I.
Frederick
Douglass
A.
Transitions
1.
Bridgetower and Beethoven
a)
Blake
Rita Dove on Bridgetower—
2.
accepted in Europe; quote from Douglass in Europe--backtrack
a)
I
breathe, and lo! the chattel [slave] becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for
one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an
insult. I employ a cab - I am seated beside white people - I reach the hotel - I
enter the same door - I am shown into the same parlour - I dine at the same
table - and no one is offended... I find myself regarded and treated at every
turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people. When I go to church,
I am met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to tell me, 'We don't allow
niggers in here!' " --from My Bondage
and My Freedom.
3.
Thoreau
a)
[8] I sometimes wonder that we
can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat
foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and
subtle masters that enslave both North and South. It is hard to have a Southern
overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the
slave-driver of yourself.
b)
Abolition:
Thoreau in jail refusing to pay taxÕ But the one movement which he finally could not resist allying
himself to was the abolition of slavery. He was one of the most respected and
simultaneously controversial abolitionists of his generation.
d)
He
became an impassioned and moving speaker on abolition, initially reluctant and
uncomfortable in the spotlight.
e)
Financial
constraint is what finally motivates him to escape. Cf. 13 colonies. Intellectual nature is most important
(1)
Makes deal to Òhire himself outÓ in return for six dollars a
week to Master Hugh, having to cover all his own expenses. Economic priorities and
transactions. ECONOMY 61
B.
Images:
C.
From Wikipedia
1.
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey,
February 1818 – February 20, 1895)
2.
He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders'
arguments that slaves did not have the intellectual capacity to function as
independent American citizens.
3.
His first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an
American Slave, was published in 1845 and was his
best-known work, influential in gaining support for abolition.
4.
Ottilie read the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and
was impressed. In 1856, she went to Rochester to interview Douglass. They
struck up an immediate friendship and affair. For the next 26 years, they
attended meetings, dances, conventions, etc. together. At first she wrote
general interest pieces about culture, but soon her writing focused on the
abolitionist movement. While Ottilie was in Europe, trying to establish her
claim to her sister's estate (including her mother's, and the Varnhagens'
papers) she read in a newspaper that Douglass was to marry his 20-years-younger
white secretary, Helen Pitts.
Ottilie committed suicide in a public park in Paris in 1884. The letters
Douglass wrote to her were burned, and she left all her money to Douglass.
D.
Literary devices
1.
Demonstrate intellectual artistic power of blacks; prefaces
testify
2.
Exemplary autobiography—Thoreau
3.
Proves arguments against educating slaves
E.
Narrative life (1845)—sixteen years before Civil War
1.
Introd—GarrisonÕs introduction to white
audience—no compromise with slavery; no union with slaveholders. Readiness for war. Letter from Wendell
Phillips
2.
Chapter
1**: birth, infancy, lineage, beating oneÕs children and mistress
a) Most powerful—isolation, deprivation, ignorance
b) DoesnÕt know age, like all slaves, no more than do
horses
(1) Thinks heÕs 27 or 28; deprivation of self knowledge:
birthday
c) Father a white man—maybe master—ignorance
d) Mother: Harriet Bailey—very dark
(1) Separated from mother at infancy as customary; prevent
bonding—incredible cruelty
(2) PATHOS: Only saw mother at night 4 or 5
times—could only visit after finishing work, with permission of owner;
lie down with me get me to sleep; died when he was seven; not allowed to be
present at her illness or funeral
(a) When my mother died I was very young,
(b) And my father sold me while yet my tongue
(c) Could scarcely cry ``'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!''
(3) Law: Child of female slave is slave
(a) Ògratification of their wicked desires profitable as
well as pleasureableÓ
(b) slaveholder: master and father
(c) SEX and jealousy
(d) Hardest condition because mistress hates such
children; wants to see them under the lash—never better pleased than when
(e) Father has to sell them—his own offspring,
because otherwise has to watch one son lash the other, to defend against
partiality.
(i) This
perverse inexorable logic
(ii) Language of
pp. 2-3
e) Argument against the scriptural defense: lineal
descendants of Ham
f) Pride/shame of his being half-breed
g) First master: Captain Anthony; overseer Plummer;
delegation of the immediate evil to another
(1) Savage monster; master would be enraged by cruelty
(2) Master also cruel, hardened by life of slaveholding
(3) Pleasure in whipping
(4) Whipping his aunt—naked--sadism
(5) Witnessed as child: entrance to hell of slavery
(a) Aunt Hester—beautiful woman—sheÕd gone out
with LloydÕs Ned
(b) Detailed description: hangs her up and beats her and
curses her
(c) His sexual jealousy never made explicit; emphasis on
childÕs point of view.
