HIS 2500- Douglass Response -

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and His Perception on The Effects of Slavery

on The Enslaved.

Timothy “tiki” Johnson

Concordia Chicago University

African American History 2500

Professor Bates

2/8/2024

Assignment

Your response should be double-spaced, 12-point font, and must be at least 750 words (3

pages) but no more than 1000 words (4 pages). It is due to Blackboard by 9:30 am on Thursday,

February 8 (the day the Douglass book is due).

Analysis (1-1.5 pages):Effects of Slavery on the Enslaved including ineducation via violence

Synthesis (1-1.5 pages):

Evaluation (0.5-1 page):

HIS 2500- Douglass Response -

In the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," he discusses the effects of slavery on the

enslaved. He states that these effects include ignorance and subjugation. However he spends

majority of his efforts on the tool used to allot for these effects; violence.

Douglass compares his life to those of the modern day slave of his time. He notes that he was

born into slavery in Maryland. Whilst a slave he states in similar fashion to slaves like him the

firsthand accounts of the brutalities inflicted upon him and others in systemic efforts to keep

them uneducated. He notes that the combinations of these acts were dehumanizing to not only

him but the slave. He accounts for the slaves who were denied basic human rights, treated as

property, and subjected to physical and psychological abuse. Although these tactics were

successful in keeping slaves uneducated it was just as successful to enforce obedience and

prevent resistance. For when a slave wasn’t obedient they would receive beatings, whippings,

and other forms of punishment.

Douglas also emphasizes the amount of mental abuse not only he but the average slave would

endure. However he just like the slaveholders recognized that knowledge was empowering to

that mental status. Unlike Douglas the slaveholders feared the potential for rebellion that

education could inspire. As a result, they went to great lengths to keep slaves illiterate and

ignorant. Similarly to Douglas those who tried to better themselves mentally faced significant

obstacles in their quest for knowledge. Similarly to Douglas slaveholders actively discouraged

and punished slaves who attempted to learn to read and write. However Douglass managed to

teach himself to read and write in secret, a transformative experience that fueled his desire for
HIS 2500- Douglass Response -

freedom and ultimately led to his escape from slavery. Through his narrative, Douglass

underscores the transformative power of education and the power of denying it to the enslaved.

Overall, Douglass's discussion of the effects of slavery on the enslaved including ineducation via

the use of violence, serves to illuminate the inhumanity of slavery. On the contrary, due to

Douglas overcoming the odds into a free man's life, this narration also shows the resilience of

those slaves who did endure it. Due to this his narration serves as a testament to the effects

slavery had on the enslaved.

Due to Douglass's narrative providing a firsthand account from the perspective of him as an

ex-enslaved individual who overcame the suppression, his comparison to his aunt shows a

differing perspective of a slave who didn’t do so. This comparison of him and his relatives show

how suppressing slavery was for some and how liberating it became for others like himself. For

example a first person point of view he noted in which shows this is the following: "I have often

been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine,

whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered

with blood." This example uses imagery such as “covered with blood” and “whip upon her naked

back” to show the suppressive severity of slavery on humans like his aunt. His aunt didn’t have

the opportunity for freedom because she was physically forced to commit to tendering for her

master until her last heart beat. So Fredick’s clever use of “ heart-rending shrieks of my own

aunt” show the true effects of the brutal treatment causing these slaves to be completely

dehumanized.

In the “narrative life of Fredick Douglas” his comparison of his life and those of the slaves who

similarly endured the same struggles as him shows the many effects slavery had on his people.
HIS 2500- Douglass Response -

Douglas highlights that he is an example of liberation , hope and will by overcoming the

oppressive behaviors of the white man. However he also shows the hindering effects that these

behaviors have had on the vast majority of slaves in which aren’t liberated. In similar fashion

these two lives of a suppressed people were still unfair, oppressive and dehumanizing leaving

lasting effects of trauma. In similar fashion I believe these two lives of these suppressed people

have had lasting effects on their ability to cope with one another leaving a systematic oppression

of oneself due to the characteristic of their masters being shown in the oppressive country they

still reside in. However they have overcome the educational barrier to become a people unlike

the whites stated that couldn’t be. They became liberated, hopeful and god driven people like

Fredrick Douglas.

References

Douglas, Fredrick (1845). "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass"