Transcript Revolutionary Rhetoric IV

DECLARATIONS IN DIALOGUE
NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF
FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AN
AMERICAN SLAVE WRITTEN BY
HIMSELF
GENRE
• Autobiography: a crafted story
• Slave narrative: a familiar genre
• Both genres located between history and
literature
• Rhetorical purposes: for self-reflection, to
create a public picture of the self and the
life, to advance a cause through the
narrative of a life experience
AMERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
• Puritans as God’s elect; preoccupation with the self -- diaries,
journals, meditations
• Jonathan Edwards, “Personal Narrative” (c. 1740)
• Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (1771-88)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” (1841): “Man is
his own star”
• Enlightenment focus on the individual: responsibility for
actions, autonomy, “striving,” isolation
• America: an exceptional land; a new and empty land;
opportunities for creativity: “the American, this new man”
(Crèvecoeur)
SLAVE NARRATIVES
• Documentary contributions requiring interpretation
• Very popular form: over 100 book-length slave narratives
• Relation between speeches and print texts: narratives as
“structured formal revisions of spoken works organized and
promoted by anti-slavery organizations” (Davis and Gates xvi)
“It was the face of the race that the slave narrators painted, so
as to give it a voice. It is this notion of the presence of voice and selfcreation through representation, transferred to writing through the
metaphor of voice, which motivated the ex-slaves to produce
hundreds of testimonies of their enslavement . . . ” (Davis and Gates
xxxi).
Davis, Charles T., and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. The Slave’s Narrative. New York: Oxford
UP, 1985.
SOME SLAVE NARRATIVES 1760-1845
•
1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narratives of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, written by Himself.
London.
•
1831, Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave,
Related by Herself, With a Supplement by the Editor, to Which is
Added the Narrative of Asa-Asa, A Captured African. London.
•
1833, Richard Allen. The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labors of the
Right Reverend Richard Allen. Philadelphia.
•
1836, Jarena Lee, The Life and Religious Experiences of Jarena Lee,
A Coloured Lady, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel.
Revised and Corrected from the Original Manuscript, Written by
Herself. Philadelphia.
•
1840, Juan Francisco Manzano, Poems by a Slave in the Island of
Cuba, recently liberated, translated from the Spanish, by R. R.
Madden, M. D., with the History of the Early Life of the Negro Poet,
written by Himself . . . London.
ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENTS
Extensive history in England, France, and American
1775, Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage,
Philadelphia (Quakers)
1775, Thomas Paine, “African Slavery in America”
Gradual elimination of slavery in the North: Northwest Ordinance, 1787
Slave trade outlawed by 1807/08, but illegal slave trade continued (e.g.,
Amistad)
1833, American Anti-Slavery Society, founded by William Lloyd Garrison,
Theodore Weld, and Robert Purvis
• The Liberator, newspaper, 1831-1865
• Tenets of Garrison’s abolitionism:
• Immediate emancipation
• Disaffiliation with the U.S. government: the Constitution as a proslavery document
• Pacifism
FROM THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE LIBERATOR,
JANUARY 1, 1831
“To the Public” (page 1)
Assenting to the‘self-evident truth maintained in
the American Declaration of Independence, ‘that all men
are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights--among which are life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness,’ I shall strenuously contend for
the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population.”
"I am aware, that many object to the severity of my
language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh
as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do
not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. . . . I am in
earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not
retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD.”
All issues available online through UCI Library: 19th Century U.S.
Newspapers
The newspaper
speaks!
. . . I come, a stranger in this
busy sphere,
...
My name is ‘liberator’! I propose
to hurl my shafts at freedom’s
deadliest foes
...
to redeem the slave!
DOUGLASS, ABOLITIONIST ORATOR
• 1838, New Bedford, Mass -- subscription to The Liberator: “my
soul was set on fire”; “sympathy for my brethren in bonds”; “I
got a pretty correct idea of the principles, measures and spirit
of the anti-slavery reform . . . I took right hold of the cause”
(Narrative 119)
• First speech, 1841; hired as a lecturer by Garrison’s
organization; approximately 200 speeches between 1839 and
1845
• Douglass’ speeches offered few autobiographical details
(Blassingame xlvii-liii)
• As a fugitive slave, “Douglass . . . appeared as both victim and
victor, exhibiting the nobility and intellect of blacks, and the
contradiction that was slavery” (Blassingame xlvii).
John W. Blassingame, ed. The Frederick Douglass Papers. Series One: Speeches,
Debates, and Interviews. Vol. 1: 1841-46. New Haven: Yale UP, 1979.
PRESSURE TO TELL HIS STORY
• “By 1844, Douglass’s oratorical skills and thoughtful
analyses caused many observers to doubt him;
some claimed he had never been inside the peculiar
institution.” (Blassingame)
• Danger for a fugitive slave to reveal details:
possibility of recapture
• Douglass responds to pressure by writing the
Narrative (1845): 9 reprints in three years, 11,000
copies, translations
from “living evidence” to political actor
• Douglass’ relationship with Garrison: tutelage
• Peabody’s 1849 review on the Narrative: “He is one of
the living evidences that there is in the colored population
of the South no natural incapacity for the enjoyment of
freedom. . . . [He may be] a most useful laborer in the
cause of human rights” (138).
