Who Is Frederick Douglass An Abolitionist

Fueling the Abolitionist Movement In Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the question of true freedom is impossible to ignore. The narrative is told in the first person point of view and is about breaking out of the unbearable chains of slavery through the eyes of a real life slave. This narrative takes place from the time he was born in the nineteenth century to his escape to slavery in New York. Soon after he was born, Douglass was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey; he also did not know his date of birth or who his real father was, although it was thrown around that it might be his white master, Captain Anthony. Many people believe that Douglass did not quite experience the heart wrenching cruelty like
some slaves did. After he leaves Captain Anthony’s estate at the age of seven or eight, he is transferred to Baltimore where he lived a somewhat comfortable life.
His new owners wife starts to teach him how to read until her husband finds out and responds in saying that “if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master” (37). Douglass, now determined to learn, continues to teach himself how to read and then begins to understand the cruelty of slavery and the presence of the abolitionist movement. He decides to plan his escape to the North. The way that this narrative is told shows readers that this story is about more than just slavery. Through his first person point of view, straightforward dialect, and ability to place his audience into his situation, Douglass orchestrated a famous piece of art using his words and memories to portray
how the world looked from the bottom. Douglass, like many other slaves who escaped to freedom, made himself free. Although most readers cannot even imagine the pain and heartache Douglass endured throughout his enslaved life, his first person narration makes a reader feel as if they have been where he has been and seen what he has seen. His narrative gives readers the power to understand what it’s like to be living in a world when ‘the land of the free’ was only looking out for one population. Unlike most stories of previous slaves, Douglass wanted to go beyond the usual documentaries of slaves’ lives and show us that freedom is not something that is handed on a silver platter to take as you please. Freedom takes determination, commitment, and strength, and I do not believe that is something that could be comprehended through another storyteller other than Douglass himself. Reading a story from a first person point of view of a slave is like watching a scary movie. As you read along, your eyes widen from shock, you get anxious from not knowing what will happen next, you occasionally gasp, and you sometimes look away or shut your eyes hoping it will all disappear. Slavery, though, will never cease to exist, and Douglass always knew that he was never fully free after his escape. Slavery is just one big battle in the midst of an even bigger war. After finally finding himself in the free state of New York, Douglass first felt relief, then happiness, and then soon he was “again seized with a feeling of great insecurity and loneliness. [He] was yet liable to be taken back, and subjected to all the tortures of slavery” (132). Douglass wanted his readers to experience history and all of its magnificent cruelty. Douglass used dialect throughout Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass to place his readers into his story and help them gather a sense of his deprivation.
In one of the early chapters of the narrative when he is still trying to learn how to read, he gains help from a few white boys, who he claims he has converted into teachers. "You will be free as soon as you are twenty-one, but I am a slave for life! Have not I as good a right to be free as you have?" (63). Although uncomfortable and blunt, Douglass directly quotes himself as a child to help readers grasp the inhumanity being shoved into the face of young Frederick Douglass and so many unfortunate others. I feel that he forces his readers to empathize. Douglass also claims that he is tempted to write the names of the boys who taught him as a form of gratitude but he states that “prudence forbids;—not that it would injure [him], but it might embarrass them; for it is almost an unpardonable offence to teach slaves to read in this Christian country” (64). To me, the fact that Douglass was reluctant to share the boys’ names because their recognition might embarrass them saddened me and pulled me into the story even deeper. I was able to experience the life of Frederick Douglass just as he
did. I believe that to get a point across efficiently, a first person narrative is the best way to portray an actual sense of the author’s life. Through his perspective, the reader is put through a whirlwind of different emotions and an extraordinary experience. Douglass leaves the reader questioning beyond the political and legal aspects of slavery. He writes exactly how he feels and states “I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence” (30). He makes you want to dip deeper, ask more questions, and realize that slavery will always exist as long as some people still want it. Douglass created a very famous piece of literature describing the hardships and unfairness of being a slave, and through it he lit the undying fire known as the abolitionist movement.