Frederick Douglas
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In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass shows the dynamics of slavery and the ways in which the master-slave relationship can be equated with the father-son relationship. This is more than merely a convenient way of representing the slave relationship, for as Douglass shows, children grew up needing a parental figure. Douglass presents slavery very much as a perversion of normal and natural family life. Douglass had been a slave, but he had been freed. When he wrote this book, it was in part because many of those who listened to his highly polished speeches did not believe that he had been a slave, so here he gives a direct account of slave life as well as an analysis of the meaning of slavery and of the abolitionist position for why slavery should be eliminated. The book is not at all sensationalized as were many of the fictionalized narratives about slavery, yet Douglass is no less passionate about the need for slavery to end. Slavery treated one group of human beings as less valuable than others, and in doing so it disrupted family life and perverted the childhood of slave children. Douglass managed to overcome slavery, but he did not overcome its effects and was fully aware of the degree to which his life was shaped by his own slavery first and by the fact of the continuation of slavery--and the threat that he might be re-enslaved--second. He wants his readers to know how slavery debilitates not only the slave but the slave
. . .
nce he is free, though, and has not only tasted the joys of freedom but the triumph of asserting his rights, he turns his attention to freeing others, dedicating his life to bringing them out of their nightmare as he has been brought out of his. He knows that the slave needs help to get the will to survive, and he knows that the slave needs help to get the courage to escape. Douglass is determined to provide that help and to bring others out of bondage.
In the slave world, Colonel Lloyd, the master, is a man who has everything that the human being craves--freedom, money, and dignity. Douglass tends to describe Lloyd as a man who has more of these things than anyone else--he has more money, more horses, more slaves, and because of his position and power, more freedom. If Colonel Lloyd is the height of society, Douglass and the other slaves represent the depths. On the plantation, they do indeed stand at the top and bottom of the social structure. The one is the master, rich and respected, while the other is the slave, given food and a place to sleep by the master, but having nothing of his own. Douglass sees this as a system kept together by fear, with the colonel instilling fear with the use of the whip and by other means
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Approximate Word count = 1628
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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