I have always wanted to read Frederick Douglass’ work but I was always put off by the look of his face. He looked like a hard man so I waited. And then I was at the library with my wife, Karen G Clemenson, and she chose Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave and Other Writings by Frederick Douglass to come home with us and it became an option in my hand. I found that although his topic was hard, he was not. He was a pleasure to read and there was a softness, I felt to the voice I read, that might be my imagination or maybe something that was inherent to the time in which he lived, when people were mindful of their audience or possible audience.

There is nothing soft about slavery and in fact Douglass was offended in every way by it. Down to his very soul, he felt it stole the best of a man to be a slave or to be a slave holder. However this was the cultural norm and even bled over to the probable reason that the book was opened by writings by William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips, Esq., two white men, abolitionists, but white men, nonetheless.

Douglass was born in 1835 in Tuckahoe, Maryland. His father was his master and this was no secret. He had few memories of his mother as he was raised by his grandmother. It was customary to remove children from their mother by 12 month old and then give them to an old woman that could no longer work in the fields to raise them. This was the situation for Douglass as well, and although his mother would steal away to sing him to sleep at night, she was always gone, far before morning, to get back to her quarters and work, she took sick and died when he was very young.

Facts that Douglass shared about slavery:

• Brutal whippings were common.
• Masters often fathered children that had to be sold or abused by the Missus.
• Slaves had to view their master as good or “the best” or face the possibility of being sold to the worse master.
• It was illegal to teach slaves to read because it was known if they could read they would not be manageable.
• Slaves were forced to breed.
• Slaves on plantations regularly were underfed, poorly dressed and given no beds and few to no blankets, yet they would be punished for taking an apple off a tree.
• Monthly rations were given to slaves. Hungry slaves that wanted more and applied for them that could not eat them in the time the master said it should be eaten would be punished.
• Christmas to New Years Day were holidays and only animals were needed to be cared for. Masters expected slaves to use this time for drinking, dancing, playing and being silly. Masters felt that only a lazy slave would not have collected enough whiskey to stay drunk for 6 days. Slaves that would use their time to hunt, make brooms, mats, baskets or horse collars didn’t deserve days off. This fraud and inhumanity of slavery is one of many things that angered Douglass.
• City slaves were often treated better because people lived closer and nobody wanted to hear their neighbor’s slaves being whipped or see them starving and hear about it from others.
• Killing a slave held no consequences.

Douglass felt the songs slaves would sing were a testament to the soul-killing effect of slavery:

“They told the tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones found, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearings of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them.” Chapter 2

When Douglass was about 7 or 8-years-old he was sent to Baltimore to live with a relative of his old master. The lady of the house had never had slaves and she was very kind. It would be Douglass’ job to care for the family’s little boy, Thomas. This is where Douglass began to learn to read, as she taught him while she was teaching Thomas, until her husband found out and put a stop to it. Yet he had learned enough that he was able to learn more through asking questions of the neighbor boys and eventually taught himself to write by tracing letters on signs. As he progressed he read anything he could get his hands on. He believed in always building his mind for his own betterment.

In 1833 Douglass was sent work for Edward Covey — a farm renter. He was known for breaking young slaves. He was there for a year. After 6 months of abuse and suicidal thoughts Douglass challenged Covey. He had become sick and instead of allowing him a break he beat him so Douglass returned to his master, who told him to go back. Without another option, Douglass returned but he would not let Covey to tie him down to beat him. Douglass fought him for 2 hours. For the rest of his stay he was not beaten. Douglass was a slave for 4 more years but he refused to be beaten. He had several fights but he was never beaten again.

September 1838 Douglass ran away from slavery and succeeded in reaching New York.

August 11, 1841 Douglass gave his first speech about slavery before abolitionists.

When asked about Christianity, Douglass had a very clear belief:

“I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but that most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity…We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the blood-clotted cow skin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, claims to be the minister of the meek and lowly Jesus.” Appendix

his book was not as gruesome as some of the books I have read on slavery. Douglass, himself, said that his account was only his own and he admitted that he did know that the farther south one went, the worse the experiences were and some masters were more evil than others. But what I can say, is that his account was felt more in my spirit. Douglass was very talented in making me feel tired in my spirit with this topic, possibly only a percentage of the amount as it must have made him feel exhausted to even think of it years after he was free. I also feel that his writings are still very relevant today, depending on how you view them. Maybe not slavery, perhaps, but there are groups of people that are marginalized and not cared for by our society, by people that call themselves Christians, that still don’t understand the gospel properly and leave the government to handle the job Christ left for us to handle.

I highly recommend this book and hope that the spirit in which Douglass meant for it to be experienced is appreciated by all who read it.

I checked my book out at The Longview Public Library. Buy your own copy of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave and Other Writings by Frederick Douglass on Amazon.

Read My Review on GoodReads:

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Honest, gritty and well-written. The account and view of slavery is still relevant to our study of history today.

View all my reviews

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My name is Summer. That is how you can call me. I hope that I am a blessing to you. I am not perfect. I will fall again. But I am forgiven.

For anyone reading this that isn’t a Christian, unapologetically, I am a Christian, but I believe there is room for lots of beliefs and religions in the world. It is not my intent to offend people with different beliefs than I have and I would be open to open-minded conversations with no goals of changing anyone’s mind, but sharing information.

If you are interested in becoming a Christian…Do you know Jesus? Do want the Holy Spirit to fill you and give you understanding and salvation? Ask Him. Want someone to pray with you? Contact me.

If you would like to know Jesus as your friend, but want to make this amazing commitment by yourself please pray something like this:

Thank you Jesus that You are the Son of God, the God that created heaven and earth. Thank you Jesus that You came to earth in the form of a man so that You would be able to empathize with my humanity. Thank You that You did this in order to fulfill the promises You made at the foundation of the world.

I realize that I am a sinner and do things that hurt myself and keep myself away from you. Thank You that You died for my sins so that You could defeat death and bring me into Your life. Please forgive me.

I ask You to be Lord of my life. I ask you to heal my hurts and show me what my new life, empowered by You looks like. Thank You for Your mercy.