Realistic: Frederick Douglass

• Realist
• 1st chapter - known first scene with whipping
• Mr. Colby section
• Twain does racism, Douglass does slavery
• Slave Narrative

Slave Narrative

1. Direct address
2. Depictions of violence/cruelty
3. Depictions of the reality of sexual abuse
4. Descriptions of the writer's desire for freedom
5. Accounts of distinctions between whites good/bad

• Douglass says benevolence & Christianity have nothing to do with slavery - owners claim its the reason learns to read and write
• Identity issue - am I human? Am I American?
• Hypocrisy of slavery - in a country where all men are equal

Essay themes:

• Freedom
• Identity
• Religion
• Economy
• History
• Writers as product of their time
• Femininity
• ism piece

irony=American lit - we don't live up to their ideals

• Born February 1818 - Died February 20, 1895
• African-American social reform, abolitionist, orator (public speaker), writer, and statesman
• Escaped from slavery
• Leader of the abolitionist movement
• gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writings
• He stood as a living counter - example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, American Slave - 1845
• Spoke to the nations egalitarian - 
• of, relating to, or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities
• Much like Benjamin Franklin
• Douglass actively supported women's suffrage
• Held several political offices
• First African American nominated for Vice President with his running mate Victoria Woodhull
• "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong" ~Frederick Douglass
• In Baltimore, experience more freedoms than his more southern counterparts
• Escaped to New York around the age of 20
• Settled further North in Massachusetts
• Changed last name from Bailey to Douglass
• One of the few black men employed by mostly, white society
• Merely relate "facts" of his experience
• Leave out philosophy, rhetoric, & persuasive arguments
• Using real names/places gave credibility
• But had to flee the US for 2 years
• Attention to women's Rights movement
• Civil War
• Abolish Slavery
• Black men fight in the Union side of the war
• Successful on both fronts
• Blacks only paid half of white men in Union army
• Union won April 9, 1865

Themes - fundamental and often universal ideas

• Ignorance as a Tool of slavery
• Keeping slaves ignorant
• people believed slavery was a natural state of being
• literacy would bring slaves to question the right of whites to keep slaves
• maintain control in South of what the rest of the country knows about slavery
• Knowledge as a Path to Freedom
• Slaves must pursue knowledge and education to be free 
• Slavery's damaging effects on Slaveholders
• The corrupt and irresponsible power that slave owners enjoyed over their slaves
• Slaveholding as a Perversion of Christianity

Motifs - Reoccuring structures, contrasts, or literary devices

• The victimized female slaves
• The treatment of slaves as property
• Freedom in the city

Symbols - objects, characters, figures, or colors

• White - sailed ships
• Sandy's post - traditional African approach to religion & belief
• The Columbian Orator - a collection of political essays, poems, & dialogues. Symbol not only of human rights, but also the power of eloquence and articulation

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

• Published 1845
• describes the events of his life
• One of the most influential pieces of literature to fuel the abolitionist movement of the early 19th century in the U.S.
• Abolitionist movement - movement of the African Civil War to end Slavery.

Chapters 1-4

• explains that he doesn't know the date of his birth
• mother died when he was 7 years old
• few memories of his mother, especially because children were often separated from their mothers. Only rare night visits.
• thinks his father is a white man, possibly his owner
• Early age sees his Aunt Hester being whipped
• Cruel interaction between slave and slave holders
• that fear keeps them where they are
• when they tell the truth they are punished by their owners

Chapters 5-7

• Douglass moves to Baltimore, MD
• Believes if he had not moved he would have remained a slave his whole life
• New mistress, Mrs. Sophia Auld
• Begins a kind woman but eventually turns cruel
• Learns the alphabet & small words from her
• Mr. Auld believes slaves are unfit to learn language
• Makes them unfit to be slaves
• Unmanageable and sad
• Realizes the importance of learning to read and write
• At times his newfound skill torments him
• Gains the understanding of the word Abolition
• Runs away to the North
• Learns how to read and write well

Chapters 8-9

• At the age of 10 or 11 - Master dies and his property is left to be divided between his son and his daughter
• Slaves value along side livestock
• Sent back to Baltimore to live with the family of Master Hugh
• Moved through a few more situations before being sent to St. Michael's
• Regrets not trying to run away but notes he's moving in a NE fashion and makes mental note
• Lives with Master Thomas Auld who is cruel, even after attending a Methodist Camp
• Lent to Mr. Covey for a year, happy because he would be fed.
• Mr. Covey is known as a "negro-breaker," who breaks the will of all slaves

Chapter 10-11

• Under the control of Mr. Covey, F.D. bites his hand and has a hard time at the tasks required of him
• Harshly beat almost weekly basis
• sometimes due to his awkwardness
• Worked and beaten to exhaustion which causes him to collapse in the fields one day
• Brutally beaten by Covey
• Covey tries to tie up Douglass but he fights back
• 2 hour battle, Douglass conquers
• Never beaten again
• Another plantation
• befriends slaves
• teaches them to read and write
• Plans to escape
• caught and jailed, 2 years
• Sent to Baltimore but learn a trade
• apprentice to the shipyard
• abused by several whites; 4 nearly gouge out his left eye
• Master Hugh won't allow him to go back to shipyard.
• tries to find a lawyer but all say can only help white man
• Sophia Auld, who turned cruel, took pity on Douglass
• tended to his eye until it healed
• Employed by a caulker and receives wages
• forced to give every cent to Master Auld
• Finds his own job
• plans date for escape to the North
• Succeeds but doesn't give details so he doesn't incriminate those who helped him.
• also ensures possibilities for other slaves to escape
• Unites with fiancé
• Begins working as own master

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• Published May 1, 1845
• 4 month, 5,000 copies sold
• By 1860 - 30,000 copies sold
• After publication sailed to England and Ireland for fear of being recaptured
• Britain and Ireland - Gained supporters who paid $710.96 for his freedom
• Offset the demeaning way white people view him
• Opened several doors for Anti-slavery movement

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Main Characters

• Frederick Douglass
• Narrator & protagonist. 
• uneducated, oppressed slave to worldly and articulate political commentator. dramatizes between his younger and older self
• Sophia Auld
• transforms from kind caring woman who owns no slaves to an excessively cruel slave owner.
• Appears more realistic & humane than other characters because we see her character in progress.
• Eventually less than a character and more of an illustration against slavery
• Edward Covey
• Douglass's Nemasis.
• Typically villain figure
• Not a victim to the slavery mentality but a naturally evil man who finds an outlet for his cruelty through slavery
• "negro-breaker"
• Captain Anthony - Douglass's first master & probably his father
• Colonel Edward Lloyd - Capt'n Anthony's boss and Douglass's 1st owner
• Lucretia Auld - Capt'n Anthony's daughter & Thomas Auld's wife
• Captain Thomas Auld - gained slaves through marriage to Lucretia. Hugh Auld's brother
• Hugh Auld - Douglass's occasional master
• Sophia Auld - Hugh Auld's wife
• Betsy Bailey - Douglass's grandmother
• Aunt Hester - Aunt
• Harriet Bailey - Douglass's mother
• Sandy Jenkins - slave acquaintance
• William Freelend - keeper for 2 years following Mr. Covey
• William Hamilton - father-in-law of Thomas Auld
• William Gardner - Baltimore shipbuilder
• Anna Murray - Douglass's wife
• Nathan Johnson - MA worker & Abolitionist
• William Lloyd Garrison - founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society
• Wendell Phillips - President of the American Anti-Slavery Society

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