Frederick Douglass
"Sincerely and earnestly hoping that this
little book may do something toward
throwing light on the American slave
system, and hastening the glad day of
deliverance to the millions of my
brethren in bonds...relying upon the power of
truth, love, and justice, for
success in my...efforts and solemnly pledging
myself anew to the sacred
cause, I subscribe myself." (76) With these words,
Frederick Douglass
ended one of the greatest pieces of propaganda of the 19th
century. Douglass
wrote his autobiography as an abolitionist tool to shape his
northern
audience’s view of southern slaveholders. Through personal
anecdotes,
Douglass drew an accurate picture of the life of a slave. At
the same time,
these events were chosen for how they would affect the
northern audience’s
opinion of southern slaveholders. By using the written
word, Douglass and fellow
abolitionists targeted educated northern whites
because they were the only group
who could change the status quo. Illiterate
northern whites and free northern
blacks could not vote while white
southerners would not vote because they did
not want change. Therefore,
Douglass used his life story as a tool to promote
abolition among literate
northern whites. Frederick Douglass used family
relationships, starting with
his birth to tug at the heartstrings of his
targeted audience. He never knew
the true identity of his father, but it was"whispered" (2) that it was his
master. Douglass mentioned this to show how
the "slave holder in (many)
cases, sustains to his slaves the double relation
of master and father." (2)
This was so commonplace that it was "by law
established that the children of
women shall in all cases follow the condition
of their mother." (2) This
meant that these bastard children were to be slaves
despite their paternal
heritage because their mother was a slave. The effect was
to shock and offend
the morals of the conservative northern whites. People
involved in adulteress
and interracial relationships were scorned by northern
society. By portraying
these southerners as immoral and adulteress, Douglass
wanted his audience to
have an unfavorable opinion of southern slaveholders.
Keeping with the
theme of family values, Douglass touched on the topic of the
basic family
unit. Their master separated Douglass and his mother when he was an
infant,
for what reason "(Douglass) does not know." (2) No reason was ever
given to
Douglass because this was the accepted way of life on
plantations.
Douglass wanted his northern white readers to be horrified
that slave families
were regularly torn apart for no apparent reason.
Northerners would be upset by
this because the family was the basis for their
close-knit communities. Multiple
generations and extended families lived
together or within close proximity to
each other. It would be unimaginable to
the readers that a society existed that
took children away from their mothers
without a reason. Anyone who was part of
such a society would be thought of
as a heartless monster. Douglass wanted the
northern whites to lash out
against these heartless monsters and abolish
slavery, thereby ending the
callous practices associated with slavery. Another
example of how Douglass
used family values as propaganda against southern
slaveholders was in the
treatment of his grandmother. When Douglass’s master
decided that his
grandmother was too old and no longer useful, "they took her
to the woods,
built her a little hut...and then made her welcome to the
privilege of
supporting herself in perfect loneliness; thus virtually turning
her out to
die." (28) This showed the lack of decency or gratitude on the part
of slave
holders toward slaves that had faithfully, their entire lives, served
their
masters. The mistreatment of elders in this manner would enrage the
readers,
especially those with close-knit families, because the aged were to be
taken
care of and respected until death. The usefulness of older people went
beyond
physical attributes because they had a wealth of knowledge and experience
to
share. The fact that slave masters could show so little regard and
respect
for Douglass’s grandmother would be loathsome and despicable, and
Douglass
hoped this would help influence the northern whites against the
institution of
slavery. Furthermore, Douglass wanted to show the hypocrisy in
the behavior of
these masters. They considered their slaves to be less than
human, yet they
still desired and slept with their female slaves. This would
prove to northern
whites the invalidity of southern claims that "horses and
men, cattle and
women, and pigs and children all (held) the same rank in the
scale of being."
(27) If slaves were truly of less rank than animals, why
would a slaveholder
want to sleep with one? Surely he would not sleep with
one of his farm animals.
Northern whites would be appalled at the thought
of desiring or sleeping with
anything they considered to be on a lower level
of existence than animals.
Therefore, Douglass’s northern audience would
be revolted by southern slave
owners. As mentioned earlier, slaves were
considered to be on the same level of
existence as animals. Douglass focused
on this aspect of slave treatment by
their masters to show how slaves were
not considered to be human beings.
Slaveholders considered the entire
race of enslaved people to have less worth
than any white person. One way the
slaves were treated as animals was how they
were fed. Their food was "put
into a large wooden tray or trough and...the
children were then called like
so many pigs...to devour the mush; some with
naked hands, and none with
spoons." (16) Slave owners described slave children
as pigs because like
pigs, the children were dirty, smelly, and they would push
each other out of
the way to get as much food as possible. The children were
dirty and smelly
because they were not cared for adequately by their masters,
and they pushed
each other out of the way to get to the food because they were
never fed
enough food. What the slaves were fed was "coarse corn meal
boiled...called
mush" (16) which is similar to what farm animals were fed. The
difference
between the farm animals and the slaves was that the animals were
taken care
of better and always given enough to eat. Douglass repeatedly
mentions how
often he "(felt) the gnawing pains of hunger." (31) His masters
had more than
an adequate supply of food but would rather it "lay moldering"
(31) than give
it to the slaves. Not only is this more evidence as to the cruel
and selfish
nature of slaveholders, but it shows how animals were treated better
than
slaves. To know that animals were treated better than certain human beings
in
the south would hit a nerve with Douglass’s targeted audience.
Imaging
themselves to be treated so worthlessly by another human being,
literate
northern whites would feel divided from southern slave owners. To
force his
audience to feel further alienated, Douglass elaborates on the
treatment of
slaves as animals in his description of the slaves’ sleeping
conditions.
Masters did not give the slaves a bed to sleep on, only a
"coarse blanket."
(6) So at the end of the day, slaves "old and young, male
and female, married
and single (would) drop down side by side, on one common
bed- the cold damp
floor." (6) Douglass was aware that some of his northern
readers could relate
to the slaves situation because they too had once
endured similar circumstances
of poor living conditions or even homelessness.
But, northern society made it
possible for a person to overcome such
hardships while the slave masters denied
their slaves a better existence. The
institution of slavery held each successive
generation in poverty, which is
an affront to the dream that many northerners
held of prosperity in the new
world. Douglass hoped that the Northerners would
sympathize with the slaves’
oppression while becoming enraged with the
slaveholders who held them there.
Douglass also wanted his northern audience to
be enraged by how slaveholders
punished slaves. A northerner with any sense of
justice would be furious that
it was not considered wrong to whip a slave"till (they were) literally covered
with blood" (4) nor was it considered a
crime to kill a slave. Masters and
overseers justified severely whipping their
slaves because "it (was) the duty
of a master...to whip a slave, to remind him
of his master’s authority." (46)
Slaves were whipped for the "smallest
offences to prevent the commission of
larger ones." (46) If a slave became"unmanageable" (14). He was killed to avert
other slaves from "copying the
example." (14) Douglass detailed these
horrific examples of punishment to
infuriate the northern white reader that a
person was punished in advance of any
wrongdoing, was whipped almost to the
brink of death, and was murdered without
it being "treated as a crime by the
courts or community." (14) Treatment of
one person by another in these ways
was not tolerated in the north. This"fiendish barbarity" (46) would appall the
northern reader and would lead
them to share Douglass’s opinion that southern
slave holders were truly the"most wicked of men." (24) To further demonstrate
the wickedness of southern
slave masters, Douglass wanted his readers to know
how religion was used as a"mere covering for the most horrid crimes...a dark
shelter under which the
darkest, foulest, grossest and most infernal deeds of
slave holders (found) the
strongest protection." (46) Masters would beat
their slaves and then defend
their actions with quotes from the bible such as
"He that knoweth his
master’s will and doeth it not shall be beaten with many
stripes." (33)
Northerners with any religious background would know that
this quote and others
like it did not translate into justification for
inflicting physical harm on a
slave when they did not obey their master.
Douglass wanted to show his readers
how slave owners misused the teachings of
the bible to strengthen their own
power and how they basically saw themselves
as God to their slaves. The reader
would know the later was blasphemy, one of
the seven deadly sins. As a result,
the readers would detest their southern
brethren because religious slave holders
"(were) the worst...meanest and
basest, the most cruel and cowardly of all
others." (46) Combining all the
ways that Douglass sought to affect his
northern audience’s opinion of
southern slaveholders, he hoped to give his
readers a glimpse into the true
character of southern slaveholders and the
institution of slavery itself.
Douglass realized that racism was also prevalent
in the north and so his
intent was not trying to achieve equal rights but basic
human rights.
Douglass hoped to gain compassion for those still held in slavery
by relating
experiences such as being separated from his mother when he was an
infant and
not knowing whom his father was, how slaves were treated as if they
had less
value than an animal, and the fact that slaves were brutally beaten
and
sometimes killed without it being considered a crime. Douglass also hoped
to
tarnish his northern white readers’ view of southern slave holders and
their
practices by illustrating how they had adulterous and interracial
affairs with
their salves whom they considered to be less than human, how
they abhorrently
and unjustly mistreated and punished their slaves, and how
they used religion as
a crutch for legitimizing their actions. "Slavery was a
most painful
situation; and, to understand it, one must experience it, or
imagine himself in
similar circumstances...then, and not till then, will he
fully appreciate the
hardships of, and know how to sympathize with, the toil
worn and whipped-scarred
...slave." (64) These are Douglass’s own words that
are meant as a plea for
his readers to imagine themselves in his situation to
better understand the
hardships he and other slaves endured. Through the use
of propaganda disguised
as The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,
this man sought to alter the
relationship between two groups of people.
Family values, basic human rights,
and religion were topics used to persuade
the northern white audience toward the
cause of abolition. Douglass hoped
that his readers would in some way share his"hate (for) the corrupt, slave
holding, woman-whipping, cradle-plundering,
partial and hypocritical
Christianity of (the southern slave holders)." (71).
Slavery does not
exist in today’s society so obviously Douglass’s effort was
able to help
advance the cause of abolition.