American History

In his seminal work, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a former slave recounted firsthand how an ignorant child born into slavery came to represent the greatest of the Abolitionist intellectual tendencies.  From an enforced ignorance to brutal physical beatings, Douglas experienced through education a spiritual awakening which caused him to question the morality and the proffered justifications for slavery.  Not only did he awaken himself but he then became a fierce advocate of Abolition more generally.  This essay will examine how an ignorant child transformed from a piece of personal property to one of the greatest spokesmen for individual freedom and liberty that America has ever known as well as some of the pivotal personal relationships and events which inspired Douglas to pursue his quest with increased vigor and determination.

Conditions of Slave Life and Purpose of Slave Holidays
   
Generally speaking, Douglass described the conditions of slave life as constituting, essentially, a world of darkness.  This darkness, in turn, was characterized by a lack of knowledge about the most mundane facts such as birthdays, by a lack of power to affect the way farms were operated or slaves employed, and by a shocking violence that attended any slaves attempt to behave in ways not specifically prescribed by the white masters.  Regarding his own origins, for example, Douglass knew very little.  He didnt know is date of birth and while he remembered his mother whom had died he wasnt sure of his fathers precise identity.  Douglas noted that this ignorance was deliberately imposed and maintained at one point, for instance, the noted that The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it.  The first condition of slave life was thus one of imposed ignorance.  Even where a white owner might know the facts sought by the slave, Douglass believed that these facts would not be forthcoming.  He considered this type of enforced ignorance to be one means through which the white masters kept the slaves ignorant, uneducated, and docile.
   
In addition to slaverys explicit policy of enforced ignorance, another significant condition of slave life was its extraordinarily violent nature.  It was the norm rather than the exception for masters to resort to extreme physical violence in order to encourage conformity or to punish nonconformity.  In illustrating this type of extreme physical violence, Douglass described a Mr. Plummer who was
a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster. He always went armed with a cowskin and a heavy cudgel. I have known him to cut and slash the womens heads so horribly, that even master would be enraged at his cruelty, and would threaten to whip him if he did not mind himself.
    
Despite the occasional rebukes for excessively violent behavior, the violence never really seemed too far away.  The second condition of slave life, as expressed so vividly in Douglasss narrative, is the constant threat of extreme and vicious physical violence.  Even the occasional master who cringed when seeing or hearing about these types of violence ultimately tended to consider such violence a necessary means for keeping the slaves in line.

An additional condition of slave life was the fact that slaves were to know their place and not to question or criticize authority.  The white owners were like all knowing gods and the blacks were like work animals.  A white owner, in this context, would no more ask his horse whether it was ready to plow the fields then he would ask a black slave struck with illness if he was ready for a sixteen hour work day with little food and little rest.  In sum, the most important conditions of the slave life articulated by Frederick Douglass in his narrative included a state of enforced ignorance, the threat of extremely vicious physical violence for nonconformity, and the equivalence of slaves to work animals.
   
Douglass noted that there were certain occasions in which slaves were granted a holiday.  In his case, he referenced a holiday in celebration of Christmas and New Years in which he and his family were granted some time off of work.  However, a careful reading of the text demonstrates that Douglass viewed these holidays and the attendant allowance of alcohol intake as more insidious than charitable.  His views toward these holidays represented an early formulation of his belief that there was nothing good, redeeming, or charitable about a slaves life or condition to this end, he stated that. From what I know of the effect of these holidays upon the slave, I believe them to be among the most effective means in the hands of the slaveholder in keeping down the spirit of insurrection. Were the slaveholders at once to abandon this practice, I have not the slightest doubt it would lead to an immediate insurrection among the slaves. These holidays serve as conductors, or safety-valves, to carry off the rebellious spirit of enslaved humanity. 

