[Project Name] Post-Mortem

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A Review on
An American Slave
A Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass
Grambling High School English III
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About Frederick Douglass

• Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, who later
  became known as Frederick Douglass, was born a
  slave in Talbot County, Maryland near Hillsboro.
• He escaped slavery in 1838 and went to New York
  city and married Anna Murray, a free colored
  woman.
• He is famously known as an American abolitionist,
  editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer
  and is popularly referred to as "The Sage of
  Anacostia" and "The Lion of Anacostia.
• As one of the foremost leaders of the
  abolitionist movement, Douglass fought to end
  slavery within the United States in the decades
  prior to the Civil War.
• During the Civil War, he served as an adviser to
  President Abraham Lincoln and fought for the
  adoption of constitutional amendments that
  guaranteed voting rights and other civil
  liberties for blacks.

An American Slave
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Autobiography

• Douglass' most well-known work is his
  autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick
  Douglass, an American Slave, which was published
  in 1845.
• Critics frequently attacked the book as
  inauthentic, not believing that a black man could
  possibly have produced so eloquent a piece of
  literature.
• The book was an immediate bestseller, selling
  over 11,000 copies and received overwhelmingly
  positive critical reviews.

An American Slave
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Reasons for writing an Autobiography

• To present the reality of slavery.
• To generate enthusiasms for the abolitionist
  struggle.
• In his own words,
• Sincerely and earnestly hoping that this
  little book may do something toward throwing
  light on the American slave system, and hastening
  the glad day of deliverance to the millions of my
  brethren in bonds--faithfully relying upon the
  power of truth, love, and justice, for success in
  my humble effortsand solemnly pledging my self
  anew to the sacred cause.

An American Slave
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In His Times

• Slaves did not know when they were born and
  couldnt determine how old they were.
• Children born into slavery were denied the
  privilege of knowing their age and their
  parentage. A few lucky ones had the liberty to
  see their mother 4 or 5 times in their lifetime.
• I do not recollect of ever seeing my
  mother. She made her journeys to see me in the
  night, traveling the whole distance of 12 miles
  on foot. Her death soon ended what little we
  could have while she lived, and with it her
  hardships and suffering .

An American Slave
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He Recalls

• Whipping and selling unmanageable slaves, naked
  children, want of time to sleep over want of
  beds, fiendish barbarity of slave holders, fields
  of blood and blasphemy.
• I have seen him whip a woman, causing the
  blood to run half an hour at the time and this,
  too, in the midst of her crying children,
  pleading for their mother's release. He seemed to
  take pleasure in manifesting his fiendish
  barbarity .
• Horses valued more than slaves, never say a word
  against a complaint, luxury of whipping the
  servants, penalty of telling the truth, still
  tongue makes a wise head, disgrace to be a poor
  man's slave.

An American Slave
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Organization of the book

• The book is divided into eleven chapters
  describing his life, from birth into slavery to
  escape into freedom.
• In the first few chapters, he gives an account of
  his childhood and narrates few incidents
  revealing the horrible character of slavery and
  the devilish atrocities inflicted upon them.
• In the next few chapters, Douglass describes his
  struggle towards freedom at Baltimore. He speaks
  about his everlasting and unabated desire to
  learn to read, realizing that education is a
  pathway from slavery to freedom.
• Towards the end, he describes his efforts in
  planning to escape to the north, to become his
  own master.

An American Slave
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The Genre A Slave Narrative

• The slave narrative is a literary form which grew
  out of the experience of enslaved Africans in the
  New World. Some six thousand former slaves from
  North America and the Caribbean gave an account
  of their lives during the 18th and 19th centuries
• The Genre soon emerged as a mainstay of African
  American literature.
• North American and Caribbean slave narratives can
  be broadly categorized into three distinct forms
  Tales of religious redemption, Tales to inspire
  the abolitionist struggle, and Tales of progress.
  
• The tales written to inspire the abolitionist
  struggle such as Frederick Douglass's
  autobiography, are the most famous because, they
  tend to have a strong autobiographical motif.

