Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Reflection on the Physical and Mental Hardships of Enslavement

Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is an extraordinary and touching piece of writing.  The wording, imagery, and poetic rhythm captivate me.  I want to focus primarily on the first chapter.  This particular section of the narrative is thoroughly engaging.  Here, Douglass explains how a man becomes a slave.  From not knowing one’s identity, to being beaten, lashed, and stripped of merely everything is what we, as readers, are immediately thrown into.  To put oneself back in such a time is heart wrenching, but learning the history and triumph is a humbling experience.

“The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest.  He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin” (51).

The way Douglass describes his first witness is moving.  Without even going into great detail just yet, I can still place myself at the scene.  The fact that he describes someone being beaten, rather than himself, engages the reader in visualizing through Douglass’ eyes.  I reread this quote many times, for there is a rhythm that I find poetic.  The beat is like that of the whip, which has a great impact on the connection with the text.  When explaining his first witness, Douglass explains, “It struck me with awful force”, (51) which correlates to the lash of the whip.  This is the first of many beatings that Douglass observes in his lifetime, but it is this particular scene that leads the path for what is to come.

Growing up deprived of an identity, such as a name or family history, seems to be unsettling for Douglass.  He states, “A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood” (47).  Not having the privilege of being an individual would be horrifying, for there is no way to differentiate oneself from another. 

Throughout the narrative, Douglass remains devoted to separate the slave from the man.  He succeeds by gaining the power of knowledge and recognizing that freedom is attainable.  Douglass, like the other slaves, was stripped of simply everything, yet educating himself led him to freedom.

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