Major Themes of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass, readers are presented with many themes associated with a compelling story of the life of an American slave including home, power, violence, friendship, mind and manhood.

The theme of home in this narrative opens the door for the reader to experience a different definition of home that slaves lived by. Once a slave like Frederick Douglass was born, they were immediately considered a slave and were open to the slave trade. These young slaves were taken from their own mother and were with held from basic information such as their own birth date. As in Frederick's case, being bought and sold was common and most slaves moved several times throughout their life. With that being said, most slaves never really had a place that they can call home and though they had a place to live, they felt little sense of home from it. For Frederick's case, the closest place to home for him was probably Baltimore. While he was at Colonel Lloyd's plantation, he had felt no sense of home and had no family ties, where while in Baltimore, he had family ties and was closer to freedom. Similar to today as people in the community want to have a positive reputation of their home and family, slave holders during this time also wanted their home to be considered well in a sense that they did not want non-slave holding whites to think that they were neglectful to their slaves. While slaves never had a "true home," the reputation that most slave holders wanted for their home is the same as it is today.

The theme of power is a clear tactic that slave holders used to keep their slaves in line. Slave holders maintained their power by depriving slaves of education and their own ideas. They made their slaves ignorant by allowing slaves to know little about themselves, such as their own birth date and the fact that they were taken from their mothers early. Slaves were essentially dehumanized by the way that they were treated. Slave holders obtained much of their power

because slaves were afraid. Slaves were afraid for their own safety if they tried to stop the punishments that they would often get from their masters. One example of this is when Douglass witnessed his Aunt Hester being beaten. As much as he would have loved to stop the slave holder, he knew he was unable to. Another example of this is when Colonel Lloyd, a slave holder of hundred of slaves, sees one of his slaves in the road and begins asking him questions such as who is master is and if he treats him well. The slave tells Colonel Lloyd that his master does not treat him well. Instead of immediately punishing the slave for telling someone who could have been a complete stranger that Colonel Lloyd was a bad slave holder, Colonel Lloyd waited several weeks and then punished the slave by selling him to a Georgian slave holder. This essentially made the slave paranoid as if he was being punished for nothing since he was being sold weeks after that event. Events like this made many slaves pretend to be content with slavery because of a fear of punishment. One of Frederick Douglass' purposes for this narrative was to convince white Northerners that this was the normal practice for slaves to pretend to be content, but they only were out of fear. Slave holders, since they were white, always had the benefit when it came to the law because their word always counted over anyone dark skinned. There were several instances in this novel where slave holders killed slaves, and it was perfectly alright and there was not even an investigation. One example is Mr. Gore shooting a slave for not getting out of the water after a 3-count call. This essentially gave slave holders the power to do any inhumane practice of their desire. Slave holders played many psychological "mind games" upon their slaves, often punishing their slaves for the littlest of things and then not punishing them at all when they deserved it the most, thus adding to a slave's paranoia.

Violence is also a major theme throughout several sections of this narrative. Douglass' own birth was most likely a result of rape from his mother's slave master, Captain Anthony. At a young age, Douglass had to witness his Aunt Hester getting whipped and he was powerless. Douglass also witnessed Master Andrew kicking Douglass' younger brother in their head until he bled and Master Andrew threatened the same upon him. While Douglass was under the ownership of Colonel Lloyd, Lloyd insisted that his slaves stand silent and afraid while he speaks and they receive punishment without comment. Violence was how slave holder's maintained their power and kept slaves intimidated, afraid to even attempt to escape. The reader was engaged to many slave masters using the technique of violence to be in control. Colonel Lloyd put tar on his fence so that slaves would not go over his fence and eat the fruit out of his garden. If Colonel Lloyd found tar on any of his slaves, he knew they were in the garden and he whipped them . When Douglass was under the ownership of Edward Covey, violence was excessively used by Covey. Covey, who was known to straighten out slaves, beat slaves readily and without cause. While violence was seen in this narrative as a tactic for power by slave holders, violence was a crucial theme in this section of the narrative as self defense. Douglass, who could no longer take the harsh punishments of his owner Covey, turned to violence as a last resort in order to stop Covey from taking away his human rights and manhood physically, mentally, and psychologically. Douglass turned to violence in an effort to not beat up his slave holder, but to stop his slave holder from beating him. Once Douglass turned to violence, Covey never beat Douglass again. Douglass does not encourage violence in this narrative, but at this point violence was detrimental and essentially his last chance for himself and his manhood because he probably would have died or committed suicide if he continued to receive punishment from Covey.

