Literature Resources = from Gale

Title: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An = American=20 Slave, Written by Himself

Autobiography, 1845

American Abolitionist ( 1817 ? - 1895 )

Other Names Used: Bailey, Frederick Augustus W.; Bailey, Frederick = Augustus=20 Washington;

Source: Nineteenth-Century Literature = Criticism. Ed.=20 Russel Whitaker. Vol. 141. Detroit: Gale, 2004. From=20 Literature Resource Center.

Document Type: Work = overview,=20 Critical essay

Introduction
Biographical = Information
Critical=20 Reception
Plot and Major Characters
Major Themes
Writings on = the=20 Work
Further Readings about the Work

WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by = Himself=20 (autobiography) 1845
Oration, Delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, by Frederick Douglass,=20 July 5^th, 1852 (speech) 1852
The Heroic Slave (novella) 1853
The Claims of the Negro Ethnologically Considered (speech) = 1854
The Anti-Slavery Movement (speech) 1855
My Bondage and My Freedom (autobiography) 1855
Men of Color, to Arms! (essay) 1863
What the Black Man Wants (speech) 1865
John Brown (speech) 1881
Life and Times of Frederick = Douglass, Written by Himself = (autobiography)=20 1881; revised edition, 1892
The Race Problem (speech) 1890
The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass. 5 vols. (letters, speeches, = and essays)=20 1950-75
The Frederick Douglass Papers. 6 vols. (letters, = speeches,=20 autobiography, and essays) 1979-

Introduction

The Narrative is the most famous of the more than one hundred = American=20 slave narratives written prior to the Civil War.

Biographical = Information

Douglass, whose mother was a black = slave and=20 whose father was an unidentified white man, possibly his master, was = born around=20 1817 in Tuckahoe, Maryland, as Frederick Augustus=20 Washington Bailey. He was separated from his mother in infancy and = raised by his=20 maternal grandmother on the estate of his master, Captain Aaron Anthony. = His=20 childhood was relatively happy until he was transferred to the = plantation of=20 Anthony's employer, Colonel Edward Lloyd. In 1825 Douglass was again transferred, this time to = the=20 Baltimore household of Hugh Auld, whose wife began teaching Douglass to read until Auld insisted that she = stop.=20 Douglass became convinced that literacy = provided=20 an important key to achieving his freedom and secretly began learning to = read on=20 his own.

In 1838, Douglass escaped to New = York where he=20 became a prominent figure in the abolitionist movement. In the 1840s he = began=20 speaking publicly as a lecturer for William Lloyd Garrison's = Massachusetts=20 Antislavery Society, and wrote the Narrative, his account of his=20 experiences as a slave, in response to those critics who doubted that = such an=20 eloquent orator had ever been in bondage. Concerned that he could be = returned to=20 captivity under the fugitive slave laws, Douglass=20 traveled to England and Ireland, where he was well received by local = social=20 reformers. He returned to America in 1847 and bought his freedom from = his former=20 master.

In a break with Garrison and his abolitionist paper The = Liberator,=20 Douglass founded his own weekly paper, = The=20 North Star. Throughout the 1850s and 1860s he continued his work as = a writer=20 and speaker for the abolitionist movement, and in 1863 he served as an = advisor=20 to President Abraham Lincoln on the use of black soldiers in the war = effort.=20 After the Civil War, Douglass became = involved in=20 diplomatic work, including an assignment as consul-general to the = Republic of=20 Haiti. He published two more versions of his life story, My Bondage = and My=20 Freedom (1855) and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass=20 (1881). He died in 1895 at his home in Washington, D.C.

Plot and Major = Characters

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a detailed, firsthand account = of slave=20 life and the process of self-discovery by which Douglass recognized the evils of slavery as = an=20 institution. Douglass began his story = with his=20 birth and immediately ran into a problem specific to the life of a = slave.=20 Although he knew where he was born, he had no exact knowledge of the = date, a=20 fact that set him apart from the white children of the plantation who = knew their=20 ages and could celebrate their birthdays. Slaves, according to Douglass, "know as little of their age as = horses know=20 of theirs." His awareness of his status as a slave and of the meaning of = slavery=20 as an institution was furthered when he witnessed his aunt being = stripped to the=20 waist and savagely beaten. One of the more famous episodes in the book = involves=20 Douglass overhearing his master, Hugh = Auld,=20 rebuking his wife for her desire to teach the slave to read and = declaring that=20 literacy "would forever unfit him to be a slave." Douglass gleaned two valuable lessons from = this=20 experience. He first concluded that keeping slaves ignorant and = illiterate was=20 an important element in their subjugation, and resolved to teach himself = to=20 read. Second, by observing Mrs. Auld's transformation from a kindly = woman with=20 no previous experience as a slave-owner to a harsh mistress under her = husband's=20 tutelage, Douglass learned of the = institution's=20 effects on even well-intentioned whites.

Douglass's growing dissatisfaction = with his=20 condition led to the pivotal incident in which he was sent to Edward = Covey, a=20 notorious "slave-breaker," to be disciplined. Initially reduced to = little more=20 than a brute by endless work, Douglass = finally=20 refused to submit to Covey's "discipline" any longer. The two engaged in = a=20 violent fight and Douglass, in the end, = overcame=20 his tormentor, resolving that "however long I might remain a slave in = form, the=20 day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact." From that = point, Douglass was firmly on the road to freedom = although it=20 would take him some time before he was able to accomplish that feat. He = avoided=20 going into detail on the specific means of his escape, because to do so = would=20 "run the hazard of closing the slightest avenue by which a brother slave = might=20 clear himself of the chains and fetters of slavery."

