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Summary Of The Narrative Of Frederick Douglass

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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 …show more content…

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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Douglass refers to the Bible, to demonstrate the negative influence this sacred text had toward slavery. Alluding to the Bible, Douglass has the ability to explain how slave owners justified slavery. For example, he states that “...God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right. If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural...” (Page 4) as slave owners argument regarding from what is moral and immoral to justify their injustice towards other human beings.

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In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.

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On one hand, the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is a narrative of a slave attempting to become free. On the other hand, it is a narrative of how African Americans are mentally and physically turned into slaves—moreover how white men manifest their superiority. Firstly, Frederick was separated from his mother as a young child, leaving no time for the two to build a relationship; “I received the tidings of my mother’s death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger” (Douglass, 6). Secondly, Edward Covey, one of Fredericks slaveholders, strategies in establishing his dominance was through making him work relentlessly and punishing him when he felt necessary—which almost never was necessary. Frederick understands how slaveholders can make their slaves feel inferior and degrade them through physical power however is intrigued with the idea of how slaveholders dominate their slaves minds.

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Douglass points to the vast unwillingness from the group of whites that refuses to fully perceive and accept African-Americans as deserving and equal citizens of the nation. Based on his personal experiences as a slave, Douglass is abundantly aware that the battle to abolish slavery is not an easy task. For the first twenty years of his life, he witnessed firsthand the abject cruelty of that institution in our country. Tactfully, Douglass seizes this opportunity to publicly highlight the unmerited and coarse differences in the treatment between the whites as opposed to the blacks living in the United States during this time period. He makes a “powerful testaments to the hypocrisy, bigotry and inhumanity of slavery” (Bunch 1).

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