INNOCENCE—primal scene
(6) From the hidden to the explicit
h)
Connection
to Nazism and Hitler in student presentation—SchindlerÕs list
3.
Chapter 2—Great House farm; conditions
a)
Master
worked for Colonel Lloyd on his property
b)
How
slavery works
(1) Tobacco,corn and wheat.
(2) Ship transporting crops to
Baltimore; sailed by CaptainÕs son in law, Thomas Auld
(3) Home plantation—corporate HQ
for many farms; location of slave punishment; troublemakers sent to Baltimore
to be sold
(4) Economic arrangements: clothing; no
shoes
(5) No beds; impossible work
hours—but had to cook and provide for themselves
c)
Mr.
Severe, the overseer; Mr. Hopkins, not as cruel or profane
d)
Great
house farm—well organized operation; slaves see it as high status to work
or even go there.
e) p. 8 ** The songs in the pine woods on allowance
day—of innocence and experience--spontaneous jazzlike
improvisation—happy on sad subjects; sad on happy—sing most when
most unhappy—the blues
4.
Chapter 3—slavesÕ participation in their slavery
a)
slaves
take pride in wealth of their masters and competeÉtheir loss of dignity
(1) critique of fellow slaves
b)
beautiful
gardens and stealing fruit
c)
pride
in the horses—aristocratic—brutality in the demands on the grooms;
beating the old man 11
d)
interrogating
slaves, entrapment; slaves now always tell what you want to hear; say theyÕre
contented
(1) masters sending in spies
(2) crushing self-expression vs. this book and speeches
5.
Chapter 4--murders
a) Mr. Gore: to be accused is to be convicted and to be
convicted was to be punished; one following other with immutable
certainty. Cf. Kafka Penal Colony
b)
Stone-like
coolness; murders a slave who refuses to come for his punishment; argument that
this would deter others from disobedience. This is approved
c)
Talbot
County—St. Michaels—favorite haunt of Cheney and Rumsfeld
d)
Boasting
of killing slave—SchindlerÕs List
e)
Examples
of killings—casual
6.
Chapter 5—save the children
a)
His
childhood was leisurely—no work to do. Suffered from hunger and cold
b)
Only
food was mush; fed like pigs
c)
At 7
or 8 sent to Baltimore; anticipation
d)
Kindly
reception by Sophia Auld; heÕs to take care of little Thomas. This is deliverance by Providence;
gives thanks to God
7.
Chapter 6—reading and its prevention
a) Her face heavenly smiles, voice tranquil music 19
b) She started teaching him to read; reprimanded by her
husband; illegal to teach slave to read—husband tells her that would make
them discontent and capable; this reveals to Douglass the secret of white
dominance; pathway from slavery to freedom
c) Created determination to learn to read
d)
Slaves
better off in city than country, in general, but Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton also
cruel
8.
Chapter 7—literacy and consciousness
a)
Slavery
dehumanizes his mistress so that she tries to prevent him from reading
b)
Makes
friends with white boysÉlike Blake
p.23Éthey teach him to read
in return for bread
c)
At
12, reads The Columbian orator.
d) Power of rhetoric, persuasion; convinces him to detest
his enslavers
e) Depression; envies the stupidity of fellow slaves who
havenÕt received that knowledge I
and E
f)
Stories
of abolitionists give him courage; advised by irish sailors to run away north
g)
Learning
to write in the shipyard and then in Master ThomasÕ book
9.
Chapter 8—moved around like chattel
a)
Step backward
when master dies; has to go back to plantation to the Òvaluation.Ó Ranked with
livestock.
b)
Sent
back to Baltimore; then Lucretia dies; then all are sold including his old
grandmother; excursus on her
29
10.
Chapter 9—Thomas Auld, incompetent slaveholder
a)
Baltimore
family degenerates; sent to St. Michaels with Thomas Auld, son of his old
master
b)
Almost
dying of hunger
c)
Loathing
of master; came into possession of slaves by marriage
d)
Slaveholder
without ability to hold slaves—less respect than for others
e)
Has
religious conversion making him worse
32—beating woman leaving her tied up for hours
f)
Sends
F. to Mr. Covey to be broken—professor of religion—Blake
11.
Chapter 10**
[much longer than others]
a)
Punishment
and breaking: the Covey story 1
(1) Becomes field hand; Mr. Covey makes
him do ox-carting; whips him for awkwardness
(2) Hard working man; constantly with
slaves and watching them; deceiving them
(3) Breeding women
(4) He was broken successfully 38
b) transition
(1) You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall
see how a slave was made a man 39
(2) BookÕs turning point—why in middle of Chapter X?
c) Covey story 2—FDÕs power
(1) Long description of the fight between them; FD defends self and physically
overwhelms CoveyÉ43 turning point of my career as a slave; revived departed
self confidence
(a) Friend Sandy Jenkins gives him roots, that provide
luck and courageÉsuperstition he doesnÕt really believe
(2) Never whipped again; Covey had to save his
reputation. [Covey was poor;
needed the reputation; couldnÕt mobilize full force against FD]
d)
Slave
holidays—oppression and self slavery
(1) Contrast to slave holidays, which blow off steam and
carry off the spirit of enslaved humanity—cf. story of Libya in student
presentation; French revolution.