• Nathaniel P. Rogers’ review of an 1844 address (139-41):
The narrative was “dullish in manner,” but after he closes
the narrative he “let out the outraged humanity that was
laboring in him, in indignant and terrible speech . . .
[reference to Toussaint] . . . He was not up as a speaker-performing. He was an insurgent slave taking hold on the
right of speech, and charging on his tyrants the bondage
of his race” (141)
3 RHETORICAL CHALLENGES OF SLAVE
NARRATIVE/AUTOBIOGRAPHY
• speaking for himself, speaking for others: the
power of the exceptional life story, the hazards of
representation
•beyond spectacle: becoming more than living
evidence, the body on display
•embedding the argument within the story
Rhetors in 19th-century social movements construct
ethos so as to dramatize the process by which
experience forces a critical analysis of the social order
and, in so doing, support arguments for change.
REPRESENTATIVE MAN
THE PROBLEM OF
THE LIFE AND BODY
AS EVIDENCE
“It was at once deeply impressed upon
my mind, that, Mr. Douglass could
be . . . a stunning blow at the same
time inflected on Northern prejudice
against a colored complexion”
(“Preface” by Garrison 32-
33).
Douglass introduced as “chattel,” “a
thing,” a piece of southern ‘property’”
(Blassingame l).
Douglass participates: “This head,
these limbs, this body, I have stolen
from my master!” (1846)
The “white envelope”: Authentication by white
sponsors
Garrison’s Preface
•Listening to Douglass speak in
1841:
•“Capable of high attainments as an
intellectual and moral being—
needing nothing but a comparatively
small amount of cultivation to make
him an ornament to society and a
blessing to his race . . . “ (32)
•“manliness of character”; union of
head and heart (33)
•The Narrative: D’s choice, style;
“entirely his own production” (34)
Wendell Phillips, Letter
•“When lions write history . . .” (38)
•“We have known you long and can
put the most entire confidence in
your truth, candor, and sincerity”; “a
fair specimen of the whole truth”
(39)
•“the fathers, in 1776, signed the
Declaration of Independence with
the halter about their necks” (40)
A DRAMATIC LIFE STORY, A CRAFTED STORY:
•
I-IV – through the gates of hell: slave child with no family; hunger, cold,
witness to violence; subject to brutal economies and lawlessness
•
V – sent to Baltimore through “the work of Providence”: “I was chosen.”
F. has a “deep conviction” that he would not always be a slave (62)
•
VI-VII -- literacy instruction, interrupted, pursued: “From that moment, I
understood the pathway from slavery to freedom” (64); Columbian Orator;
on the docks, the idea of escape
•
VIII-IX – setbacks: assessed as property, back to the plantation – the
“mean” Master Thomas (76)
•
X – descent into hell:
• field work, sent to Covey, the slave-breaker: “the dark night of slavery
closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!” (81)
• An appeal to God, apostrophe to the ships: “O that I were free! O,
that I were on one of your gallant decks” (83-84)
• Fighting Covey: “a turning point in my career as a slave”; the “sense
of my own manhood” (89): “a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of
slavery, to the heaven of freedom” (89)
•
XI – abortive escape; final escape: “I felt like one who had escaped a den
of hungry lions” (112)
Douglass’ Narrative: autobiographer as
master of his story
Blight: “Above all else, this book . . . is a great story told, like most
other great stories, out of the will to be known and the will to write”
(1).
Chapter I: family
• “A want of information concerning my own [age]
was a source of unhappiness to me even during
childhood” (41)
• “I never saw my mother” (42-43)
• Women being beaten (44-46): F. as spectator; “I
wish I could commit to paper the feelings with
which I beheld [Aunt Hester’s beating]” (45).
NARRATOR MORE OUTSIDE THAN
INSIDE SLAVERY?
•
•
•
•
Ch. II - Slave songs: “I did not, when a slave, understand the deep
meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself
within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without
might see and hear” (51).
“The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit . . . “
“As I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already
found its way down my cheek . . . My first glimmering conception of
the dehumanizing character of slavery.” – the moralizing function of
sentimental fiction: the songs “deepen my hatred of slavery, and
quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds”
If anyone wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of
slavery, let him go . . . , place himself in the deep pine woods, and
there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through
the chambers of his soul . . . “ (51)
2 perspectives: (a) “Slavery” is not something immediately available to
experience. It is learned, reflected upon, remembered. (b) strategy of the
former slave/authoritative rhetor/author – to reflect at a distance
WHAT CAN THE READER (WHITE) READER KNOW
ABOUT THE LIFE OF THE SLAVE?
“the will to be known”?
Ch. III: slaves suppressing the truth: “a still tongue makes a wise head”
(54)
Ch. XI: “I would keep the merciless slaveholder profoundly ignorant of the
means of flight adopted by the slave. I would leave him to imagine
himself surrounded by myriads of invisible tormentors . . . Let him feel his
way in the dark; let darkness commensurate with his crime hover over
him . . . Let us render the tyrant no aid; let us not hold the light by which
he can trace the footprints of our flying brother” (107).