The theme of friendship is what guided Douglass to his path towards freedom . Douglass becomes friends with Colonel Lloyd's grandson Daniel. Though Douglass still suffers as a result of a lack of food and clothing, he used the fact that he is friends with Daniel to his advantage, accompanying him on hunting expeditions. One of the most important examples of friendship in this narrative is when he began giving bread to local boys in order to obtain reading lessons from them. It was of great nature for these local boys to teach Douglass how to read because it was not something that was allowed nor done for any slave at the time. His friendship with the boys emerged and they even admitted that Douglass no more deserved to be a slave than any other person. Douglass made the local boys participate in who can write the best contests, and then took home what they wrote so that he could learn how to write on his own when he is home alone. When Douglass left Baltimore, he was upset that he has to leave the local boys who have become his friends and have participated in conversations about slavery. Friendship is also evident between slaves as seen when Douglass meets Sandy Jenkins from a neighboring farm and Sandy gives Douglass a magical root in an effort to prevent Covey from beating Douglass. The theme of friendship as well as the betrayal of friendship was portrayed when Douglass planned to escape North with a few other slaves and after planning it all out, a few of the slaves were skeptical and had doubts and one of the slaves ratted Douglass out admitting that Douglass was the conspirer of the escape plan. While friendship gave Douglass the education to gain slavery, it also made him realize that if he wanted freedom, he would have to do it on his own as an individual. In the end though, what Douglass is trying to get across to the reader is that friendship opens the door to success. If Douglass never became friends with the local boys, he never even would have had the education to think about escaping, and even though his friends betrayed him in the end, he would never have made it without them.

Douglass uses the theme of mind in this narrative to allow the reader and Northerners to realize that you should never underestimate anyone, including slaves, of what they are capable of doing. The theme of mind is used to demonstrate that in reality, there is no inferiority or superiority that truly exists because even though skin tone may be different, each human being has the capacity to use their mind if they are allowed to learn. In the beginning of the narrative, Douglass witnesses slaves singing songs to which he later realizes are about discontentment with their slave owners and slavery in general. While these songs may seem pretty premature, they are a great example of the power of the mind. When Douglass is enlightened by being introduced to the alphabet by Mrs. Auld, he realizes that not giving enslaved blacks an education is the strategy that slave-holders use in order to keep control of their slaves. Douglass also realizes that he has his own individuality when he learns how to read. Douglass is trying to say that everyone has a mind of their own that shapes their own individuality. To the Northerners, Douglass is trying to show how it is wrong to enslave blacks and hold them away from getting an education because blacks do indeed have potential and have a mind, and most of all have their own individuality. Douglass wants the Northerners to truly understand that blacks are just as humane as whites. Slave holders are afraid that by giving slaves an education, the slaves will no longer be content as slaves and will thus seek freedom. While this proves to be true, Douglass wants Northerners to comprehend that by slave holders not allowing slaves an education does not make them any more content as slaves as seen with the slave songs.

Finally, Douglass expresses the theme of manhood to both the reader and the Northerners. To the reader, Douglass wanted to portray that violence is not the answer, but sometimes you must use your manhood and step-up for what you believe in or you will never be heard. Douglass, an obvious man, had dealt with brutal whippings from many different slave holders, but none as bad as with Covey. One day, Covey just pushed Douglass over the limit and in both self defense and also is use of manhood, Douglass had no choice but to resort to violence. Douglass's use of manhood by going after Covey and those who tried to help Covey made Covey never touch Douglass again. Douglass wants the reader to know that violence should always be a last option, but you should never let anyone ever take away your manhood. To the Northerners, the theme of manhood was used by Douglass to show how Douglass was not always a slave. Douglass was a man before he was a slave, and he was and did all that he could to become a man again. The theme of manhood expressed to Northerners that slaves were not always slaves and they should be treated no different than anyone else. A black male slave is no different than his white male owner in regards to his manhood so the slave should not be taken away of his manhood. The manhood of white slave holders was also expressed negatively. After Mr. Hugh Auld realized that his wife was teaching Douglass, he immediately made her stop because education ruins slaves. This example represents the white male authority at the time and how they were in dominant control over their wives, children, and slaves actions and no one ever questioned or tested the manhood of the superior white male.

Many themes including home, power, violence, friendship, mind, and manhood are portrayed in this narrative. This narrative was written in order for Northerners to recognize the cruelty of slavery and the true discontentment that slaves had with their owners even though they may have pretended to be happy. This narrative further identifies the strategy of banning education for enslaved blacks that white male slave holders stood by in order to keep slaves under control. Douglass serves to display to Northerners that no matter one's race or whether or not one is a slave, each human has their own mind and individuality and the institution of slavery is unjust. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a great source of history that most definitely shows how far along we have come as well as how lucky we are today to live in a society where for the most part people are color blind and treat one another equally with respect.

From the two speeches following the narrative, Douglass essentially says that the effect that slavery has on white people in the North is that they have more or less accepted slavery. By white people in Northern States becoming part of the Union and accepting the Fugitive Slave Act, they have made the country a hunting ground for the slave. The Northerners have agreed that if a slave dares to carry out the principles of "our fathers," meaning freedom by means of escaping from their slave-holders in the south, the white northerners will shoot the slaves. Slavery has made the white people of the North disregard what the constitution is truly all about, and they believe that if the slaves do not rise up against their slave holders, then they deserve to be slaves. However, by supporting the Fugitive Slave Act, they support slavery. By judges getting paid $5 more for make a slave destined to return to his owner, they are also supporting slavery. The effect of slavery on white Northerners is that it has caused them to make the Fourth of July, a national holiday that everyone should honor for their liberty from the British that the founding fathers had fought for in order to have future peace for everyone in the nation, simply a holiday for whites to enjoy and meaningless to enslaved blacks of the South. By agreeing to the Fugitive Slave Act, they white Northerners are supporting slaves and are in reality not one bit better in their actions then the slave holders themselves. Slavery has thus made not just the South, but the entire nation despicable.