color his experiences.
• Torture : atrocity, hardships, suffering, horror, terror.
• Slave holders : fiendish, barbarous, cruel, artful, obdurate.
• Slaves : weak, emaciated, scarred, painful gnawings of hunger.
• Slavery : blood, blasphemy, dehumanizing character, wretchedness
• Feelings of Slaves : depressed spirit, ineffable sadness, thrill of
horror, unbearable mental torture, torment, sting, unutterable anguish,
horrid, dread, apprehension.
• Education/Freedom : prosperity, divine providence, joy, rapture,
happiness, unabated interest, blessedness, bliss.
Nostalgia …
• Douglass says that what troubled him the most before making the
escape was, that he would be separated from his dear friends at
Baltimore and he would not see them again, even if he was successful
or if he failed in his mission.
“ It is my opinion that thousands would escape from
slavery, who now remain, but for the strong cords of
affection that bind them to their friends. The thought of
leaving my friends was decidedly the most painful
thought with which I had to contend. The love of them
was my tender point, and shook my decision more than
all things else ”.
Quotes from the book
• “We were all ranked together at the valuation. Men and women, old and young,
married ands single, were ranked with horses, sheep and swine. There were horses
and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the
scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination”
• “I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a
blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It
opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out”
• “There I was in the midst of thousands, and yet a perfect stranger; without home
and without friends, in the midst of thousand of my own brethren—children of a
common Father, and yet I dared not to unfold to any one of them my sad
condition”
Death is Better than bondage for life …