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The Narrative Fredrick Douglas
This paper explores the life of Fredrick Douglas and his narrative literature on slavery. The book American Tradition in Literature has been used to source information relating to the life and work of the writer. Fredrick talks about his childhood, where he suffers a significant loss in his life. His estranged mother is taken away by an illness leaving him emotionally disrupted. Most of the work by the author is on experience as a slave. His literature is derived from his own life experience, which presents the typical life experience for any other slave. In the eyes of the masters, salves were mere instruments that they could use, abuse, and kill whenever they felt like. In his narration, he carves for freedom from his masters but is held back by fear of the unknown. He experiences pain and anguish as he serves his masters, which destroys his spirit and will to fight through the suffering (Perkins and Barbara 886). Despite the hostile conditions, he learns to read and write. His passion for reading gets his through his early childhood. In his work, he addresses the challenging environment he grew up in. He talks of the racial injustices and how he struggled to endure through suffering.
The life of Fredrick Douglas was that of a typical slave. Born of a white father and a black another, he was separated from his mother at a young age. (Perkins and Barbara 887) It was a common tradition to separate moms and their infants, which in his mind failed to understand the reason why it had to be done. As a child, he recalls his life as being an unprivileged young boy who was deprived of his identity. In his narrative, he explains, not knowing about his birthday, which was common among slave children. It was, however, different for white children who had the privilege of even celebrating their birthdays. The separation from his mother denied him the chance to bond with his mother. Fredrick was able to see his mother, who was transferred to a nearby plantation a few times. He recalls her mother’s illness that unfortunately led to her death. Deprived of a mother-son relationship with his mother, he is caught in an emotional dilemma during her death. Things even get harder for him after realizing that his mother’s death has deprived him of a chance to find out who his actual father was. He was not lucky to spend time with neither of his parents, unlike other white kids.
Fredrick talks of a prophecy that spoke of the downfall of slavery in his early days. The growing population of salves that were being ferried from African every time made the prophecy believable. This explains the power in numbers, and as the number grew more substantial, the more hope it brought to the salves. This explanation brought hope to the abolition of slavery to the slaves. The prophecy relates American slavery to the biblical story of Ham. In this case, the descendants of Ham were the slave masters who claimed to believe and worship God but at the same time had no remorse to their salves with whom they deprived freedom and mistreated. It is through this message of hope that helped salves to gain strength and confidence that their suffering will eventually come to pass. It gave slaves such as Fredrick the will to cope with the hardships in plantations owned by their masters. After losing his mother and zero knowledge about his father’s existence and whereabouts, all Douglas was left with was hope.
Fredrick learned how to read while he lives with his while he says at Hugh’s family. He was welcomed by a warm mistress who treated her as a human being contrary to what he expected during this period of slavery.it was she who taught him how to read and write against his husband’s will. Her husband was against the idea and urged her to stop. She was adamant and still trained Douglas on how to read. She, however, dived to the pressure eventually and became crueler than ever to please her husband’s orders. This, however, did not stop him from reading as he used every chance he got. As years went by, he began to understand his environment more and realized his life was different compare to other white kids .he was now aware that he was living in bondage. This affected him profoundly but sought comfort in his books. The books he read brought him lightly on the understanding of the situation he was facing as a slave. He was able to draw the meaning of his thought that he could not utter out loud. It also made him view his slave masters as cruel for taking them away from their home forcefully to reduce them into mere salves.
Through his reading, Douglas was able to learn a few things that helped him in his future mission as an abolitionist (Perkins and Barbara 889). For instance, in his continuous reading, he came across the word abolition, which he did not understand for a while. He, however, came across newspapers with policies advocating for the removal of slavery, which made him realize the accrual meaning of the word. The thought that slavery could be abolished for all slaves to gain freedom gave Douglas hope. Hope gave him the will to push through life, especially with the suffering he endured in command of his masters. It was during this time that he came across two Irish men who took pity on him being a slave and encouraged him to run away. The idea seemed okay, but he was aware of his young age and would not succeed in his mission at that particular time. He consoled himself that he needed to learn how to read and especially write as he showed interest in the art of writing. He began by writing on walls, such as the fence, brick walls, and pavements. Douglas used every opportunity he got to learn how to write, including the periods in which his mistress will be attending to other matters outside her house. His passion gave him the drive to pursue his interest. He then later wrote of his little master’s copybooks, copying exactly what he had written until he was perfect.
He began to change when he left to serve another master by the name Mr. Corey where he had his first weeping experience. He narrates his experience with him as his master. He talks of how he misinterpreted religion and made it suit his lifestyle. His actions were not at all, a reflection of what religion taught. Mr. Corey still mistreated his slaves in contrary to the teachings of the faith. He described him as a deceitful man who thought he could deceive the Almighty. At Mr. Corey’s house, Douglas recalls being overworked with no regard for the weather of conditions at the time. This was difficult for him and perhaps a life-changing experience for him. His spirit was broken and even lost his will to read. Fredrick lost his will to endure the emotional struggles and was even tempted to take his life. He felt weak and helpless. But through hope and fear, he held on. His faith in God was strengthened as he found a way to communicate his thoughts and troubles through the Almighty. His pain and anguish almost drove him to madness as he processes one idea to another (Perkins and Barbara 901). He was afraid of dying a slave; his hope of being freed from slavery was diminishing. The thoughts of running away and freeing himself from his master now became stronger.
The paper is a narration of Fredrick Douglas’s life experience as a slave. Fredrick, who is a famous abolitionist, learned how to read and write from a young age from a mistress he lived with. Douglas touches on the concept of religion in his narration and how the masters abused it. For instance, Mr. Corey’s actions do not reflect the teachings on faith. He keeps violating people’s rights of freedom and mistreats them, something that is highly condemned by his religion. He explained his unpleasant experience serving as a slave on the command of different masters in his lifetime. As he grew older and begun to understand his surroundings, he realizes the injustices and abuse salves go through. From physical abuse of being whipped for silly mistakes to emotional abuse that destroyed the spirits of many slaves. The suffering becomes too difficult to endure that he thinks of running way. He is scared of dying a slave and having accomplished nothing in his life. He is, however, hopeful that he will find freedom from his masters. The desire for liberty is growing as he experiences more agony and suffering as he puts his trust on the Almighty to deliver him from bondage. The narration of the life of Fredrick Douglas gives a typical experience of slavery, therefore, making it is a useful piece of art in American history and literature.
Works Cited
Perkins, George, and Barbara Perkins. The American tradition in literature. McGraw Hill, 2002.