A Slave's American Dream

    I finish Douglass's words with excitement. The narrative captured my attention all through out and it's only his lack of narration at the time of his escape that puts me down. That last chapter of his memoir was really able to present the clear transition he experienced from slave to freeman, but it doesn't just start at the end I might say. His life begins the transition as he starts his own personal empowerment. He stood out since he was a young boy for it wasn't his final get away what really cut him lose to freedom. Douglass describes how at a very young age he was able to teach himself to read and write: "Thus, after a long, tedious effort for years, I finally succeeded in learning how to write."(pg. 54) His destiny was transformed as he opened his life to opportunity. Not sitting down to wait for chances to get to him, he went out to seize them all.

    Douglass also writes about his rise against his master saying, "...I resolved to fight; and, suiting my action to the resolution, I seized Covey hard by the throat; and as I did so, I rose."(pg. 77) He was not only fighting a battle with his master but a battle with himself to gather the resolve to stand up for himself. The more this happened the closer he was to freedom no matter how far away he was from the North Star.

    The resolve and toughness he gathered during years of toil proved essential in his search for a job while living in Baltimore. He served his master well providing an income and gaining importance. All this rekindles his desire for freedom having it much closer now than ever. When he finally leaves the transformation is still ongoing. Successfully getting to a free state doesn't give Douglass the joy of freedom as he is still a slave to fear and persecution. He says, "I saw in every white man an enemy, and in almost every colored man cause for distrust."(pg. 105) This all didn't provide a sensation of freedom but more of entrapment.

    Douglass's final transformation is definitely the most moving. He comes across the idea of black man living freely under even better conditions than white men. Hardworking people living in unison under the idea of unified prosperity without the necessity of slavery. This final perception sets the stage to Douglass experiencing love with his wife and owns to the idea that hard work pays off. The whole concept of the American Dream visited from a new perspective. That of a fugitive slave full of ambition and determination.

    When he finally gets up to speak at the abolitionist assembly in front of white men is when he meets the realization of his new condition, not as a slave, but as a free man. Douglass says, "I spoke but a few moments, when I felt a degree of freedom, and said what I desired with a considerable ease."(pg. 112) Bringing closure to his struggle, Douglass sets forth the path to freedom for any slave in this world. Not only does he pose a challenge for those living in bondage alongside southern plantations, but he challenges us to ascertain our freedom and forge our own individual paths. 

Slave Conformity

    As  I continue to read Douglass's narration it leads me to understand more and more of slavery and how it sometimes works as a great reflection of society, and by society I don't mean the nineteenth century southern society. I'm referring to our twenty first century society.

    Theres a point in the narrative in which Douglass describes the slaves leisure time specially at the time of Christmas. In Douglass's words, "But by far the larger part engaged in such sports and merriments as playing ball, wrestling, running foot-races, fiddling, dancing, and drinking whiskey; and this latter mode of spending the time was by far the most agreeable to the feelings of our masters."(pg. 79) The masters wanted to dumb down their slaves by giving them this leisure time in which they didn't have to work, but instead of allowing them to do something productive they just threw some whiskey at them and watched them wreck themselves. It's a primitive, yet effective strategy to maintain that control over people. It's the master throwing the dog a bone, the mother giving her children some candy, and in this case the slaves enjoying that small sample of freedom. Most slaves conform just as most people do. Slaves lift their spirits and eliminate any thoughts of insurrection as Douglass says, "These holidays serve as conductors, or safety-valves, to carry off the rebellious spirit of enslaved humanity."(pg. 80)

    There was a book I read last year that dealt with the issue of conformity in a distopia. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley presented this place in which people were subject to profound psychological manipulation. The idea behind it all was to make everyone happy. That was the key to a harmonious society as happiness was predestined. The state promoted promiscuity and delivered a drug called "soma" to the people and this kept everyone in line. They all conformed to their lives as they were. No one strived for change or difference, just what a southern slaver would dream of. Fortunately there is always an outlier, another Douglass. Someone who finds disconformity and uneasiness where others find conformity and tranquility. Bernard, one of the central characters of the book, is different and finds troubling how society functions. Like in slavery, there was no love and no feeling. No family ties and no fathers nor mothers. You existed as you were and you were there to fulfill a specific purpose. It's intriguing to me to find so many similarities between the slave community and society in Brave New World as I'm just starting to connect these as I write.

    To finish up it's interesting to see how conformity played such a crucial role in the institution of slavery but it also brings up another question. How do we see conformity in our daily lives? Do we strive to fit in or to stand out as different? Are we slaves to social pressures and the ideas that rule modern society? Those are just some questions to ponder because to answer them would be impossible and the attempt would certainly be very time consuming.

