Frederick Douglass’ Narrative: Slavery Theme, Essay Example

Frederick Douglass’ Narrative is an account of his life. It is a narration of his life from when he was born as a slave to his freedom. However, this piece of literary is not just about what happened in his life or what successes he accomplished in his lifetime. Rather, it transcends into a deeper outlook in life and political message. It is important to note that his book was written in the year 1845. During such time, slavery is still legal in most parts of the United States of America (Mcfelly, 22). The main goal of his effort to write the book is to provide facts about slavery that people can understand. He wanted to convey the real situation to the people so they would comprehend why slavery should be obliterated. Hence, this is more than that story of his life but rather a robust political and social message of eradicating slavery. Therefore, the Narrative is about slavery. But more than that, it is a piece of a historical document that narrates how life is like for the “slaves” in a country that is tagged as the “land of the free”. Yet, the freedom the country offers is just for the white people.

Interestingly, this Narrative is more than slavery of the minority and the people of the color. The most imperative question that the writer posited is “what would take for the human spirit to be free?” This is true because there is nothing worse than the oppression of spirit, dignity, and right to life. But what does it really take to be free? What constitutes freedom? Who else is better to explain that Douglass himself- a slave and now a free man.

Frederick Douglass, in the Narrative, explained that the root of slavery is the ignorance of the people. The slaveholders who are comprised of the white people keep their slaves ignorant. Hence, the slaves believed for such a long time that slavery is an expected state of existence. This is particularly true among the Black population who thought that they are not good enough to participate in the civil society and slavery is the only way they can contribute. In this state of mind, most of the Black population were uneducated. Hence, this gave the White population more power and rights at the expense of the people of color. They were not allowed to learn to read nor write for the very reason that education will make them self-sufficient and self-reliant (Gates, 49). Their education will mean freedom. No one in the society can keep them if they can provide for themselves, establish themselves, know their rights and actually fight for it. This ignorance is not just about the basic education such learning the ABCs or solving math problem. As a matter of fact, the slaves were not given the chance to know the basic facts about their whole person. They did not know their date of birth nor did they have any idea of their paternity. Freedom is not the only thing that was stolen from them but also the very sense of their being- their identity as an individual. Instead of referring to themselves by the existential lineage, they refer to themselves as slaves.

As a result, the ignorance of the slaves is the gain of power for the slaveholders. Literacy will enable the slaves to defend themselves and taking it away from them resulted in the domination of just one race. However, the political message that it carries stands for the story of the slaves not being told. If they do not know how to write, how can they tell their stories? How can they ask for help? How can they be free?

The Narrative revealed that the only way to freedom is education. For the slaves, they needed to gain learn that the pathway to freedom is education. This is a simple way of explaining that freedom is not something that is just handed down to people. One has to work for it, gain it and want it. This is true even in the present day. If people are tired of being poor and want freedom from poverty they have to get their education and get a job. They have to work for it (Andrews, 58). There is no self-entitlement. Rather, it must be self-preservation, perseverance and courage to take on the world and succeed. There is a need for people to take their own place in the world and fight for it. Because the sad reality is that, as Frederick Douglass explained, there will always be someone out there that will step on someone else’s rights, well-being, and identity. Education will help people to defend themselves and improve themselves to avoid history for repeating itself.

Slavery does not only affect the slaves in a negative manner. It also put the slaveholders in a very detrimental position such as male slaveholders impregnating the female slaves and thus, ruining the sanctity of a family (Miller, 18). Slavery, as put, only set the society backward rather than forward. The battle against slavery does not stop. It is a continuous war that is part of the daily living. The reality is that people might not be a slave to a person but is a slave to material things, to poverty and illiteracy. People have to strive harder to get rid of the concept of slavery. The society has to learn from the ghosts of the slavery past.

Work Cited

Andrews, William L. Critical Essays on Frederick Douglass. Boston: Hall, 1991.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Figures in Black. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Mcfelly, William S. Frederick Douglass. New York: Norton, 1991.

Miller, Douglass. Frederick Douglass and the Fight for Freedom. New York: Facts on File, 1993.