An American Slave
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Analyzing the book

• Throughout the Narrative, Douglass has a tendency
  to skip around often and does not always follow a
  completely chronological ordering.
• Throughout the text it can be noticed that
  Douglass makes reference not just to the cruelity
  of slavery as an insititution, but also to the
  way it has become institutionalized through
  things like politics, law, religon, and social
  practices.
• There is no legal protection in fact,
  whatever there may be in form, for the slave
  population and any amount of cruelty may be
  inflicted on them with impunity. Is it possible
  for the human mind to conceive of a more horrible
  state of society?

An American Slave
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Analyzing the book

• Often, the reader is left to figure out the
  psychology behind the awful incidents described
  while Douglass simply explains his feelings and
  reactions.
• The plantation where slaves were employed, is
  described as being so big that many slaves never
  even saw their master and vice versa. Douglass
  details an instance in which a slave was heading
  down a road and encountered his master without
  knowing who he was. When the unknown master asked
  the slave how he was treated and the slave
  responded that he was ill-treated, he was made an
  example of by being chained up and sold to a
  slave traderone of the worst punishments.

An American Slave
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Analyzing the book

• Douglass often interrupts his own story to tell
  tales of other slaves. He does this to emphasize
  his points and show the extent of the cruelty and
  wrong of slavery even if he wasnt directly
  involved in the event he describes. These side
  stories work to tell the whole tale of slavery by
  showing the extent to which the cruelty was
  manifest.
• The slave auctioneer's bell and the
  church-going bell chime in with each other, and
  the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are
  drowned in the religious shouts of his pious
  master .
• A turning point in the narrative comes after an
  incident in which Douglass revolted back against
  his master, for the first time in his life. He
  describes this incident as the turning point in
  his life, for it rekindled the flame of hope for
  freedom in his heart.

An American Slave
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Analyzing the book

• Metaphorical References
• Douglass uses innumerous metaphors throughout his
  autobiography.
• A still tongue makes a wise head'.
• It is worth a half-cent to kill a nigger and a
  half-cent to bury one
• Learning would spoil the best nigger in the
  world and would make him unfit for a slave.
• Education - the pathway from slavery to
  freedom
• It is wise to bear the ills present than to fly
  to those unknown
• Escape from a den of hungry lions
• The paper (The Liberator) is my meat and drink

An American Slave
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Analyzing the book

• Words used
• Douglass uses a variety of words to color his
  experiences.
• Torture atrocity, hardships, suffering,
  horror, terror.
• Slave holders fiendish, barbarous, cruel,
  artful, obdurate.
• Slaves weak, emaciated, scarred, painful
  gnawings of hunger.
• Slavery blood, blasphemy, dehumanizing
  character, wretchedness
• Feelings of Slaves depressed spirit, ineffable
  sadness, thrill of horror, unbearable mental
  torture, torment, sting, unutterable anguish,
  horrid, dread, apprehension.
• Education/Freedom prosperity, divine
  providence, joy, rapture, happiness, unabated
  interest, blessedness, bliss.

An American Slave
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Nostalgia

• Douglass says that what troubled him the most
  before making the escape was, that he would be
  separated from his dear friends at Baltimore and
  he would not see them again, even if he was
  successful or if he failed in his mission.
• It is my opinion that thousands would
  escape from slavery, who now remain, but for the
  strong cords of affection that bind them to their
  friends. The thought of leaving my friends was
  decidedly the most painful thought with which I
  had to contend. The love of them was my tender
  point, and shook my decision more than all things
  else .

An American Slave
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Quotes from the book

• We were all ranked together at the valuation.
  Men and women, old and young, married ands
  single, were ranked with horses, sheep and swine.
  There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs
  and children, all holding the same rank in the
  scale of being, and were all subjected to the
  same narrow examination
• I would at times feel that learning to read had
  been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given
  me a view of my wretched condition, without the
  remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit,
  but to no ladder upon which to get out
• There I was in the midst of thousands, and yet a
  perfect stranger without home and without
  friends, in the midst of thousand of my own
  brethrenchildren of a common Father, and yet I
  dared not to unfold to any one of them my sad
  condition

An American Slave
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Death is Better than bondage for life
An American Slave