The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
An Historic Account of Slavery in America
Introduction and Thesis
The Library of Congress recently curated an exhibition on literature known as “The Books That Shaped America.” The intent of the exhibition was to feature books that had a profound influence on American life. An important work featured in the exhibit, is Frederick Douglass’s autobiographical account of slavery, “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” Douglass’s book is considered influential and important, as its first-hand descriptions of the horrors of slavery brought the need and desire for abolition into the national consciousness and influenced generations of African American writers.
About the Author
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery around 1817 or 1818 in Maryland. While spending his early childhood years on a plantation, he was witness to many acts of brutality and degradation. He was then sent to live with his master’s brother in Baltimore, where he taught himself to read. Learning to read and bearing witness to the way slaves were treated in Baltimore as compared to the plantation, Douglass began to realize the injustice that the African American people were suffering at the hands of their masters. After some time, Douglass escaped to the north, where he became a free man in New Bedford. Douglass went on to become transformed from an “illiterate slave into a leading abolitionist orator, influential journalist, and well-known public speaker” (Bland). His speeches were extremely influential and are well-known for contributing to the abolitionist movement in both Massachusetts and the country.
Douglass then went on to publish three different autobiographies, which are examples of the slave narrative. His first, “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” became a best-seller, and widely influential in the abolitionist sentiment that was gaining steam during this time. Douglass was often summoned to the White House to advise President Lincoln on the condition of blacks in the South during the Civil War. In addition to being central to the abolitionist movement, Douglass went on to serve as the U.S. Marshall in the District Columbia, and the U.S. Minister to Haiti.
About the Book
Frederick Douglass’s, “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” is an autobiographical account of Douglass’s early life as a slave in Maryland. Douglass describes in significant detail the travesties endured by himself and his fellow slave.
Douglass uses extensive detail and documentation, including dates and names, so that the work can serve not only as his autobiography, but an historical account that can be studied for generations. Douglass extensively accounts for the dates of his arrival at locations, plantations, and shipyards, as well as naming specifically his masters and mistresses. While this may sound on the surface like simple necessities to an autobiography or historical account, they were groundbreaking as the nation’s population had not before seen an account of slavery like this in such detail. In fact, there were many people who did not believe the stories of slavery that escaped the plantation through word of mouth, but the specifics in Douglass’s writing made it impossible to deny.
Douglass also uses advanced literary devices that were not commonly associated by the American people to slaves. He “employs eloquent figurative language, classic rhetorical structures, sophisticated sentence structure, and vivid details to paint the brutal and inhumane picture of life under slavery” (Bland).” Thanks to his well-written tale, he was not only able to capture a wider audience, but contribute to a better understanding of the humanity of the people enslaved.
Legacy
The account of slavery provided by Frederick Douglass in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” had a profound impact on the shape of our nation. While the work has been influential in many ways, there are two that stand out as integral to the fabric of our nation. First, his testimony as a slave added his significant voice to the growing debate on the issue of slavery at the time it was written. Next, “Douglass provided the genesis of the spirit and the vitality and the angle of vision responsible for the most effective prose writing by black American writers” (Samuels). The work is influential both as a change agent contributing to the abolitionist movement at an important time in the nation’s history, and as a literary influence on African American writers for years to follow.
With debate over slavery intensifying in the years leading up to the Civil War, Frederick Douglass stood out as a captivating orator, providing memorable speeches that spoke out against the injustice of slavery. Friends and fellow abolitionists urged Douglass to put his account into a written form, so his words could reach more throughout the country. However, at the time, it was often that an account of a former slave was not believed by much of the population. Douglass’s specifics, including dates, locations, and names, along with two prefaces by known abolitionists assisted with providing credibility. The work became a best seller and widely regarded as an important influential contribution to the abolitionist movement, and ultimately, the end of slavery.
Frederick Douglass has also been cited as being extremely influential in the works of many African American authors “from William Wells Brown to Charles Chesnutt, from W. E. B. DuBois to Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin”(Samuels) as well as “Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Sherley Anne Williams, Charles Johnson, and many others” (Samuels). Douglass’s work was not only influential to the anti-slavery movement, but to the literary world as well.
When the Library of Congress identified the “Books that Shape America,” they brought to light an author that lived an extraordinary life. From slavery to orator to famous author, Frederick Douglass’s contributions to the shape of the nation, both to the human condition and literature itself, are on full display in his profound autobiography, “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.”
Works Cited
Bland, Janet. “Douglass, Frederick.” Encyclopedia of African-American Literature, Second Edition, Facts On File, 2013. Bloom’s Literature, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=95547&itemid=WE54&articleId=27005. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021.
Samuels, Wilfred D. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself.” Encyclopedia of African-American Literature, Second Edition, Facts On File, 2013. History Research Center, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=&itemid=&articleId=27262. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. e-book, Independently published, 2020.