The white owners, Douglass noted, were highly suspicious and critical of any slave that didnt embrace the holidays cheerfully or engage in the sufficient drinking of whiskey.
This was part and parcel of the previously mentioned condition of slave life regarding the fact that a slave conform to expectations and know his place.  The holidays and the alcohol were designed to reinforce this conformity and serve as a technique for moderating the slaves hatred of their condition. 
Significance of Education in Douglass Mind
   
Douglass viewed education, both individually and socially, as a necessary prerequisite for understanding the world around him and, ultimately, for freedom.  An education was an intellectual liberation this intellectual liberation, from false truths, would in turn provide the moral justification for the end of slavery.  This was not an opinion that Douglass developed late in life quite the contrary, from a very young age, Douglas began to have many questions and came to believe at a young age that education would not only provide answers to his questions but also somehow transform his human condition.  Indeed, his desire to understand his own role in the world and his origins as a slave in a society which sanctioned slavery institutionally persuaded him that education and, more particularly literacy, would explain the painful world in which he existed.  He therefore became determined to become literate and thereafter educated through his literacy.
   
It was while living with Master Hugh that Douglass noted During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write.  Although some people throughout history may have considered experience without literacy to constitute an adequate education, Douglass felt that the two could not be separated.  More specifically, he felt that an enlightened experience required literacy and education.  This was necessary for reading books.  Reading books was extraordinarily important in Douglasss view because it allowed him to seek answers to his oldest questions and it allowed him to explore notions of slavery and freedom in more depth.  In describing his teacher at the time, his mistress, he noted rather sarcastically that She was an apt woman and a little experience soon demonstrated, to her satisfaction, that education and slavery were incompatible with each other.  

That there were obstacles persuaded Douglass that someone was trying to hide important knowledge from him and he was determined to discover this forbidden knowledge.  Education was a means to an end.  Education was the means to ending slavery and securing individual freedom.
   
The most important characteristic of education for Douglass was the fact that it allowed him to separate truth from fiction.  He learned that slavery was not mandated by any religious text or by any God.  He learned that the color of ones skin did not determine the ability to learn, to think, or to work more effectively than any other man.  He learned that man had created slavery and that man could eliminate slavery.  It was simply a question of intellectual enlightenment, political will, and justice.  At one point, Douglass recalls comparing the Catholic Emancipation of which he was reading about to his own condition as a slave and noted that

They gave tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of utterance. The moral which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder. What I got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights. 

In short, an education allowed people to judge conditions comparatively.  It encouraged the articulation of human rights that governed all humans regardless of racial, religious, or ethnic backgrounds.  An education was an evolution of human enlightenment that could be used to improve human society.  Without education, in Douglasss view, both human enlightenment and improved human societies became increasingly dubious propositions.

Valuation  Dehumanizing Aspects, Fear of Separation and Grandmother
   
Although he already despised slavery, the death of Douglass owner and the subsequent valuation of the owners property exacerbated and intensified Douglass anger and disgust.  As pieces of property, the slaves were to be valued and distributed to the owners heirs.  This caused Douglass to feel less than human and it also raised a distinct fear of being separated from loved ones and friends.  After having been collected in order to be valued, Douglass recounted that Here again my feelings rose up in detestation of slavery. I had now a new conception of my degraded condition. Prior to this, I had become, if not insensible to my lot, at least partly so.  He admitted that he had become somewhat reconciled to slavery, but that to have been valued reawakened his indignation.  To have been collected and valued in much the same manner as a teapot or a pig was unacceptable.  There was no defensible justification, major or minor, for this detestable institution called slavery.
   
