Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Our Nig

The Interpretation of Freedom in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, and Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black

This essay will argue that the two African-American protagonists from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written by Frederick Douglass, and Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, written by Harriet E. Wilson, have suffered lives without freedom for long, but eventually they find their way to achieve some freedom, by regaining control of their bodies and souls. Such freedom is limited, for they cannot escape or destroy the racist society that confines people’s free will, but it still can be regarded as a great success for them and other

Under this definition, both protagonists go through the process, from being unfree into being free in some degree. Douglass, a slave born in the southern states, as is described in his autobiography, has been in three stages of freedom: being a slave, being an escaped slave, and being a free man. While Frado, the protagonist of Our Nig, has experienced two stages as a free black in the northern states: being a house servant, and being an independent worker. Although the latter one is not a slave as the former one has been, she is no freer than

Mrs. Bellmont kept repeating her opinions that she “was in doubt about the utility of attempting to educate people of color, who were incapable of elevation.” The belief was based on biased racist results of some so-called “scientific researches”, which gave the mainstream society a proper excuse to discriminate against them and to exploit them for economic benefits with cruel methods. In Our Nig, when Frado starts to attempt the church meetings, which is a civilized action with “whiteness”, Mrs. Bellmont does not change her opinion of Frado, for she “hardly believed she had a soul.” As Audrey Fisch has marked, “…race had served as a cornerstone for slavery’s defenders, who argued that people of African descent were intellectually and morally inferior to Europeans…and were, therefore, fit only for slavery.” The African-Americans were degraded to only enjoy limited human rights. They could not, and did not have the opportunity to perform like the white people: in the states that banned their education, they were prohibited from learning to read; they were not allowed to to go to church, to get married, or to sue their masters, the codes varying according to different state laws. Such restrictions disempowered African-Americans, making them incapable