Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

by Frederick Douglass

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

A historical document that is a must read, Frederick Douglass’ personal account is powerful and impressive. Douglass, who taught himself to read and write, describes the brutal and inhumane conditions that both he and others were subjected to as enslaved people. Douglass’s writing is poignant and passionate, capturing the horrors of slavery during this time period.

He was eloquent and articulate - obviously well-educated. And sophisticated, too. He was also a slave who escaped to freedom.

But no one believed that, so he published his life story in 1845 to answer the skeptics. Not content to rest on the favorable attention his book received, he recruited black soldiers for the Union army and organized a campaign to educate the newly freed citizens. He saw that only knowledge could ensure true freedom.

"Insightful, comprehensive, dramatic." (Chicago Tribune)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781680922981
Publisher:	12th Media Services
Publication date:	01/01/1900
Pages:	72
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.31(d)

About the Author

Joshua Bennett is a professor of English at Dartmouth. He is the author of five books of poetry, criticism, and narrative nonfiction: The Sobbing School (2016), winner of the National Poetry Series and a finalist for an NAACP Image Award; Being Property Once Myself (2020), winner of the MLA’s William Sanders Scarborough Prize; Owed (2020); The Study of Human Life (2022); and Spoken Word: A Cultural History (2023). For his creative writing and scholarship, he has received fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, MIT, and the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. He lives in Massachusetts.

Hometown:

Tuckahoe, Maryland

Date of Birth:

1818

Date of Death:

February 20, 1895

Place of Death:

Washington, D.C.

Read an Excerpt

I have often been utterly astonished, since I came north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy….Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion. -- from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
LETTER FROM WENDELL PHILLIPS, ESQ. 3
CHAPTER I 4
CHAPTER II 6
CHAPTER III 9
CHAPTER IV 10
CHAPTER V 12
CHAPTER VI 14
CHAPTER VII 15
CHAPTER VIII 18
CHAPTER IX 20
CHAPTER X 23
CHAPTER XI 36
APPENDIX 42

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"He is my friend." —Abraham Lincoln

“He experienced…the tyranny and circumscription of an ambitious human being who was classified as real estate.”—W.E.B. DuBois

“This narrative contains many affecting incidents, many passages of great eloquence and power…Who can read [it], and be insensible to its pathos and sublimity?” —William Lloyd Garrison

Reading Group Guide

INTRODUCTION

The compelling autobiography of an extraordinary man born into slavery, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is also a powerful inquiry into the question of what it means to be human. From the opening sentences of the narrative, Douglass delineates the context from which this question emerges—the fact that slave owners typically thought of slaves as animals. Douglass does not know how old he is, and he quickly asserts that this is not unusual, since most slaves "know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs" (p. 47). It is instructive that this initial comparison of slaves to animals does not serve to express something about the minds of the slave owners; instead, it expresses something about the minds of the slaves that is the consequence of being born into an environment constructed and carefully maintained by their owners. In an environment that does not permit the idea that slaves are human, the only perspective available to them is that of their owners. Their own perspective therefore becomes an additional barrier to thinking of themselves as human.

Learning to read and write is essential to the process whereby Douglass comes to see himself as human. As he describes it, the acquisition of these skills is inseparable from the dawning of self-consciousness. Reading gives Douglass access to a new world that opens before him, but the strongest effect of his literacy is the light it casts on the world he already knows. His anguish is so great that he "would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing" (p. 84). It allows him to see his "wretched condition, without the remedy" (p. 84). Self-consciousness, the trait that most distinguishes humans from animals, produces such despair in Douglass that he confesses he often wished himself a beast.

Douglass portrays the breadth of slavery's ability to dehumanize through his insights into the mentality of slave owners. Douglass suggests that if slaves are made rather than born, the same is sometimes true of slave owners. The mistress who began teaching him to read and write "at first lacked the depravity indispensable to shutting [him] up in mental darkness" (p. 81). Under the influence of her husband and, more generally, the institution of slavery, "the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness" (p. 82). The mistress not only stops teaching Douglass to read and write, but she is even more vigilant than her husband in preventing him from learning. The transformation of his mistress raises the question of how much of the behavior of slave owners toward their slaves was learned and how much was internally motivated. Douglass would have us believe that the mistress was the victim of her circumstances, yet the brutality other slave owners seemed to come by so easily makes it difficult to determine whether the behavior was learned or inherent.