Holidays an important part of the oppression. 44 Disgust the
slaves with freedom by plunging them into dissipation. Adopt measures to make him drunk. 45 Glad to go from enslavement to run to enslavement to men
(2) Method of overfilling those who
want more food with food, molasses, etc.
e)
Religion:
false and true
(1) Òthe religion of the south is a
mere covering for the most horrid of crimes.Ó Religious slaveholders are the worst
(2) Mr. Hopkins; preemptive whipping
(3) The Sabbath school he sets up is
the contrast to the holidays and the drinking: real liberation 48 He loves teaching—the delight of
my soul to be doing something that looked like bettering the condition of my
race.
f)
Mr.
Freeland, the best master,
(1) till I became my own master. 49 Love for his fellows in this school and under this
master. [contrast to the
detachment from other slaves]
Beautiful rhapsody
(2) Final struggle for escape
developing; wants to do it with the others
g)
The
aborted escape
(1) 50
extended description of the difficulty of deliberation among the group;
different strategies; fears vs courage
(2) Plan to go as group in canoe; FD writes protections
and forges master name; growing anxiety; free choice; foreshadowing
betrayal 52 extended suspense; they are caught; he
manages to burn the ÒprotectionÓ in the scuffle—mistress accuses him of
being ringleader
(3) Òown nothingÓ confidence in each other unshaken;
heroic saga
(4) put in jail; the slave traders flock around like
jackals;
h)
Return
to Baltimore; progress
(1) master Auld comes; gets him out and
sends him back to Baltimore—because of fear he might be killed because of
his reputation, we and he learn later.
55
(2) works in shipyard; at everyoneÕs
beck and call; gets into fight; white carpenters refuse to work with blacks
because of worry the whites will lose jobs; after racial harmony, they start
abusing all the blacks. FD gets
into fight because he now refuses to be abused—kept vow 57 a whole gang attacks him—to
strike a white man is death by lynch law. This angers master and mistress. No whites would testify though many
witnessed it—this would be interpreted as abolitionism
(3) He is taken to another shipyard and gets better
deal, learning to caulk. His wages
go to his master; heÕs rented out. But the better deal he has the more he wants
to be free. To make a contented
slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one.
i) ECONOMY
(1) He was earning a dollar fifty a day. He had to turn it over to Master
Hugh—cf. Thoreau: Economy; dollars and cents
(2) Discussion question; as in history
of slavery on wikipedia, is negro slavery comparable to wage slavery, chimney
sweeps etc.
(3) Where are black people in this
room?
12.
Chapter 11
a)
Announces
structural division—story of escape 59
(1) Limits of his narrative created by
need to protect helpers and not give away secrets of escape
(2) Condemns those who tell too much
about the underground railway
b)
Financial
constraint is what finally motivates him to escape. Cf. 13 colonies. Intellectual nature is most important
(1) Makes deal to Òhire himself outÓ in
return for six dollars a week to Master Hugh, having to cover all his own
expenses. Economic priorities and
transactions. ECONOMY 61
c) HeÕs motivated to make money
(1) Tricks Master Hugh after being forbidden to hire
himself out because he was late one day in payment. Brings him all his wages which are high, making Hugh happy
and unsuspicious
(2) Torn about leaving his friends and
the danger of failure, but does escape to New York – no details given
d)
After
escape
(1) Happy at first but then anxious and
lonely
(2) CouldnÕt trust anyone—the
trials of the fugitive slave
(3) Mr. Ruggles helps him; preacher marries
him to Anna, [the first we hear of her]
(4) Helped to get to New Bedford where
he had prospects of work as caulker
(5) Advanced money by kind
abolitionists 66 and he has the
company of his wife
(6) Last of many name
changes—suggested by a benefactor reading Scott—Douglass
e)
New
Bedford, new Life
(1) Expected northern non slaveholders
to be poor—everything looked clean new and beautiful; colored people
doing well
(2) Colored community is prosperous and
strong and unified. Story of
betrayer who is scared away by threat of murder
(3) Starts working and keeping all his
money; cant get work as caulker because of white prejudice
(4) Starts taking The Liberator, it
becomes his meat and drink; never happier than when in an anti-slavery
meetingÉstarted to speak at a convention in 1841 and the rest is history 69
