Pre-Reading Questions

1. Pre-Reading Questions • Respond to the following statements with Yes or No ANDGIVE REASONS FOR YOUR ANSWER. • All people are created equal. • Everyone feels some kind of prejudice. • Education occurs only inside the classroom. • A person can only overcome adversity through self-determination and motivation. • Fear and ignorance keep prejudice alive.

2. Frederick Douglass The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

3. Douglass’s Early Life • Born into slavery in 1818 – Talbot County, Maryland • Didn’t actually know birthday, chose February 14 • Raised by grandmother, barely knew mother • Father likely slave master/plantation owner • Went to Baltimore to work for Hugh Auld • Sophia Auld taught him the alphabet until her husband forbade it • It was against the law to teach slaves to read • Tricked children in neighborhood to teach him letters and give him homework and books

4. The Covey Plantation & Escape • Sent to work for Edward Covey in 1833 • Covey was a known “slave breaker” • Covey almost broke Frederick with repeated beatings and abuse • After Frederick fought back and won, he was never beat by Covey again • Attempted slavery twice before being successful • In September 1838, escaped with the help of Anna Murray, who would later be his wife • He and Anna took the name Douglass and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts

5. Douglass on Reading • Douglass saw reading as his pathway to freedom • He credited The Columbian Orator (the first book he bought and read) with defining his views on human rights. • Douglass taught slaves at the plantation how to read the Bible during Sunday services until a group from town broke it up permanently with stones and clubs. • After marriage, Douglass subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison’s weekly journal The Liberator. • It was through Garrison that Douglass entered the lecturing circuit

6. Douglass the Orator • Douglass spoke at several abolitionist meetings on the speaking circuit • Whites doubted he was an actual slave because he was so well-spoken • Douglass fled to Ireland for two years until he could buy his freedom • When he returns in 1847 (a free man), he produced abolitionist papers • His paper, The North Star, had the motto “Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color – God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren. • Douglass fought for women’s rights as well as abolition

7. Firsts for Douglass • Douglass was the first African American on a presidential ballot in 1872 • Vice Presidential running mate of the Equal Rights Party • Douglass was the only African American to attend the first women’s rights convention in 1848 • Douglass said that he couldn’t take the right to vote as a black man if women did not have the same rights (although he did with the passage of the 15th Amendment)

8. The Slave Narrative as Literature • Slave Narratives are essential literature of the Romantic Period • From 1760-1947, more than 200 book-length slave narratives were published in the US and England • The 19th-cenruy “ante-bellum” (the period before a war) slave narrative: • Arouse sympathy and humanitarian impulses of readers • Emphasize traditional Christian religious ideas • Show acceptance of ideals of dominant white society • Emphasize cruelty of individual slave owners

9. “Rags to Riches” Story • Compared to “Rags to Riches” stories and autobiographies (like Benjamin Franklin’s) • Tells of confrontations with different cultures and customs • Emphasizes narrator’s rise to greater understanding, self-reliance, and awareness of self-worth • Gives detailed descriptions of cruelty of slavery and harm done to whites and blacks • Contrasts kindness of some individual whites to cruelties of other individual whites and the system of slavery as a whole • Contrasts brutality reality of slavery to the benign ideals of the nominally Christian society in which it exists

10. Slave Narrative Popularity • Lurid scenes of horror and violence appeal to popular appetite for sensationalism • Religious emphasis useful as didactic story & moral lesson • Interesting descriptions of Southern life and institution of slavery • Useful as abolitionist propaganda • Douglass’s narrative called a “landmark in the literary crusade against slavery” and “one of the most influential pieces of reform propaganda in American literature” • Story-telling tone • Readability and simple, direct prose • Believability • Power to evoke sympathy and arouse emotion

11. Like Franklin & Rowlandson • “Traditional American Autobiography” like Franklin: • Doesn’t only describe the life of an individual • Stands as a guide to life for others • Report of the discovery of the self • Like Mary Rowlandson’s Captivity Narrative • Frederick was taken from safety (grandmother) to confrontation of evil (slavery) • Suffers from forced existence in alien society • Unable to submit or effectively resist • Balances the yearning for freedom against perils of escape • Sees his condition as symbol of suffering of all oppressed • Grows in moral and spiritual strength as result of suffering and torment

12. Brief Biography Video Complete 46 minute video can be seen at Biography.com