Religious Righteousness

    Religion has always been an excuse for some of the most horrifying events in history. Don't get me wrong though, it has also helped millions. As Douglass shows us, slavery wasn't the exception to the rule. He presents some very harsh contradictions that he witnessed when he says, "...and yet that mistress and her husband would kneel every morning, and pray that God would bless them in basket and store!"(pg. 62) The slaves were starving while their masters chose not to feed them properly yet they still prayed for more? If people were discriminating black people based on their skin color could they go to the extent of finding slavery justified in religion? Apparently they did, and were very successful at it. Douglass also describes how his master gained nothing but cruelty when he first experienced religion saying, "If it had any effect on his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before."(pg. 63) It's hard to believe that the interpretation or rather misinterpretation of an ancient text led people to such cruel extent. It's even harder to believe that the misinterpretation of ancient texts still leads people to commit the most atrocious crimes justified on religious righteousness.

"I have seen him tie up a lame young women, and whip her with a heavy cowskin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of scripture- 'He that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.'"(pg. 64)

    When I think of righteousness the first thing that comes to mind is the Spanish Inquisition. There too, religion was used to justify the torture and murder of thousands of people for a period of almost 300 years. Being of different religions or choosing not to believe in Christianity was motive enough to schedule an appointment with the reaper. This violence has transcended time and religions across the world. People nowadays attach bomb suites to their bodies and walk into public places full of women and children to pursue their interpretation of the Muslim Jihad. This all has lead to the deaths of millions of people under the pretext that it is justified and maybe it's time for us to realize we're holding the book upside down. 

The Veil of Ignorance

    Education, as we've been taught our whole lives, is a tool we can use to change our lives. It defines who we are, and many times who we'll be. Reading and writing, to be more specific, are one of the most important things we'll learn to do during our school years, but they'll probably never have the significance they had for Douglass.
   
    Douglass extensively talks about how he learned to read and write in his memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American SlaveI, and how this eventually shaped his life. He gives a very interesting approach to the subject as he explains how troubling it was to understand the state in which he was. Douglass says, "The more I read, the more I was led to abhor an detest my enslavers." (pg. 51) He had achieved what he had longed for so long. Able to read a whole new world was in his hands but there is a very strong contradiction between knowledge and slavery. You could say they are almost incompatible a for Douglass, the power to understand the world beyond what his eyes could see or where his captivity could take him lead way to a life change that eventually made him a free man.

"As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing."(pg. 51)

    Reading Douglass has enlightened me on the power of ignorance. If I were a slave would I want to understand the meaning behind my captivity? The history laying on my shoulders and the crude realization of my situation? Probably not as it brings forth pain and suffering rather than relief. It's the same idea behind not wanting to go to the doctor at times. I am almost a hypochondriac therefore going to the doctor is one of the most stressful situations I can find myself in. I don't want to know if I 'm terminally ill or if I'll need surgery. I choose ignorance over knowledge in those situations because at times, ignorance is blissful. This brings me to the realization that knowledge is very powerful to, more so than ignorance. Many times you'll choose to ignore it, but if you are able to manage it you'll have control over the ignorant.

The Killing of a Black Slave

    As Douglass's narration continues we're induced in a complex and gory illustration of what life behind the many times invisible chains of slavery meant for men, women, and children. Death becomes repetitive as Douglass presents different episodes in which he witnessed the brutality overseers perpetuated over disobedient slaves. Then again, disobedience is a very ambiguous term when referring to the time of slavery. In Douglass's words, "He was one of those who could torture the slightest look, word, or gesture, on the part of the slave, into impudence, and would treat it accordingly. There must be no answering back to him; no explanation was allowed a slave, showing himself to have been wrongfully accused."(34) Basically slaves were subject to their masters' and overseers' cruelty constantly so the narrative appeals to the readers sympathy when relating to the slaves and touches on anger when presenting the white folks.

    Pathos then becomes the most prominent rhetorical instrument used by Douglass. The severe injustices slaves were subjected are narrated in such a way that allows us to witness the action and at the same time stand impotent in there defense. Any attempts at justice were frowned upon, and the frequent crimes against African Americans were also ignored. If "it was worth half a cent to kill a nigger" life had no intrinsic value for they served as disposable meat fulfilling a duty any other piece of meat could do just as well.
 
    Ethos is also very important to the narrative as it adds the feeling of discrimination and racial division characteristic to this time in history. You could either be black or white and this defined everything from your most natural rights, to your every single detail in life. We see the overseers as these hard and impersonal characters that had power over hundreds of slaves only through the movement of their whips. They wouldn't rebel against any of them and disobedience was out of the question just because they were the once that could decide between life and death. The power these white figures exerted over the black slaves was almost godlike and Douglass demonstrates it thoroughly across the text.

        "They seemed to think the greatness of their masters was transferable to themselves."(33)

    The last of the rhetoric tools is harder to find but there was a great example that caught my attention. One of the prominent arguments behind killing a slave was that there usually were no witnesses even as dozens of black slaves stood to watch. "His horrid crime was not even submitted to judicial investigation. It was committed in the presence of slaves, and they of course could neither institute a suit, nor testify against him..."(36) This powerlessness slaves underwent is demonstrated strongly in Douglass's argument. They were completely invisible to the judicial system and had no hope to be free.

   As I look into the narrative and come to understand more of who Douglass was and what he experienced I can't help but wonder where he gathered the strength to flee? How did he do it and how was he so successful when he faced so little hope? The text will eventually reveal all this answers, or so I hope, but for now its all open to prediction.