"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave"

Recommended Age: 14-16

Lexile: 1080L

The "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" is a brilliant testimony of an important American era. This book is a classic written by an escaped and intelligent slave, who was an important figure in the anti-slavery movement and a recognized American diplomat. Douglass sheds light upon the brutality of slavery through his eloquent, yet sanguine writing. From the preface to the appendix, he makes emotional and valid arguments against slavery. Douglass illustrates the insanity and the immorality of slavery. During these troubling times, the “Narrative” reminds us that racism jeopardizes the lives, prosperity, and happiness of all members of society, not only those who are oppressed.

Through Douglass’s noteworthy descriptive writing, he not only transports the reader into an era where humans were treated as animals but also manages to capture the feelings of being a slave. For example, Douglass has an awareness when he is around twelve. He realizes “he is a slave for life!” and the misery portrayed during this moment is made stronger by his next statement: “Have not I as good a right to be free as whites have?” Douglass’s writing forces the reader to confront each cruel experience that he recalls and as a result the harsh sting of the lash never leaves the reader.

Douglass’s life makes plain the bleak reality that slaves lived in a state of constant terror. He demonstrates the brutality of slavery. A slave had to live terrified. Wherever they were, even if they were treated nicely, the threat of being “snatched away, and forever sundered, from their family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than death” loomed over them. Even if a slave ran away- which Douglass did- they were always endangered by the slave bounty hunters. As Douglass wisely phrases it, slaves were always “liable to be taken back, and subjected to all the tortures of slavery.” Slaves were never safe, no matter how safe they seemed.

The sheer power and truth of Douglass’s anti-slavery testament does not end with the last chapter; the afterword presents a blistering critique of “False American Christianity” – a Christianity that embraced slavery. Slave masters claimed to be good Christians although they whipped people for the sheer enjoyment of it. “We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members,” Douglass writes. These “men of God” justified taking someone’s soul away by saying slaves were “better treated” in captivity than their homeland. As Douglass astutely observed the hypocrisy of these so-called Christians: “ The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus.” Douglass, who considered himself a good Christian, believed that no true Christian could support the enslavement of their brothers and sisters.

Slavery is long past, but the cultural acceptance and mindset of a society that condoned, promoted, and tolerated the inhumane practice lingers. Douglass’s emotional and descriptive writing helps to reveal the ridiculousness of slavery and its supporting arguments. Furthermore, Douglass’s narrative teaches us that something so evil- be it slavery or racism- infects the hearts of everyone.