Major Themes

One of the most prominent themes in the Narrative involves the = association of literacy with freedom. The acquisition of the one = precipitated=20 the desire for the other, which was, for Douglass, a two-edged sword. He had = occasional regrets=20 about the knowledge that literacy afforded him because without the = ability to=20 change his status as slave, he was more miserable than ever. = Nonetheless, Douglass's ability to tell his story in his = own words=20 firmly refuted the commonly held belief at the time that slaves were = incapable=20 of communicating through the standard conventions of American = literature. Douglass not only displayed his facility with = the=20 dominant literary modes of his time, but he also incorporated folkloric = elements=20 from both black and white cultures into his text. Robert G. O'Meally = points out=20 that Douglass drew on the tradition of = the=20 African-American sermon, itself grounded in folklore, and that the=20 Narrative was meant to be preached as well as read.

Douglass's ambivalent relationship = to=20 Christianity is another important theme of his story. The = Narrative=20 exposed the hypocrisy of individual Christians whose treatment of slaves = was=20 cruel and inhumane, and of organized Christianity as a whole which, with = few=20 exceptions, supported the institution of slavery and even claimed that = it was=20 sanctioned by God. Douglass believed = that the=20 more religious the master, the more cruel he would be, and claimed that = "of all=20 slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the = worst."=20 Douglass's harsh criticism of = Christianity was=20 tempered by his later writings, including the Appendix to the=20 Narrative.

Critical Reception

Of the many slave narratives produced in the nineteenth century, = Douglass's has received the most critical = attention and=20 is widely regarded as the best. H. Bruce Franklin notes that "from = Ephraim=20 Peabody and William Wells Brown to the present, all students of the = slave=20 narrative have agreed that the masterpiece of the form is Frederick Douglass'=20 first autobiography." David W. Blight claims that "what sets Douglass's work apart in the genre ... is = that he=20 interrogated the moral conscience of his readers, at the same time that = he=20 transplanted them into his story, as few other fugitive slave writers = did." But=20 despite the Narrative's preeminent position within the slave = narrative=20 genre, until the 1970s it received little attention as a literary work, = and was=20 out of print from the 1850s until 1960. Franklin complains that the work = has=20 been neglected by literary historians and that Douglass, "one of the most important authors = in=20 nineteenth-century America, has remained a virtual nonentity outside the = academic ghetto of Afro-American studies."

In the years since Franklin's essay, however, the text has received=20 increasing scrutiny from a wide variety of perspectives. Scholars have = focused=20 on Douglass's participation in various=20 discourses, both black and white, including those associated with = folklore and=20 with Christianity. Kelly Rothenberg discusses Douglass's use of elements from black = folklore that=20 warn against the dangers of resistance to slavery, although he himself = rejected=20 the advice those tales offered and tried to escape despite the risks. A. = James=20 Wohlpart explores Douglass's double = challenge: to=20 the institution of slavery and also to the institution of the Christian = Church=20 that supported slavery. Douglass, = claims=20 Wohlpart, operated within the discourse of white Christianity at the = same time=20 that he subverted it. John Carlos Rowe examines Douglass's text in economic and political = terms,=20 claiming that the author was "clearly developing his own understanding = of the=20 complicity of Northern capitalism and Southern slave-holding in the 1845 = Narrative." Lisa Yun Lee also explores the politics of language = in the=20 text, noting that in the first half of the narrative Douglass is silent and powerless, but as he = acquires=20 the ability to speak within the dominant discourse, he becomes = increasingly=20 powerful and increasingly vocal. According to Lee, "the delineation = between the=20 experience of silent marginalization and speaking presence is so = thoroughly=20 presented that the binary nature of the two halves of the = Narrative must=20 be purposefully drawn." Winifred Morgan has examined Douglass's narrative in conjunction with = Harriet=20 Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, claiming that = there are=20 basic gender-related differences between the two texts. According to = Morgan,=20 what distinguishes Douglass's story = from Jacobs's=20 and indeed from most other slave narratives, is the author's emphasis on = his=20 existence as an individual who achieved both literacy and freedom almost = entirely on his own. Morgan believes that Douglass "sets up two contrasting frames: he = presents=20 himself as someone who is 'one of a kind' and at the same time=20 'representative.'" Gwen Bergner discusses Douglass's narrative as a tale of masculine = subject=20 formation with parallels to the theory of the Oedipus complex = established by=20 Freud. Bergner examines Douglass's = description of=20 the whipping of his Aunt Hester whereby he became painfully aware of = slavery as=20 an institution. Bergner explains that "while psychoanalytic theory = explains--by=20 way of the Oedipus complex--how the subject apprehends sexual = difference, Douglass's whipping scene demonstrates how an = individual also learns racial difference." Michael Bennett explores the = link=20 between anti-pastoralism and African-American literature and culture = beginning=20 with Douglass's narrative. According to = Bennett,=20 the usual terms of the city/country dichotomy were reversed in the=20 Narrative because urban spaces offered a certain amount of = freedom from=20 the worst abuses of plantation slavery practiced in isolated rural = areas. "For=20 Douglass," Bennett reports, "the city = is not just=20 relatively more free than the country, it is also a place that offers = hope of=20 the ultimate freedom: escape."