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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass
Author	Frederick Douglass
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject(s)	Civil Rights
Genre(s)	Autobiography
Publisher	Dover Publications, Inc.
Publication date	1845
Followed by	My Bondage and My Freedom

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a memoir and treatise on abolition written by famous orator and ex-slave, Frederick Douglass. It is generally held to be the most famous of a number of narratives written by former slaves during the same period. In factual detail, the text describes the events of his life and is considered to be one of the most influential pieces of literature to fuel the abolitionist movement of the early 19th Century in the United States.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass encompasses eleven chapters that recount Douglass' life as a slave and his ambition to become a free man. The following will give a brief summary of his text.

A very important section of the Narrative is found at this point, where Douglass describes the singing of the slaves. Here, the reader gains a significant amount of respect for Douglass, as he appears to truly understand the life that a slave is forced to live. After this, Douglass details the cruel interaction that occurs between slaves and slave holders, as well as how slaves are supposed to behave in the presence of their masters. Douglass continues by describing several events in which there has been extreme brutality against his fellow slaves.

At this point in the Narrative, Douglass is sent to Baltimore. This is very important for him because he believes that if he had not been moved, he would still be a slave today. He even starts to have hope for a better life in the future. At this point, he discusses his new mistress, Mrs. Auld, who begins as a very kind woman but eventually turns cruel. Douglass learns the alphabet and how to spell small words from this woman, but her husband, Mr. Auld, disapproves.Douglass then gains an understanding of the word ‘abolition’ and develops the idea to run away to the North.

The slaves are valued along side the livestock, causing Douglass to develop a new hatred for slavery. He feels lucky when he is sent back to Baltimore to live with the family of Master Hugh. He regrets not having attempted to run away, but on his voyage he makes a mental note that he traveled in the North-Easterly direction and considers this information to be of extreme importance.

While under the control of Mr. Covey, Douglass is a field hand and has an especially hard time at the tasks required of him. He is harshly whipped almost on a weekly basis, apparently due to his awkwardness. When he's released from jail, he is sent to Baltimore once more, but this time to learn a trade. He becomes an apprentice in a shipyard where he is abused by several white people. Master Hugh is kind regarding this situation and refuses to let Douglass return to the shipyard. At this point, Douglass is employed to be a caulker and receives wages, but is required to give every cent to Master Auld. Douglass eventually finds his own job and plans the date in which he will escape to the North. Without details, the reader learns that he succeeds and travels to Massachusetts. He minimally describes his escape in order to protect those who helped him and to ensure the possibility of other slaves escaping in this same manner. At this point, Douglass unites with his fiancée and begins working as his own master. He ultimately attends an antislavery convention and battles the issue from that time on.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was published in 1845, and within four months of this publication, five thousand copies were sold. By 1860, almost 30,000 copies were sold^[1]. After publication, he sailed to England for two years in fear of being recaptured by his owner in the United States. While in Britain, he gained supporters who paid $710.96 to purchase his emancipation from his legal owner. One of the more significant reasons why Douglass published his Narrative was to offset the demeaning manner in which white people viewed him. When he spoke in public, his white abolitionists established limits to what he could say on the platform. More specifically, they did not want him to analyze the current slavery issues or to shape the future for black people. However, once Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was published, he was given the liberty to begin more ambitious work on the issue rather than giving the same speeches repetitively. Because of the work in his Narrative, Douglass gained significant credibility from those who previously did not believe the story of his past. His newfound liberty on the platform eventually led him to start a black newspaper against the advice of his "fellow" abolitionists. The publication of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass opened several doors, not only for Douglass' ambitious work, but also for the anti-slavery movement of that time.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass has received many positive reviews, however, there was a group of people who opposed Douglass’ work. One of his biggest critics, A. C. C. Thompson, was a neighbor of Thomas Auld, who was the master of Douglass for some time. As seen in “Letter from a Slave Holder” by A. C. C. Thompson, found in the Norton Critical Edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, he claimed that the slave he knew was "an unlearned, and rather an ordinary negro." Thompson also was confident that Douglass “was not capable of writing the Narrative." He also refuted the Narrative when Douglass described the various cruel white slave holders that he either knew or knew of. While some may believe that Thompson has a valid argument, Douglass' use of real dates, names, and places cannot be ignored. Another interesting aspect to this topic is that prior to the publication of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the public could not fathom how it was possible for a former slave to appear to be so educated. Upon listening to his oratory, many were skeptical of the stories he told. After Douglass’ publication, however, the public was very swayed ^[2]. Many viewed his text as an affirmation of what he spoke of publicly. Also found in The Norton Critical Edition, Margaret Fuller, a very prominent book review critic of that era, had a very positive opinion of Douglass' work. She claimed, "we have never read [a narrative] more simple, true, coherent, and warm with genuine feeling." She also described the preface in which two white men wrote on behalf of Douglass, establishing his credibility in the eyes of the public. She also suggested that "every one may read his book and see what a mind might have been stifled in bondage - what a man may be subjected to the insults of spendthrift dandies, or the blows of mercenary brutes, in whom there is no whiteness except of the skin, no humanity in the outward form . . ." Clearly, in the minds of many, Douglass' work in this Narrative was an incredibly influential piece of literature in the anti-slavery movement.