In addition to the dehumanizing aspects of the valuation, there was also at that time a substantial fear of being separated as a result of the estates distribution to the deceased owners heirs.  In reference to his grandmother, for instance, Douglass referred to this fear of separation in terms of regret for his grandmother whom  in their hands she saw her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, divided, like so many sheep, without being gratified with the small privilege of a single word, as to their or her own destiny.  A multi-generational family, who had grown up together and love each other, was being valued, divided, and distributed with no more respect than that accorded sheep or to cattle headed off to slaughter. 
Mr. Covey  Psychological Underpinnings of the Slavery Experience and Turning Point
  
For Frederick Douglass, Mr. Covey was much more than a man.  Mr. Covey was instead the quintessentially evil face of slavery.  He was an arch type in Douglasss mind just as much as he was a human being.  It was against this arch type that Douglass battled most ferociously, both spiritually and physically.  Douglas had become a field hand for the first time and during this time he was treated more like a work animal than a human being than he had been treated at any point of his life thus far.  Douglas stated that
I lived with Mr. Covey one year. During the first six months, of that year, scarce a week passed without his whipping me. I was seldom free from a sore back. My awkwardness was almost always his excuse for whipping me. We were worked fully up to the point of endurance. Long before day we were up, our horses fed, and by the first approach of day we were off to the field with our hoes and ploughing teams. Mr. Covey gave us enough to eat, but scarce time to eat it. We were often less than five minutes taking our meals. We were often in the field from the first approach of day till its last lingering ray had left us and at saving-fodder time, midnight often caught us in the field binding blades. 

The irony was that Douglass had initially had a positive impression of Covey before coming to view the man as something quite akin to the devil. Despite this personal hatred, it can be argued that Mr. Coveys persistently poor treatment of Douglass led to the most important turning point in Douglass life.  Although the text offers many significant turning points, such as learning to read and write, the most important turning point was when Douglass finally stood up to Mr. Covey and refused to suffer physical beatings any longer. 

Douglass reported that Mr. Covey had attempted to tie him up for a beating, that Douglass had refused, and that a two hour struggle had ensued.  Douglass prevailed and there were several important consequences.  First, he had stood up for himself physically and he reported that he was never beaten again.  He had in this way personally conquered and escaped one of the fundamental conditions of slave life previously mentioned, the extraordinarily vicious violence, and set the stage for a better future.  Second, he was subsequently sent away to another farm.  At this farm, Douglass emerged as a leader and an inspiration to other slaves.  He taught them how to read and write and he taught them what he had learned from reading books.  Having conquered his fear and his broken-slave mentality, and having emerged as a leader with a moral imperative in the form of freedom for all men despite the color of their skin, Douglass then made an escape attempt. 

Although it failed, and although he spent some time in jail, his course could not be reversed.  He learned a trade, as an apprentice in a shipyard, and eventually planned and executed a successful escape to the North.  Mr. Covey, in many ways, provided the final push that transformed Frederick Douglass from a broken slave to a free man and participated in the turning point in which Douglass refused to be tied or beaten like an animal.

Power of Narrative  On Reading Public in 1840s
  
The influence of Douglasss narrative, particularly in the North, was particularly powerful and inspiring.  After being asked to speak spontaneously at an anti-slavery meeting, Douglass became increasingly notable as an Abolitionist leader and theorist.  William Lloyd Garrison, a prominent Abolitionist, said of Douglasss story that he proceeded to narrate some of the facts in his own history as a slave, and in the course of his speech gave utterance to many noble thoughts and thrilling reflections. As soon as he had taken his seat, filled with hope and admiration, I rose, and declared that PATRICK HENRY, of revolutionary fame, never made a speech more eloquent in the cause of liberty, than the one we had just listened to from the lips of that hunted fugitive. So I believed at that time -- such is my belief now.

As a result, Douglass became a prominent voice for the anti-slavery movement and his narrative became an immediate bestseller.

In the final analysis, Douglasss life illustrates how an individual quest can change the way people think and behave.  From a child born into slavery who didnt even know his birth date, he emerged into one of the worlds greatest proponents of individual dignity, freedom, and liberty.  Douglass proved that education demands a critical mind, that a critical mind can discern between truth and self-serving lies, and that it is sometimes necessary to put beliefs to the test in the form of action.  Douglass experienced beatings, painful separations, jail, and constant hardship and, yet, he persisted and prevailed.  His persistence is perhaps just as noble as his written words.  Frederick Douglass was and remains a great inspirational figure.