Withholding feelings:
“It is impossible for me to describe my feelings as the time of my
contemplated start drew near” (110).
“I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free
State. I have never been able to answer the question with any
satisfaction to myself” (111).
THE FIRST VILLAIN
Ch. IV: Austin Gore, the overseer – mastering the slave’s dread
through the narrator’s style
“He was just the man for such a place, and it was just the place for
such a man.” (55)
“To be accused was to be convicted, and to be convicted was to be
punished; the one always following the other with immutable
certainty” (56)
“He was ambitious enough . . . Persevering enough . . . Cruel enough
. . . Obdurate enough to be insensible to the voice of a reproving
conscience” (56)
3 murders: crimes against others (a young girl, an old man) (57-59)
LITERACY: THE PATHWAY FROM
SLAVERY TO FREEDOM
Ch. V-VII, to Baltimore with Hugh and Sophie Auld
“The ties that ordinarily bind children to their homes were all
suspended in my case” (60). Looking ahead rather than behind (61)
Rapturous arrival: a “white face beaming with the most kindly
emotions” (61-62)
“I was chosen from among them all” – “a special interposition of
divine Providence” (62)
From angel to demon; Hugh Auld, the second villain: “his heart must
be harder than stone” (65)
Regarding Hugh Auld: “What he most dreaded, that most desired.
What he most loved, that I most hated. . . . (64)
Female slaves “contending with the pigs for the offal thrown into the
street” (65): as Fred rises, women slaves remain in abject
CHAPTER VII
• Heard students reading
from The Columbian
Orator, 1797, on the
docks; bought a copy
• Collection of speeches
and writings
• http://digital.library.pitt.edu/c
gi-bin/t/text/textidx?idno=00acf6728m;view=
toc;c=nietz
Coming to consciousness
• turning poor white boys into teachers (67), but also
interlocutors – “I used to talk this matter of slavery over with
them” – they created a public on the docks
• Being a slave for life (67): discontent – “Any thing, no
matter what, to get rid of thinking!” (68
•
abolition– Fred, a ready listener: what is “abolition”?;
newspaper article about petitions (69)
• Escape required writing: learning to write in the shipyard:
copybooks (70)
“Dialogue between a master and a slave” (Blight 12931)
•
The slave is represented as having been recaptured, . . . and the
master opens the dialogue with an upbraiding speech, charging the
slave with ingratitude, and demanding to know what he has to say in
his own defense.
•
“Touched by the slave‘s answer, the master tells him he is permitted to speak
for himself. Thus invited to the debate, the slave made a spirited defense of
himself, and thereafter the whole argument, for and against slavery, was
brought out. The master was vanquished at every turn in the argument; and
seeing himself to be thus vanquished, he generously and meekly emancipates
the slave, with his best wishes for his prosperity. . . .
I could not help feeling that the day might come, when the well-directed
answers made by the slave to the master, in this instance, would find their
counterpart in myself.”
•
“The moral which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the
conscience of even a slaveholder” (68)
•
Sheridan’s speeches for emancipation of Catholics: “a powerful
vindication of human rights” (68)
BACK TO THE PLANTATION: CONDITIONS FOR
CONSCIOUSNESS, CH. VIII-IX
•
“I saw more clearly” (71); “I suffered more anxiety than most of my fellowslaves” (72).
“My poor old grandmother . . .” (73-74)
•
The slave holiday: the cunning slaveholder gives “a dose of vicious dissipation,
artfully labelled with the name of liberty” (91); “we had almost as well be
slaves to man as to rum”; a system of “fraud and inhumanity”
•
Sabbath school: “Their minds had been starved by their cruel masters. They
had been shut up in mental darkness” (95).
•
“[At Mr. Garnder’s] I was kept in such a perpetual whirl of excitement, I could
think of nothing, scarcely, but my life; and in thinking of my life, I almost forgot
my liberty” (106).
•
“to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. . . He
must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery . . . And he can be brought
to that only when he ceases to be a man” (106)
•
Ch. XI, Master Thomas: “if I would be happy, I must lay out no plans for the
future . . . setting aside my intellectual nature” (108)
A NARRATIVE OF TRIUMPHANT MANHOOD?
MORE VICTOR THAN VICTIM
•
Ch. X:
• Fred “broken” by Covey
• The apostrophe to the ships (84)
• The battle with Covey: “turning-point in my career,” revived sense of
manhood, “glorious resurrection” (89)
• Sabbath school
• Back to Baltimore, laboring (105-06)
Ch. XI: escape
“Douglass’s preoccupation with manhood and power all but erases any self representation linking him to women, family, and intimacy” (David
Leverenz 109)
Douglass as Faustian striver, self-made man, enacting the “repression of the
feminine required by middle-class virility” (Jenny Franchot 149)
FOR NEXT WED./THURS., 2/20, 21
• A close look at Chapters X and XI
• A reconsideration of the narrative as an
introduction to the institution of slavery:
the persuasive force of sentimental
rhetoric in the context of reform
movements
• from solitary striving to the forging of
bonds