narrative of the narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was mistakenly taught to read at an early age. His resultant autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, provides one of the most compelling, informative, and emotive expositions of life on the Southern plantations for slaves in the antebellum period.

Douglass was born on Maryland’s Eastern shore, into a life of slavery on the plantations of Talbot County, in February of 1818. He states in Chapter I of his autobiography, ‘I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.’ Despite this, Douglass estimates himself to be between 27 and 28 at the time of writing, 1845.

The form of slavery utilised in the antebellum South at this time was chattel slavery. Chattel slavery proposes that the master owns the slave outright, and in some cases even the slave’s children, from life until death. Douglass was born into slavery through Harriet Bailey, daughter of Isaac and Betsey Bailey, who were dark-skinned. Douglass proposes that his father was a white man, but dismisses, or refuses to consider, the possibility of one of his masters being his father. Indeed, it was not uncommon for masters to rape female slaves, who were subsequently of ‘constant offence’ to the wife of the master, as Douglass tells us — ‘and it is worthy of remark that such slaves invariably suffer greater hardships, and have more to contend with, than others’.

Douglass went on to educate the other slaves on his plantation, before trying to escape at 15. This attempt failed, but on his second, September 1538, he managed to escape to New York, and began trying to free the other slaves. He had a penchant for speaking in a stimulating manner, and caught the attention of William Lloyd Garrison, a prominent abolitionist, with such polemics. Garrison took Douglass under his wing, and the pair travelled across the country giving speeches advocating for the abolition of slavery across the United States.

Many doubted that Douglass was actually a fugitive slave (simply meaning ‘any individual who escaped from slavery in the period before and including the American Civil War.’ (Encyclopedia Brittanica, 2023)) due to his excellent rhetoric. Douglass revealed some of his personal information, including his original name, the names of his owners, and his birthplace, in his aforementioned Narrative. He promptly fled to Britain, and it was in Britain that he was emancipated. The people of Britain found him so striking, so impressive, that they purchased his freedom, and Douglass was able to return to the US shortly, a legally free man.

Douglass found himself settled in New York, where he purchased a printing press and began to publish his preeminent anti-slavery newspaper, the North Star, which skyrocketed in popularity in the antebellum US. Douglass argued consistently that the Civil War that began in 1861 was about more than just unionism and state’s rights — that the very state’s rights it concerned were the rights to keep slaves, and that it was this subject, slavery and abolitionism, which truly underpinned the outbreak of the American Civil War.

The life of Frederick Douglass is at once completely uniform and entirely unique. His narrative demonstrates the shared experience of innumerable slaves in this period — one of fear, trepidation, uncertainty, and ephemerality. At the same time, his Narrative offers a distinctive insight into the journey, from being born a slave to his return to the US as a free citizen, of one man — Frederick Douglass.

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