AN EYE INTO 19TH CENTURY AMERICAN SLAVERY

 

A review of Frederick Douglass Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) (1997, my copy)

(Rating 5 of 5)

                Frederick Douglass’s account of his journey as a person born into slavery who ultimately escaped to freedom was published in 1845.  It was the first time for many Americans, particularly those who would be mainstream voters, to see what American slavery was through the eyes of the enslaved.  He did not paint a pretty picture.  Douglass told tales of malnourishment, beatings with whips and other implements, forced illiteracy, and humans being bread for later sale when they were older.    

                When the book was first published it was attacked by southern slaveholders as forgery.  No slave could write as elegant as the passages in this book.  They were oppressing the enslaved population enough so they could be sure.  However, they didn’t count on a former slave who used to be named Frederick Bailey, armed with a little bit of luck and lot more craftiness, actually learning to read and write without their knowledge and passing that ability on to others.

Southern slavery

                Douglass’s target audience is the white population, particularly white men who could vote and impact the polices of the state and the federal governments.  One of the ideas that he reiterates throughout his work is that while all slavery is evil there is a spectrum of evilness.  Once you are enslaved it can still get worse for you.  Sometimes it can get better but the place you were before is always a place you can be sent back to.  During his enslavement Douglass experienced both ends of the extreme.  

               

“I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness.  It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake.  Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy.  The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.  At least, such is my experience.  I have often sung to drown my sorrow, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery.  The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion” (pg.30)

Douglass was born on a planation on date he was never told.  He was separated from his mother early on and his father was his owner.  That man was Captain Aaron Anthony who worked as an overseer on the plantation where Douglass was enslaved.  Despite being just the overseer, he did own a few of the slaves himself besides Douglass.  While living on the planation Douglass and the other slaves were treated as if they were farm animals given little to eat, poor clothes to wear, and beatings if they complained.  Then his owner/father died and he became the property of his half-sister Lucretia Auld, who then sent him to serve her brother-in-law and his wife, Hugh and Sophia Auld.

Plantation slavery 

                With this change his life instantly improved.  He went from being treated like a farm animal to being treated more like a live-in butler.  However, he was a butler who at any time could be sent back to be a farm animal.  He credits the change of status to the change of venue.  In a strange twist on the classical city mouse/country mouse, we have city slave/ country slave.  In this case it seems the city slave has the better deal.  Douglass points out that the slave/free population was reversed with the city having more free people.   Rebellious slaves were less of a risk and mistreating or malnourishing a slave tended to invite judgement from neighbors.  It is interesting point out that slave owner and US President James Madison also noted that slavery becomes more brutal the higher the slave population gets to the free population.

                This is also where Douglass has some important lessons for his readers.  All slaver holders were bad but there was a range of badness.  The majority that Douglass encountered would have redeemable traits that he would notice.   Then there were some who were just sadistically evil.  Douglass argued that the reason that any slave owner is going to be bad is that the nature of owning a slave is a morally corruptible one.  His analysis was similar to the saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

The case of Sophia Auld is the one he gives as a prime example.  Sophia Auld was from the North where there were no slaves.  Slavery is new to her as she moved to Baltimore with her new husband.  When she first meets Douglass, she treats him and all the other servants with kindness.  She even begins teaching Douglass how to read.  His reading lessons were cut short when her husband found out.  Hugh Auld gave a speech to his wife where he reprimanded her behavior with the slaves.  He explained teaching them to read would ruin them as slaves.   The speech had an impact on both of them: Douglass resolved to learn to read, but Sophia went in another direction.  When he tried to read newspapers, she would stanch them away.  As time went on, although not overtly cruel Sophia Auld became a typical slave owner.

“But, alas! This kind heard had but a short time to remain such.  The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work.  That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon.”  (pg.46)

Still yearning to read Douglass had to go about it a different way.  One of the advantages of now being a city-slave instead of being one on the plantation is Douglass had more freedom of movement as he could be sent on errands or even employed elsewhere so long as he gave his owners the money he earned.  While traveling among the citizens of Baltimore he discovered an interesting truth that there were different classes of white people with some of them being very impoverished.  These poor white citizens had freedom, literacy and a genuine hope their lot could improve all things Douglass himself was denied.  However, he did have couple of things that they did not such as roof over his head and food security. 

Martha Anne Atavis, enslaved in Baltimore to a family who she had to act as caretaker to their children, one is Alice in the picture

Armed with this knowledge, Douglass befriended some of these poor whites and offered a swap.  He would give them the excess food that he has access to if they would give him reading lessons.  It worked and Douglass was able to master reading.  He doesn’t identify any of the white people that helped him as this book was published when they were still alive and could have faced both legal and social consequences if those in Baltimore learned who they were.  

Now fully literate Douglass now wanted to expand that knowledge to his fellow slaves and had that opportunity when he was hired out to William Freeland.   Freeland is described by Douglass as the least oppressive as all the white slave owners that he labored under.  He was easy-going and not strict with the slaves.   This gave Douglass an opportunity to teach a number of students and spread literacy throughout the plantation.  This success was his undoing as it was discovered and his owner, Mr. Auld, decided to relocate Douglass from Mr. Freeman’s planation to the farm of Edward Covey.

Edward Covey was a farmer who was not well off enough to afford many slaves.  However, he had a great many slaves from other slave owners who sent them to him often paying him to house them.  They did this because Covey had a reputation for being a slave-breaker (they used a different word that Douglass does quote) who would train slaves through beating them to submission and once they were fully compliant sent them back to their owners.  Thus, he got slave labor without actually having to buy it.  There is even a disgusting scene of him breeding a young woman that he owns as a slave so he can sell her children.

Douglass suffered brutality under Covey.  This lasted until a fellow slave named Sandy Jenkins, helped him make a totem from a certain root they found in the woods that he claimed would magically protect him from violence from white overseers.  Douglass was skeptical of any magic, but it did have what we would call a placebo effect where having the totem gave him the courage to stand up to Covey.  He did so and was able to defeat Covey in a fight and beat the crap out of him.  Under ordinary circumstances this could have been a death sentence for Douglass however he had something working in his favor.  Covey got free use of slaves because of his reputation for being able to bend them to his will.  Had he formally charged Douglass he would have lost his reputation.  It was in their best interest to keep this a secret.  

“This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave.  It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.  It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me attain with a determination to be free.” (pg. 80-1)

After Douglass is sent back to live with the much more tolerable William Freeland, and this makes it easier to plan an escape.  I have to say given that American slavery was still going to go on for another twenty years I am not sure it was wise of him to write all he did about Freeland.   He was the most tolerable master he had and yet was under him that he began a mass literacy project and ultimately escaped.   A slaver owner who reads this work might use it as a perverse how-to-guide in how to keep slaves in line.  No kindness and maximize cruelty.  I think it might have been smarter to say something like “Freeland was starting to take lessons from Covey, so I had to escape.”  Then issue a correction in his later biographies.  

The book ends with his finding freedom, changing his name from Bailey to Johnson to finally Douglass, and getting involved with the abolitionist movements.  At the end of the book, he also makes a distinction between what he considers real Christianity and the Christianity of the slave holder, as not to offend non-slave holding Christians. 

I highly recommend this book Douglass brings you right into the world of slavery as it existed in the 1800s.  The book is simultaneously complex and easy to read.  It is only 125 pages so you can get through it in a very short period of time.  Sometimes it might take longer when going over some of the harder passages.  However, the book ends on a very hopeful note.

[Video is a clip from The Story of US you can purchase it here.}