Kayla: Response to Preface-19 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

When reading the first chapter of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as American Slave, three elements, or methods, to “making” a slave are highlighted within the words and expressive accounts provided by the voice of Douglass himself. They are a sense of ambiguity, inferiority, and fear.

First and perhaps foremost, to “make” a slave, a person’s identity is to remain ambiguous or non-existent. If a human being feels that they lack personal self, it is, in a sense, an injury to their spirit. Douglass writes, “A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages…I was not allowed to make inquiries of my master concerning it…” (17). Even as a young child, the thought of discovering his identity was disheartening to him for he observed the freedom the white children had in knowing their day of birth and he could not fathom why he was not allowed to know his own. It is discouraging. Intimidating to the soul. Also, at a young age, as was custom, his mother was taken from him at a very young age. He was left to fend for himself, instilling a sense of harsh abandonment and loneliness. He never knew the tenderness of a mother or the guidance and protection of a father. With the absence of these quintessential figures, he was never able to identify with a family, or a background.

Second, Douglas goes on to explicate upon a sense of feeling of inferiority. It was a rumor that his master was his father, though this would never be admitted. It was common for a master to impregnate a female slave, and then disclaim connection to the infant. In fact, the master would seldom keep the child or the women, for then he “…must not only whip themselves, but must stand by and see one white son tie up the brother, of but a few shades darker and a complexion than himself and ply the gory lash to his naked back…” (19). These motives to sell his children are entirely selfish and it is examples such as this that signifies the white person’s perception of the black person: a thing, an inferior object, rather than a human being, an equal subject. This points leads into the final “method” presented by Douglas in chapter one.

To “make” a slave, and then “keep” the slave, there must be a sense of fear and threatening consequences. From a very early age, Douglass was subject to horrifying and immeasurable displays of cruelty and violence. Basically, his young mind was taught to perceive that he was under the control of another and that if he stepped out of line, violence would befall him. Douglass recounts, “It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery…I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it” (20). The “blood stained gate” locked in the African American slaves, imprisoning them in a world from which they were fearful to escape.

Ultimately, Douglass highlights three main elements that “make” a slave, that force a human being to feel ambiguous, inferior, and fearful. Douglass has never really known his own age, nor his family. His supposed father was ashamed of him, reluctant to ever admit to the fact that he conceived Douglass. And since Douglass can remember, he has witnessed frightfully severe events of brutality. Douglass, from the beginning of his life, was taught to disregard his personal identity and background, acknowledge a sense of inferiority, and live in an environment where fear and violence was utilized to contain order.