The purpose of this slave narrative is typical of narratives of the time, it was intended for white audiences to persuade and enlighten them of the poor conditions slaves were living in, and how cruel their masters could be to them, ‘whip her upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood.’ (Douglass, 1986, p51) Douglass’ slave narrative fits Olney’s convention of slave narrative exactly, from the preface written by a white abolitionist friend, Garrison, to the reflections of slavery towards the end of the narrative ‘I heard no deep oaths or horrid curses on the laborer. I saw no whipping of men’ (Douglass, 1986, p148). Douglass also describes how his Christian master, Mr Auld is even more cruel, and does not allow him to be taught to read ‘if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him.’ (Douglass, 1986, p78) this brings to light how strict Christian masters could be, forbidding his wife to teach his slave how to read, which incidentally, was the spark that inspired Douglass to learn to read more and become the great orator he was. This also highlights another key purpose, the lack of education slaves got under their masters.
The content of the narrative describes Douglass’ life as a slave in vivid detail, in the first few chapters he describes how he grew up without a mother ‘My mother and I were separated at a young age.’ (Douglass, 1986, p48) It is also within these chapters that he describes the first time he witnessed the sheer brutality their masters could bestow on the slaves.
Between chapters five and seven are the chapters where the abolitionist seeds are first planted, all spurring from the aforementioned quote where he is prevented from learning to read. This inspires him, not only to read, but how to break away from slavery from that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.’ (Douglass, 1986, p78)
Douglass eventually returned to Mr Auld as a slave, and later on in the narrative he goes into more detail of how cruel this man could actually be, he describes how much food four slaves were given to eat, ‘we were allowed less than half of a bushel of corn-meal per week, and very little else’ (Douglass, 1986, p96). This cruelty continued up until chapter ten starts, with Douglass recording weekly beating and whippings from his new master Mr Covey. It is not until the last page of the narrative that Douglass refers to his first anti- slavery convention 1841 where he begins to speak out against slavery, and it is from this meeting that his career blossoms.
The language and sentence structure used by Douglass is highly advanced, and not just for an ex-slave. It is however, still an extremely easy read, which is ideal for all its intended purposes, sentences such as ‘I have said that this mode of treatment is a part of the whole system of fraud and inhumanity of slavery’ (Douglass, 1986, p117), whilst reading, don’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary, it is not until you take a step back, and realise that this man didn’t learn to read and write properly until his mid twenties, that this prose stands out as excellent. It is difficult to find any traces of archaic language other than expected topical words such as ‘Negro-breaker’ (Douglass, 1986, p117), the other examples are that of imperial measures such as ‘half-bushel’ (Douglass, 1986, p108). The ability to convey his thought and feeling combined with descriptive, non-archaic vocabulary make the narrative easy to understand and to engross the reader, even over a century later.
It is difficult to criticise the narrative, it is easy to understand, follow, and gives a clear insight as to how slaves were treated and how they lived. It was also the first narrative to be published by the Anti-Slavery office in 1845, which gives a clear indicator as to how important Douglass’ work actually was, and still is to historians. It is due to work like this, which set the trend for slave narratives, and lead to historians such as Olney and Taylor even setting conventions for which slave narratives are written. Douglass’ narrative stands out from others as he is not hindered by his low levels of vocabulary, this coupled with the time it was published is what has made it such a success, by 1860 thirty-thousand copies had been sold while slavery was still rife showing how important the text was, and is.
Bibliography
Douglass. F (1986). Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New York: The Penguin Group.
Olney. J (1985) “‘I was born a slave’: slave narratives, their status as autobiography and as literature”, in C. Davis and H.L. Gates (eds) The Slave’s Narrative Oxford: Oxford University Press