Edward Covey undoubtedly counts among the slave owners who play the role as if born for it; his harsh treatment breaks Douglass "in body, soul, and spirit" (p. 105). Following his eloquent lament for the freedom he cannot have, represented by the ships sailing on Chesapeake Bay, Douglass writes, "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man" (p. 107). The first part of this statement could refer to the methods employed by Covey, if not to all the owners at whose hands Douglass suffered. The second part refers to the story that follows, in which Douglass resists the whipping Covey intends to give him for disobeying. They fight for two hours, with Covey "getting entirely the worst end of the bargain" (p. 113). Douglass is never whipped again, and he describes this incident as "the turning-point in [his] career as a slave" and says that it "revived within [him] a sense of [his] own manhood" (p. 113). Douglass emphasizes the importance of literacy in developing his sense of himself as human. Is he suggesting, though, that his refusal to submit to Covey's punishment was ultimately more important than his ability to read and write in shaping his sense of self?

In a letter that prefaces the narrative, Wendell Phillips, social activist and friend of Douglass's, recalls "the old fable of 'The Man and the Lion,' where the lion complained that he should not be so misrepresented 'when the lions wrote history'" (p. 43). As Phillips observes, Douglass's narrative is history written from the perspective of those who previously had no voice. The very existence of the narrative makes it a testament to its author's humanity and, therefore, a document of revisionist history. However, what gives Douglass's narrative its universal relevance is his acute awareness of the complexities of human psychology. He observes that slaves usually spoke of themselves as content and of their masters as kind, concluding that slaves "suppress the truth rather than take the consequences of telling it, and in so doing prove themselves a part of the human family" (p. 62). Douglass is ever mindful that our humanity encompasses our failings no less than our capacity for nobility.

 

ABOUT FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in rural Maryland in 1818. Sent to work in Baltimore, he was taught to read by the mistress of the house and regarded this achievement as a turning point in his life. Another such point was his violent resistance to a beating by the man to whom he had been bound as a field slave at age seventeen. Three years later, he escaped to the North, married, and worked menial jobs until his debut as an orator at an antislavery convention in 1841.

To expand his audience and to document the authenticity of his story, Douglass published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, in 1845. The book was critically acclaimed and sold well both in the United States and in Europe. Douglass left for England later the same year, where he spent two years writing and lecturing. He returned to the United States after abolitionist friends purchased his legal emancipation.

From 1847 to 1863, Douglass published his own weekly paper, The North Star, leading to a break with his mentor William Lloyd Garrison. Douglass also produced a number of other periodicals, as well as two extensions of his narrative—Life and Times of Frederick Douglass and My Bondage and My Freedom. In 1848, he played a prominent role at the women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, and he was a lifelong supporter of the women's suffrage movement. During the Civil War he was an adviser to President Lincoln and recruited blacks, including his own sons, for the Union army. He was appointed to several government positions, including recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia and United States minister and consul general to Haiti. Douglass died in 1895.

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Why does Douglass believe "Slavery proved as injurious to [his master's wife] as it did to [him]" (p. 81)?
 

After his confrontation with Mr. Covey, what does Douglass mean when he writes "however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact" (p. 113)?
 

Why is Douglass able to "understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs" (p. 57) sung by slaves only when he no longer is a slave himself?
 

When Douglass writes, "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man" (p. 107), what does he understand a man to be?

Douglass describes knowledge as "valuable bread" (p. 83) and the Liberator, an anti-slavery paper, as his "meat and drink" (p. 151). How does literacy sustain him?
 

How is Douglass able to maintain his religious faith when that of his owners is used to justify their treatment of him?
 

Why does Douglass consider holiday celebrations as part of the "inhumanity of slavery" (p. 115)?
 

Why does Douglass describe the sails on Chesapeake Bay as "so many shrouded ghosts" (p. 106)?
 

For Further Reflection

1. To what extent should a piece of autobiographical writing be regarded as "factual"?
    
2. Can literacy be a curse as well as a blessing?
    

Related Titles

Book of Job
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Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
This autobiographical work not only documents the horrors of slave life, but also provides a perspective on the suffering specific to female slaves.

Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream" (1963)
The civil rights leader's most famous speech, one of the finest in modern oratory, projects his vision for an American nation worthy of the ideals that inspired its creation.

Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience" (1849)
This highly influential essay, in which the author explains why he cannot pay a poll tax to a government that tolerates slavery, remains a touchstone for social and political activism.

Richard Wright, Native Son (1940)
This novel challenges both blacks and whites to face the reality of race relations in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

A century and a half after its first publication, Frederick Douglass's Narrative retains its hold on us, capturing us with its first-person story of the abolitionist's passage from bondage to freedom.

bn.com

When it was first published, many critics doubted that The Narrative of the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass had even been written by Frederick Douglass. As odd as it may seem now, that criticism was not completely unfounded: In the mid-nineteenth century, the antislavery movement produced hundreds of slave narratives, many of them ghostwritten by white abolitionists and tailored to create sympathy for their movement. But this book, by this remarkable man, was different. The tag line at the end of the book's subtitle—Written by Himself —was vitally important. Although clearly written with the abolitionist cause in mind, this book is not merely a political tract. True, its dispassionate prose brought to light the "injustice, exposure to outrage, and savage barbarity" of slavery as Douglass observed and experienced But also brought to life an uncommon man and the particular concerns seared into him during his experience of bondage. Douglass recounts that during slavery, he and his people were denied life's fundamentals: faith, family, education, the capacity for bold action, a sense of community, and personal identity. Douglass saw reclamation of these things as the key to his and his people's survival, redemption, and salvation.

The autobiography opens with a description of the aspects of his own life that Douglass was never allowed to know: the identity of his father, the warmth and care of his mother (who was a stranger to him), and even the fact of his own date of birth. As a child, he suffered from and observed savage beatings firsthand, including the fierce beating of his Aunt Hester at the hands of their master, Captain Aaron Anthony. As he grew older, Douglass liberated himself in stages: mentally, spiritually, and, eventually, physically. His mental freedom began when he was taught to read and write and realized the power of literacy; his spiritual freedom came when he discovered the grace of Christianity and the will to resist his beatings; his physical freedom arrived when he finally escaped to the North.

After escaping, Douglass was committed to telling the world about the condition of the brothers and sisters he left behind. Aside from telling Douglass's personal story, his autobiography takes us to the fields and the cabins and the lives of many slaves to reveal the real human cost of slavery. Douglass focused on the dehumanizing aspects of slavery: not just the beatings, but the parting of children from their mothers, the denial of education, and the sexual abuses of slave masters. He ends the book with this statement: "Sincerely and earnestly hoping that his 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 myself anew to the sacred cause, I subscribe myself, Frederick Douglass."

The book was an incredible success: It sold over thirty thousand copies and was an international bestseller. It was the first, and most successful, of three autobiographies that Douglass was to write. The other two, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, update the story of his life and revise some of the facts of his earlier autobiography.

Sacred Life

This special Douglass Family Edition dedicated to the legacy and spirit of Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass is a human rights manifesto, declaration of liberation, and rallying call to all of us to transform our lives and become agents of change.

Celeste-Marie Bernier

Young people, all people, should know that empowerment first comes from within. That is why Douglass’ Narrative remains important.

Ibram X. Kendi

Douglass knew that the greatest gift he gave his country was his story.

David W. Blight

Frederick Douglass has affected the lives of Americans and people all over the world since he walked the earth. His timeless message is one that we really need right now in our country.

Laurence Fishburne

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is essential reading for all those who care about the quest for freedom and justice in America. It’s admonition to engage in relentless, courageous struggle for basic human rights and dignity is as necessary today as when it was first published in 1845.

Michelle Alexander

Here, finally, is the edition of Frederick Douglass’ Narrative that Douglass would have wanted: beautifully designed, with a poignant foreword by his direct descendent Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., and a magisterial introduction by Bryan Stevenson that connects our world with Douglass’.

John Stauffer

This narrative contains many affecting incidents, many passages of great eloquence and power…Who can read [it], and be insensible to its pathos and sublimity?”—William Lloyd Garrison

“He experienced…the tyranny and circumscription of an ambitious human being who was classified as real estate.”—W.E.B. DuBois

From the Publisher