Summary Of The Narrative Of Frederick Douglass
In the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, the author’s fundamental objective is to expose the misconceptions of the idea, or myth, of slavery within his novel. The mythology of slavery is institutionalized by the Southerners and some Northerners who held strict views and beliefs regarding slavery, which ultimately justified its existence. Many of these rationalizations or assumptions of slavery went on without any question to the public. Douglass debunks the mythology of slavery by how he rebukes the romantic image of slavery, his testimony against the belief of black intellectual inferiority, and how the system promoted the disloyalty among slaves.
Douglass’s use of imagery of romanticism challenges the mythology of slavery as being superficial
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Myths involving the relationships between slaves included that they are all united since they form a common enemy and desire for freedom. However, Douglass describes how no one could be trusted, especially other slaves. When Douglass’s first attempt to escape fails, it is due to the betrayal from another slave, which poses as an example of distrust and supports Frederick’s motto, “Trust no man” (Douglass 109). This disloyalty comes from the fear that if they were to have any knowledge of another slave planning to escape or even talking bad about their master, then they were beaten if they kept those secrets hidden. Most incidents involved slaves turning each other into the authorities in order to save themselves from the consequences that followed, thus breaking the loyalty between them. Another example of this is when slaves are reported to have been undermining their master’s authority. When Colonel Lloyd was riding one day, he met a colored man and asked how he was treated by his master, not knowing the that he was in fact the colored man’s owner. After a couple of weeks later, the poor coloured “man was then informed by his overseer that, for having found fault with his master, he was now to be sold to a Georgia trader”(Douglass 33). This shows the truth behind the idea of slavery where a slave would be traded or severely punished if they were to disrespect their master’s superiority in any way. As a result, some even believed that their prospects were better as slaves because they did not want to be at risk of punishment by others. The system of slavery promoting the disloyalty among slaves was evidence of Douglass’s disapproval of the mythology of
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