Memiors of Douglass

 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

You can’t call a person material goods but it was tried out. That’s what I had to think about with this memoir how do I want to look at this, are they people or are they objects. I picked the second, it is more revealing, simply because of how we treat objects. We take care of what we own, most of the time, yet slaves never saw this. Why treat what you own so poorly? The answer is simple, they never could be seen as property, it just does not work. Too much can be seen in a slave is what a slave owner saw in themselves. This is clear with how slavery worked. Two major parts of being human is language and the other is bonds. It is obvious why slaves are taught not to inquire about reading and no one should show them how. This is a way of not only controlling them but also of distancing what makes them human. What better way to distance yourself than to believe that something can never understand what ever human knows? Even the Irish, who had to work till they were 21 to pay for their trip to America, could understand basic language fairly well. Not only are the slaves being made to be less human they don’t fully understand this. They know they are not treated well but there are gaps. Douglass at the start does not really see his situation till the power of reading was pointed out to him as being dangerous for him and his happiness. Happiness is controlling to, Master Thomas even said to “depend solely upon him for happiness (93).” There is a name for this it is Stockholm syndrome and comes from abuse and results in a disorder that causes the abused to feel a lack of abuse as a kindness given to them.

Feelings are how slave holders first condition slaves into this twisted dependence. Douglass himself never had a chance to see his mother. I’m sure we can all imagine what she must have felt knowing her child was somewhere that he could not be protected by her. This wasn’t something that came up within this memoir but it is possible for slaves to wonder if their children would be used against them if they did not please their masters. Beyond that they had to depend on their master for the very right to be with family. This creates an even stranger dependence on a slave’s captors.  Even if it may bring out a form of control families are still split up. There is a reason for this. Being around family can give strength and consolation resulting in a slave being emotionally better off. This isn’t good for a slave owner. It may be better in the long run to have an emotionally dependent slave than a family group. A group would be harder to control. This type of thinking takes a strange and difficult turn when you take into account who the fathers of a lot of slaves are. The fathers of some slaves are their white masters.

There is a lot of change to how the slave trade works when you father children with a slave. How can an individual see a part of them as not as human as them? Well they can’t but it is scary to think that people would go so far for money, after all to sleep with a slave should be an act of bestiality. Beyond that think of the legitimate children of such a man and what they must think, never mind about the wife. To think what must pass through her head as he lays next to her at night.

You would think that slavery and its evil would be the greatest lesson learned from Douglass’s memoirs but I feel there is another that impacts more, at least in more modern times. The reason for this is the lesson, at least in the United States, of slaver being wrong is generally agreed with and frequently taught. Those that don’t agree, the sex trade, ect, know it is seen as wrong and hide the activity. I feel there is something important that Douglass brings up that we do not consider as important, from what I’ve seen, the act of collaboration. Douglass showed great love for those he brought together in learning to read. His working with others made his situation better with them there.

Women are the individuals Douglass looks to in order to see how the world should be. He also uses them to describe the deprivation that slavery holds. Men are shown as those that act out violence while women suffer for it. There was one real striking exception in Demby but his pain has little description, comparably, and is short lived. His mother shows how women are deprived of their caring natures by being removed from their children to be seen “four or five times (517).” The women within Douglass’s memoirs are not shown as rebellious as men, no acts of achievement in learning or striving to be free is shown. Even if there is no outward act he views them as being in need of respect. This need is shown best through his view of his grandmother. She is shown as a woman of great achievement as she had many children, as well as having brought wealth even if it was not hers to use.  “She had been the source of all his wealth (537).” When meeting his new owner in Baltimore he saw purity in her. She is used as, by far, the most powerful example of slavery harming the slave holder. She represents the loss of goodness through this act.

Douglass, Fredrick  The Norton Anthology World Literature. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. Print. 

 Douglass, Fredrick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, No. 25 Cornhill, 1845. Ebook Reader.