What Is The Narrative Of Frederick Douglass A Motif Of Identity

In the Narrative of Frederick Douglas the idea of identity is often discussed. Many people today would define their identity as their name, family, birthplace, age, and etcetera. Your identity is an important part of who you are as a person. One of the most shocking actions of The Narrative of Frederick Douglas was the attempt made by the slaveholders to limit the slaves’ concept of identity. The destruction of identity and the ways slaveholders ruined the identities of their slaves, intentionally or unintentionally, is prevalent throughout the book.
Before discussing the motif of identity in the Narrative it is essential to discuss the slaveholders. In all reality most slaveholders would not attempt to crush their slaves’ concept of their

Slaves were often not called by their given name, but called nicknames. For example, Frederick Douglas was not called Frederick, he was called Fred (62). This nickname is not as awful as some of the other names slaves were given. One particularly awful name given to a slave was Lloyd’s Ned (15). This name devalues the person, in fact, that name states that he is not his own person. Being called Lloyd’s Ned everyday quickly linked his identity to his slave holder. There would be no way to make yourself your own person. However, that is exactly what slaveholders desired. Slaveholders wanted their slaves to think of themselves as belonging to the slaveholders. Slaveholders desired that their slaves be constantly reminded of their place in the world, that they were property. This idea of changing the name to change the identity of a person is a powerful tool and an incredible power trick to

One of the first facts children learn about themselves is what age they are and when their birthday is. Age is a fact that most white people knew back in the 1840’s (12). Slaveholders abstaining from telling slaves their ages is an easy way to create the differences in people. One half of the population can share with you facts about themselves while the other can come no closer than saying they were born in harvest time (12). When you think about age as a part of your identity a trivial fact starts to become more important. Slaveholders wanted slaves not to know simple facts about themselves like a cow. A cow has no way of knowing when they were born and to slaveholders slaves were like animals. Douglas states several times throughout the book that he often felt like property, like a farm animal, due to how little he actually knew. It was as if slaveholders wanted slaves to believe they were as closely related to farm animals as possible, which adds a devaluing aspect to slaves’