Frederick Doglas
&
The Slave Narratives
Slave Narratives as Protest
Writing
1.The Abolitionist Movement
2. Slave Narratives as Autobiography
3. Function of Narratives
4. Characteristics of Narratives
5. Gender and Slave Narratives
Abolitionist Movements
British Caribbean
 1770s-1830s
 British anti-slavery
activists lobbying
British Parliament
 Paternalistic
Christianity
United States
 1830s-1870
 Evangelical religious
movements of the
1830s
 Active participation of
northern blacks and
ex-slaves
Sojourner Truth (1851)
. . . I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at
the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix
pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into
carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place
everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mudpuddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look
at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and
gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a
woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when
I could get it and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I
have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to
slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but
Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Minstrel Shows
Olaudah Equiano
“By the horrors of that trade was I first torn away
from
all the tender connections that were naturally dear to
my heart; but these, through the mysterious ways of
Providence, I ought to regard as infinitely more than
compensated by the introduction I have thence
obtained in the knowledge of the Christian religion,
and of a nation which, by its liberal sentiments, its
humanity, its glorious freedom of its government, and
its proficiency in arts and sciences, has exalted the
dignity of human nature” (Classic Slave Narratives
17).
5 Functions of Slave
Narratives
1. To document the conditions of or ”truth”
about slavery;
2. To encourage the abolition of slavery;
3. To provide religious inspiration;
4. To assert the narrator’s personhood; and
5. To challenge stereotypes about blacks.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
. . . The black slave’s narrative came to be a
communal utterance, a collective tale, rather than
merely an individual’s autobiography. Each slave
author, in writing about his or her personal life’s
experiences, simultaneously wrote on behalf of
millions of silent slaves still held captive . . . All
blacks would be judged—on their character,
integrity, intelligence, manners and morals and their
claim to warrant emancipation—on this published
evidence produced by one of their number. (Classic
Slave Narratives 2)
NARRATIVE
OF THE
LIFE
OF
FREDERICK DOUGLASS,
AN
AMERICAN SLAVE.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
Frederick Douglass
“The overseer’s name was Mr. Plummer. Mr.
Plummer was a miserable drunkard, a profane
swearer, and a savage monster . . . . No
words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory
victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its
bloody purpose” (Classic Slave Narratives
342-343).
Frederick Douglass
“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” (Classic Slave
Narratives 394).
Characteristics of Slave
Narratives
1. A preface as authenticating material/testimony
2. First sentence begins: “I was born . . .”
3. Details of the first observed whipping
4. An account of a hardworking slave who refuses to
be whipped
5. Details of the quest for literacy
6. Account of a slave auction
7. Description of attempts to escape
8. Appendix of documentary material
Mythological Pattern of
Slave Narratives
1.
Loss of innocence;
2.
Realization of alternatives to bondage and
resolve to be free;
3.
Escape;
4.
Freedom obtained.
Frederick Douglass
“It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark
and mysterious things, with which my youthful
understanding had struggled in vain. I now understood
what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty—to
wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man.
It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly.
From that moment, I understood the pathway from
slavery to freedom” (Classic Slave Narratives 364).